Despite how it might look I’m sure not all of the United States Police Department are bigoted rednecks.

Around once a week now for a number of months the rest of the world has been alerted to another ‘White cop shoots dead Black man’ scenario – but surely there’s more to the story than just what the US media are allowing us to see..?

According to the media each of the fallen men was unarmed; yet the shooting has usually involved some sort of prior physical altercation.

According to the media each of the fallen men posed no threat to the apprehending officer; yet each man had a, in many cases sizable, criminal record, often for violence, and in fact the majority of these victims had had warrants issued for their arrest.

According to the media if these men had not been shot by the police they would have been at home that night with their families; curious that most US news reports at the time seemed to breeze over the fact that the victims of these recent shootings, as well as many already being on the run from the law, had all been in the process of committing a crime.

Therefore the question must be asked: is shooting someone dead in the street a reasonable reaction to the committing of a crime?

Certainly not, but to all the wives of all the victims of apparent brutality, or even death, at the hands of police, claiming that you are now the victim of race-crime is similarly unreasonable.

Best way I can see to stop Black men dying at the hands of White cops, they need to stop committing crimes.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Reed Nick Coop-Pier

Photography by O Fen Dyre