*The Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump are taking up the case of Hunter Brittan, the unarmed white teenager who was fatally shot by an officer during a traffic stop.Â
As we reported earlier… during the early morning of June 23, Officer Michael Davis shot and killed 17-year-old Brittain during a traffic stop. According to witnesses, Davis’s vehicle would not shift into park, so he exited the vehicle to put a large bright blue plastic bottle of antifreeze behind the wheel to prevent the vehicle from rolling towards the deputy’s vehicle. Inexplicably, Davis shot him three times.
In violation of department policy and training, Deputy Davis did not activate his body camera until after the shooting.
Sharpton and Crump have deemed the killing “one of the most significant” cases in the fight for police reform legislation.
READ MORE:Â Attorney Ben Crump Issues Statement in Hunter Brittain Case / VIDEO
Hunter Brittain had hopes and dreams. His life was unjustly cut short during a traffic stop when Sgt. Michael Davis opened fire, killing him. We will continue to fight for justice and accountability in policing and demand answers about what happened to Hunter! pic.twitter.com/ZzE1XQrvUQ
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 7, 2021
“That is going to be looked at differently because he wasn’t a teenager who was a child of color,” Crump said. “Because we’ve always said that our White brothers and sisters couldn’t fathom their child being killed by the police. That people are supposed to protect them. But that’s a reality that parents of children of color literally deal with every day of their lives.”
This marks the first time Sharpton and Crump are taking up a case involving a white person killed by a police officer.
As reported by CNN, Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people.
“I want to be able to talk to senators on both sides of the aisle and say, ‘This isn’t just about Black children, it’s also about brown children and White children and Asian children,'” Crump said. “This is about our citizens being brutalized or killed because the federal government hasn’t acted.”
According to the report, Sharpton wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived in Arkansas for Brittain’s memorial.
“I think it may have been (300) or 400 people there, maybe 20 Black, and for them to give me five or six standing ovations showed that this is a real possibility of us bridging, a real police accountability movement that is based on race, and class,” Sharpton said, adding, “As I said in the eulogy, that if Hunter had been a rich guy in another part of the White community, would they have shot him like that?”
In his eulogy, Sharpton said, “The issue of policing is not about Black and White. It’s about right and wrong.”
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