Earlier this year, Georgia Ferrell sued the city of Charlotte, the police department, CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe and an officer in his ranks. She said she didn't know if the suit would bring peace, but it was her hope that it would inspire CMPD to train its officers better. She knows all too well the consequences of a poorly trained officer — one of them killed her son, Jonathan.
None of us can say for sure what happened the night Ferrell died because we weren't there. But we own a camera that was. The dashboard camera of a police cruiser on the scene was rolling. With last month marking a year since Ferrell's death, I think it's high time we all had a look at the footage it captured.
There is an undeniable power in watching the truth play out right in front of your eyes the way it does in video footage. It takes away all plausible deniability. Even though the NFL knew Ray Rice had punched his then-fiancee so hard it knocked her unconscious, the league didn't take any definitive action against him until video of him doing so surfaced last month. The league knew it'd have to respond with more than just a two-game suspension.
Video footage is why anyone in America gives a damn about ISIS. They're a ragtag band of extremists across the world with no real military or resources, but we've seen them barbarically behead innocent journalists. We understand them to be monsters who should be wiped off the face of the Earth. Now, a nation full of traumatized veterans and war-weary civilians will most likely be talked into facing yet another enemy with force.
The Justice Department is investigating the shooting death of John Crawford III by police while he was holding a toy gun inside an Ohio Wal-Mart. A grand jury found the police actions justified, but the video released last week clearly showed they were not.
The truth spurs action.
The civil lawsuit alleges Kerrick tracked Ferrell that night, using "stealth and surprise" in his approach and he "negligently failed to realize that, because of the dim lighting in the area, Jonathan would be startled, frightened and unable to see his approach and commands." It says Ferrell "never engages in any conduct which can be objectively reasonably interpreted as aggravated active aggression."
Up until last month, We the Taxpayers were footing the expenses for Kerrick's defense of these allegations, a $21,000 tab through August. Couldn't we at least have seen the video before we funded his legal expenses?
The family maintains the video shows Ferrell's arms outstretched, and one of the family's attorneys, Chris Chestnut, told the Huffington Post, "The commands they issued, they never identified themselves as Charlotte police, they never say stop, freeze, etc., and when they finally do begin to issue commands, the succession of gunshots is so immediate that no reasonable human being could have reacted. He emptied the clip." Kerrick's attorney, George Laughrun, has said the tape shows the officers gave "several verbal commands to 'get on the ground, get on the ground,' at least three commands. He continued approaching the officers, advancing toward them." And, "His hands were not up in the air. At one time, one of his hands was behind his back." The Attorney General is withholding it, arguing it could put Kerrick's right to a fair trial in jeopardy.
While there's certainly an argument to be made there, it didn't stop South Carolina officials from releasing dashboard video of former officer Sean Groubert shooting an unarmed man as he reached inside his car for his ID, which Groubert had ordered him to show. Groubert was charged immediately and is awaiting trial. His dashboard footage was given to the public within three weeks.
In all other aspects of the Ferrell shooting, officials have acted in an appropriate, exemplary manner. They investigated, named and charged Kerrick with unprecedented speed. They refrained from "pulling a Ferguson" and releasing details about an unrelated previous minor crime Ferrell was suspected of, despite a local news outlet digging it up unnecessarily. The city has stopped paying Kerrick's legal fees.
Perhaps a better way to use the money would be in officer training. Chief Monroe has said that Kerrick's response was improper, against written procedure and violated the law. Kerrick's attorney says, "he felt like he did what he was trained to do by CMPD."
