A statewide panel of prosecutors decided that a sheriff’s deputy was right to shoot Jenoah Donald in the head during a traffic stop (“Deputy backed in fatal shooting,” The Columbian, July 14).
As a white person, I’ve never been told to get out of my car when stopped by police. If police did tell me to get out, I’d be scared, thinking why? What are they going to do? Of course I wouldn’t want to get out of my car. I imagine Jenoah Donald was scared as well, knowing better than the average white person how badly interactions with police can go. At most, he should have gotten a warning about his tail light; instead, deputies escalated, trying to physically drag him from his car and, when that failed, shooting him in the head.
Every step in this tragedy was caused by the deputies, and then explained away using the “fear” card. The panel said that “Boyle fired to protect himself and the other deputies.” Protect himself from what? An unarmed Black man who simply doesn’t want to get out of his car? Our system allows police to kill Black people with total impunity for virtually any reason. It truly makes me ashamed.
