Since August 9, 2014, three officer-involved shootings in the St. Louis area have threatened to tear apart the state at its seams as concerned citizens clamor for any hint of justice.
Mike Brown, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9.
Kajieme Powell, a mentally ill young man was shot and killed in St. Louis on August 19.
VonDerrit Myers, walking home from the store, was shot and killed in St. Louis on October 8.
For 108 straight days, protests demanding justice and basic answers have gripped St. Louis and captured the attention of the nation. Unfortunately, the St. Louis prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, hasn't prosecuted a single officer during his 23 years in office regardless of the circumstances.
The concerned citizens of Missouri, faced with the long odds that an officer will ever be indicted for shooting and killing someone, are now forced to ask for something that is legally supposed to be available to them when an officer involved shooting takes place—the names of the officers involved.
In 2009 and again in 2014, Missouri House Rep. Jeff Roorda introduced legislation in Missouri that would conceal the identity of officers involved in shootings. Both times, the legislation actually failed to receive the votes required to pass and become state law.
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This would be a great time to introduce the concepts of de jure law vs. de facto law. De jure laws are the legally written and binding laws on the books of a jurisdiction that are supposed to be upheld. De facto laws aren't written at all, but exist as a practical reality in a jurisdiction whether they've been legislated or not.
Missouri is currently operating under the de facto law that it is perfectly acceptable for them conceal the identity of officers for as long as they please whenever they please.
One hundred days have passed since Kajieme Powell was shot and killed in a barrage of bullets in St. Louis and his family still has no idea the identity of the officers involved. Police refuse to give them the information. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and attempt to imagine what it must feel like to have your most cherished loved one gunned down and you are prohibited from even learning the basic identity of the shooters.
Over 40 days after VonDerrit Myers was shot and killed in St. Louis, the community continued to demand that the identity of his shooter be released, until a lawyer for the family, who accidentally learned it himself, decided to release the name and details learned about the officer.
In a state that requires the release of public records, it is illegal for police departments to perpetually conceal the identity of the officers involved in shootings. While departments may claim that they believe their officers would be under a public safety risk if their identities were revealed, no known officer who killed an African American has ever been physically harmed when his or her identity went public. This threat is irrational.
Only after an insane amount of public pressure across the nation came down on Ferguson, Missouri, did officials release the identity of Darren Wilson, and even then it was done in the most backhanded way possible, against the wishes of the Department of Justice, alongside a video of Mike Brown in a store before he was killed. But, logically speaking, if Darren Wilson's identity was revealed, with all of the attention his shooting has received, why has the family of Kajieme Powell been denied the right to know who killed their son/grandson/brother?
What legitimate public (or private) threats have been made against the officers who shot and killed Kajieme Powell? Is it possible that their identities are being concealed so that their public identities on social media and other channels can be completely scrubbed? Is it possible that their identities are being hidden so that they have months and months to prepare and perfect their stories without even a smidgeon of public pressure?
Whatever the case, it violates Missouri law, and must be stopped.