20140909 John Crawford III murdered in Walmart

09.09.2014 John Crawford III murdered in Walmart

John Crawford III murdered in Walmart

"It's not real." Those were three of the last words John Crawford III uttered before he was shot dead by police while shopping at a Beaver Creek, Ohio Walmart. John Crawford III was killed by police while shopping at Walmart.

Those were three of the last words John Crawford III uttered before he was shot dead by police while shopping at a Beaver Creek, Ohio Walmart. Police were called to the store by another customer who described a Black male about 6 feet tall(!) waving a gun. Crawford was actually leaning on a toy pellet gun barrel pointed down which he had picked up from one of the store's shelves. Misinformation is flying around Ohio about what happened that day. Adding fuel to the fire, local news has begun the now all-too-familiar attacks on John Crawford's character. Few in the press seem interested in finding out why another young Black man was racially-profiled and killed by the police. Walmart has an opportunity to set the record straight but is ignoring the family's request to release the tapes, allowing the police to define the narrative and aiding the officers in evading prosecution.

Walmart is standing between John Crawford's family and the answers they deserve. Walmart should release the tapes not just because it would help guarantee justice for John Crawford but so that shoppers and workers can feel safe walking the aisles of its stores.

Demand Walmart release surveillance footage publicly to ensure justice for John Crawford III in the petion below.

Ohio is an "open-carry" state, which means individuals can carry firearms in many public places (including stores) without a permit. Even if the replica pellet gun Crawford picked up from the store's shelves were real, he had committed no crime simply by carrying it. Yet in a culture that perceives young Black men as violent, he was viewed by the police and at least one customer as a threat.

Attorney General Mike Dewine has selectively released audio and video to stack the deck in favor of the police and harm the chance of John Crawford's family getting justice. "Thanks to pressure from local groups like the Ohio Students' Association and others, the Attorney General did screen a selected portion of the footage for John Crawford's father and the family's attorney, Michael Wright. What they saw shows John Crawford talking on the phone, no other customers reacting to him and then the police arrive and shoot him on sight. According to Wright, nothing in Ohio law prevents Walmart from releasing footage publicly but they continue to refuse.

Walmart thinks that by hiding these tapes they can avoid a conversation about their responsibility for the safety of customers and workers in their stores: they're wrong. Walmart owes John Crawford's family, Walmart workers and future shoppers an answer for why police stormed one of their stores and murdered one of their customers. Demand Walmart release the tapes so there can be a full and public account of John Crawford's killing.

To the petition http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/ReleaseTheTapes/

Source: http://act.colorofchange.org

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