Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 2-18-22

National
Fatal Police Shootings Rise To Highest Number In 7 Years
Alabama Revisits Pairing KKK Leader And Black Student Names
Despite the light that the George Floyd protests brought into the country when it comes to the police’s treatment of its American citizens, fatal police shootings continued to increase at levels not seen in years.
According to the Daily Mail, an annual survey from The Wash- ington Post shows that fatal po- lice shootings rose to 1,055, the highest number recorded in seven years.
Of the last seven years, the least deadly year was 2016, when 958 people were fatally shot by police. In 2020, that number reached 1,000 for the first time since the Washington Post started track- ing data with 1,021 deaths.
According to criminology, the 34-death rise from 2020 to 2021 was not a significant increase, statistically.
Of the 1,055 killed, 234 were white and 139 black, with 66 His- panics dying.
Black people account for less than 13 percent of the U. S. pop- ulation, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a dis- proportionate rate.
Men are also far more likely to die in police shootings, with 996 of the 1,055 victims male.
Women accounted for 56, and three were unknown.
Roughly 14 percent had known mental health struggles, down from about one-fifth in the two previous years and about one-fourth in 2016 and 2015.
Sixteen percent of people fa- tally shot last year were killed after police responded to a do- mestic disturbance call. Eleven percent were fatally shot after someone called 911.
Almost half of those who died were aged 30-44. Seventeen were aged under 18.
In the last year, a plethora of police shootings that resulted in the death of Black people or peo- ple of color in Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Illi- nois and as a result, people have protested the practices of police departments across the country to reevaluate how they police the communities they are meant to protect.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of Alabama is re- considering its decision last week to retain the name of a one-time governor who led the Ku Klux Klan on a campus building while adding the name of the school’s first Black student.
Trustees will meet publicly in a livestreamed video confer- ence on Friday to revisit their decision to keep the name of former Alabama Gov. Bibb Graves on a three-story hall while renaming it Lucy-Graves Hall to also honor Autherine Lucy Foster, the University of Alabama System said.
The decision to honor Fos- ter alongside a one-time KKK grand cyclops was criticized harshly by some. An editorial in the student newspaper said Graves’ name doesn’t belong
beside Lucy’s, given his asso- ciation with the violent, racist organization.
Foster herself expressed am- bivalence, telling WIAT-TV she didn’t know much about Graves, who was considered a progressive, pro-education governor in the 1930s, despite having led the Klan in Mont- gomery during a period when
it was at its strongest.
“I wouldn’t say it doesn’t
bother me, but I accept it be- cause I didn’t ask for it and I didn’t know they were doing it until I was approached the lat- ter part of last year,” said Fos- ter, 92.
The committee that recom- mended honoring both people together “acknowledges the complexity of this amended name,” the university said.
“The board’s priority is to honor Dr. Autherine Lucy Foster, who, as the first African American student to attend the University of Ala- bama, opened the door for stu- dents of all races to achieve their dreams at the university. Unfortunately, the complex legacy of Governor Graves has distracted from that im- portant priority,” it said.
Kingsley Ben-Adir To Play Reggae Legend Bob Marley In Paramount Biopic
KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR AND BOB MARLEY
Following a global search that took almost a year, Paramount Pictures looks to have found the person to play Bob Marley in its biopic about the reggae leg- end. Sources tell Deadline that Kingsley Ben-Adir, who starred as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, has been tapped to play the Jamaican icon, with King Richard helmer Reinaldo Marcus Green directing.
Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley and Cedella Marley will also produce on behalf of Tuff Gong. Robert Teitel will also pro- duce. Script is by Zach Baylin, Frank E. Flowers and Ter- ence Winter.
Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36, but in that short lifetime he changed the land-
scape of music, introducing gen- erations to reggae with such songs as “Get Up, Stand Up,” “One Love,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Buffalo Soldier,” “Jammin’” and “Redemption Song.”
Like Ray Charles, Elton John, Freddy Mercury and the many other iconic musicians who have been portrayed on screen, the Bob Marley role was one of the more coveted parts in Hollywood during the past year. Sources say Para- mount execs and Green saw endless tests and met with dozens of actors vying for the role, but in recent weeks Ben- Adir began putting himself in pole position before ultimately winning the role.
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