Police Departments

Where’s the rage over Metro police shootings?

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A vigil held Monday outside Metro headquarters served as a break in the community silence.
Mario Zucca

Monday’s vigil outside Metro headquarters in response to the recent shooting death of Stanley Gibson and other officer-involved shootings was a break in the community silence that has had us wondering the past year, “Where’s the rage?”

Police shootings in other cities are often followed by demonstrations and/or protests, regardless of the victims’ situations—armed, unarmed, aggressive or fleeing. In Miami this year, families and community members rallied to protest shootings of seven black community members. Protesters in New York marched in September after a man there was shot during a drug bust. There were protests and marches in New Brunswick, New Jersey, over a man fatally shot by police, and in Chicago and in Albuquerque, where there have been a high number of officer-involved shootings.

Whether marches and protests lead to further investigations of shootings or officer training is not easy to determine. But they do represent a voice of concern and frustration from a community, which (aside from quiet protests over the death of Erik Scott at a Valley Costco) is something we’ve yet to see in Vegas, where we’ve now had 12 fatal officer-involved shootings this year. Maybe Gibson, an unarmed vet, was the breaking point.

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