The latest police killing of an African-American man in St. Louis, Missouri illustrates that the United States remains a racist society where white police officers continue to kill blacks with impunity, a journalist in Detroit says.
“Most of the police who have been involved in these incidents have not been fired, they have not been prosecuted, they still remain at large, many of them still carry guns, they carry badges and they’re patrolling in African-American communities,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.
“These problems are going to continue in the United States until the system is changed fundamentally,” Azikiwe told Press TV on Thursday.
On Wednesday, white police officers fatally shot a black man they say pointed a gun at them in St. Louis, Missouri.
The shooting drew angry crowds and recalled the racial tensions sparked by the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teen, in nearby Ferguson just over a year ago.
Brown's death sparked months of violent protests across the United States and spurred a nationwide movement to confront police violence against minorities.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said Wednesday's shooting took place as police were conducting a search warrant and two young African-American men ran out the back door of the targeted home.
Officers ordered the two men to stop in the alley behind the house. One suspect pointed a gun at officers who then fired four times, killing him, Dotson said.
Some activists and residents are skeptical about the police chief's account that the suspect pointed a gun at police before being killed.
“The police inside the United States are totally out of control,” said Azikiwe.
“The local governments, the state governments, the prosecutor’s officers, the federal government, the US Congress, the White House are doing absolutely nothing to curb these kinds of killings and they’re going to continue because America is still a racist society,” he added.
“Fundamentally, it has nothing to offer to the oppressed people in this country, the African-Americans and other people of color and so therefore they have to utilize the prison system, they have to utilize the police and they have to utilize the courts in an effort to contain, repress and exploit the African-American people.”