The highlights of my undergrad college career were always the events that took placed during the Homecoming season. The football games, the marching bands, the parties; were most memorable. Never once did it ever cross my mind that my friends would not live to see the next day. For Brandon Cox, that Homecoming evening is a night he will never forget.
On the evening of October 17, 2010, his best friend, Danroy “DJ” Henry was shot and killed by a Weschester County police officer. According to CNN, police responded to a brawl outside a restaurant in Thornwood, NY, when a car that Henry was driving struck an officer, who ended up on the hood of the car, and then proceeded in the direction of another officer. Both officers opened fire on the vehicle. Henry was killed and the passenger, his best friend Brandon Cox, was shot in the arm and chest.
I have heard so many different renditions of this one story. But in all the videos I have seen, the police were definitely out of control.
DJ’s family has filed many civil suits against the NY police department. As if their son’s death wasn’t bad enough, here comes another slap in the face. The Police Benevolent Association has honored Aaron Hess, the police officer that shot and killed their son, as Officer of the Year. The question that I raise to my audience is…are the police officers getting away with this brutality because they are white and DJ was black? I hate to pull the race card but sometimes it’s a necessity.
I just do not understand how something like this can happen and the officers were not even suspended. DJ was not a troublemaker. He was a phenomenal athlete who was well known by his peers and his teachers. I completely understand the officers feared for their lives, but they did not have to kill that young man.
According to CNN reporters, the police officers also arrested some of his friends who tried to administer CPR to him as his lifeless body laid on the curb. I hope and pray that DJ’s family gets some kind of closure. They lost their son; the least that should have happened was the dismissal of those officers.
For more information and a timeline of articles on DJ’s case please visit www.enterprisenews.com.
Hey Jamelia, this is a great post and awesome video to go with it.. I just wanted to let you know that you can adjust the width of the videos in the html code (which you can play around with on the 'html' tab on the blogger post interface). where it says width="490" as an example (within the video html code that you probably got from 'sharing' through youtube and will start with "< iframe") you can change the 490 to like 400 or 350 to make it fit in the frame. I makes the video set in your blog template more uniform :) Just thought I'd share some of my dorky html knowledge cuz' I know i'm obsessed with making my blog look perfectly formatted haha. Oh and that I totally read your blog ;)
ReplyDeletelol..thanks! I'm actually very horible with technology!
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