Why Shooting of VonDerrit Myers Matters

October 8, 2014

This is from fergusonaction.com:

...an off-duty St. Louis City Police Officer working in uniform for a secondary security job chased, shot and killed 18 year-old Vonderrit Myers. The officer fired 17 shots, completely unloading his clip.

Police say he was armed and shot at the off-duty officer. No witness saw him carrying anything other than a sandwich or could corroborate the details offered by police. Read more: fergusonaction.com


Why Vonderrit Myers Matters msnbc.com:

Vonderrit Myers is no Michael Brown. Myers, the black 18-year old shot and killed by a St. Louis police officer last week, is also no Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis or any of the others on a growing list of slain unarmed black men who have invigorated a new generation’s fight for racial justice.

But Myers doesn’t have to be.

Unlike Brown and others who were clearly unarmed during their fatal confrontations with white antagonists, police say Myers shot first, and the officer he shot at returned fire and killed the teen. Lab results found Myers had gun powder residue on his right hand at the time of his death. He was also facing trial on earlier gun charges and was wearing an ankle bracelet as a condition of his bond in that case.

Myers, in other words, may not be the model victim in the ongoing story of police brutality and white violence against young black men. But his death nonetheless has sparked an important wave in the burgeoning movement built around the notion that black lives matter. All black lives – not just those that draw the most public sympathy.

“Vonderitt Myers matters because we are still talking about a fundamental question of the value of black children and the value of black life,” said Brittany Packnett, head of Teach for America in St. Louis. “The circumstances may be different, but there’s the recognition that if we don’t come out early and often to demand justice for African-American children, quite often it doesn’t come.” 




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