Earlier in the month, US President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing delivered more than 59 recommendations to the White House on establishing collaborative relations between police and the public. The recommendations included implementing independent investigations of police shooting incidents, greater diversity in police forces reflective of the communities they serve and increased civilian oversight over police and community policing initiatives.
“Too many of this month’s victims fit a profile we know all too well – unarmed men of color, some of whom have psychiatric disabilities,” the ACLU highlighted.
The ACLU said that police departments should adopt use-of-force policies that emphasize de-escalation, while the public needs data collection practices to report cases of unreasonable use of force by police, the union said.
In one of the most notable cases, in July 2014, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old asthmatic street peddler selling untaxed cigarettes, died from suffocation after being put in a chokehold by white police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York City. In August 2014, white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The incidents triggered a series of protests and civil disorder across the United States.
