Why poor whites should rally behind Black Lives Matter

White dropouts are getting hammered by the police, too

Black Lives Matter protesters
(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death, an unarmed black 18-year-old killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. After a day of calm remembrances, the night turned violent as police shot another black 18-year-old, one Tyrone Harris, this time after he reportedly fired a pistol at a police car at close range. (He is still alive, though in critical condition.) It's yet another sad reminder of the fact that despite some reform inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, the issue of police brutality is still very much alive, however justified this particular shooting seems at the moment.

Another reminder came last week, when new details emerged about the police shooting of an unarmed white 19-year-old, Zachary Hammond, in Seneca, South Carolina. The police allege that they had set up an undercover drug buy, and shot Hammond to death when he tried to run over one of the officers with his car. However, a private autopsy showed that the bullets had entered Hammond's body from the back — and it wouldn't be the first time the police had turned a simple drug bust into a shooting death with incompetent swaggering.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.