Black Lives Matter.

In 1944, two white girls aged 7 and 11 were found dead in South Carolina. Despite evidence that Stinney was not a culprit in the murders, he was sentenced to death at age 14 (the youngest American to ever be executed). When the executioners put him on the electric chair, the face mask would not fit, and Stinney had to sit on a Bible to reach the helmet. He had no last words, because he was choking on his own tears. He was declared dead after 8 minutes of high-voltage electrocution.

In 1955, Emmett Till (14) was visiting family in Mississippi when he lost his life. A grocery store clerk told her husband that Till had flirted with her and grabbed her waist. She later admitted that she made the story up. The clerk’s husband, with one of his friends, abducted Till, gouged his eyes out, and threw him in a river. An all-white jury acquitted Till’s murderers after less than an hour of deliberation.

Perhaps the most famous police brutality case of the 20th Century was that of Rodney King, who was a construction worker. In 1992, he drunkenly sped past a police car in Los Angeles, and then got out of his car and ran from the police. When they caught up to him, they struck him with batons, tased him, and kicked him, causing facial paralysis and partial skull fractures. King barely survived, but none of the four police officers who attacked him were charged.

Tanisha Anderson was a highly-motivated and intelligent 37-year-old Black woman from Cleveland. She suffered from bipolar disorder, and began having panic attacks one night. Her brother called the police to the house two times. On the second visit, a police officer yanked Anderson out of the police car and pinned her to the ground for 21 minutes. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared dead. The offending officer received a 10-day suspension.

Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old boy from Cleveland. He would often play Cops & Robbers with himself. He had a small toy gun that fired harmless plastic pellets. But one winter day in 2014, Rice was playing with his toy gun in the park when a squad car pulled up. Without warning, an officer sprinted out of the car and shot Rice in the abdomen from point blank. He told his dispatcher that Rice was carrying a “black revolver.” Neither the killer, nor the driver of the police cruiser, were ever charged.

In 2017, Castile was driving with his partner, Diamond Reynolds, in Saint Paul, Minnesota when he was stopped by police officers. The police stopped him because he looked somewhat like a robber due to his “wide-set nose.” He told one of the officers that he had a weapon—he was licensed to carry. He promised he would not reach for his gun. The officer shot him five times anyway, and was later acquitted of second-degree manslaughter.

Horsford was a mother and football fan from Forsyth County, Georgia, which is historically rooted in white supremacy and discrimination. During the 2018 football season, she went to a friend’s house to watch the game. There were ten other people at the party, but Horsford was the only Black person. The next day, she was found dead, face-down in the backyard. An official autopsy has yet to be made (which is no accident!).

Shukri Ali Saïd of Johns Creek, Georgia was a kind, doting woman of 36 years, and a naturalized American citizen born in Somalia. She suffered from many mental disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. One day in July 2018, she left her house in a panic, telling her family that she had been “hearing voices.” Her sister called the police for a wellness check, but when Saïd refused to drop a knife, which she did not use in any harmful manner, two officers opened fire on her. They received no punishments, and the case went unheard of until it was rediscovered this year.

Ahmaud Arbery loved to jog around his neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia. But in February of 2020, he was killed by a shotgun blast. The murderers were two white men—a father and son who vocally supported the Confederacy. Brunswick’s Attorney’s Office told the county police to make no arrests. Arbery’s death went unheard of until a video of the killing resurfaced in May and subsequently went viral. On multiple occasions, the local government refused to arrest Arbery’s killers, and if the incident had not been recorded, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery would have been forever concealed.

In March of 2020, around midnight, Breonna Taylor and her partner Kenneth Walker heard a loud crash in their house. It was the Louisville Police busting their door down with a battering ram. The police later claimed to have had a no-knock warrant. Taylor yelled “Who is it?” but received no answer. Walker, a licensed firearm carrier, acted in self defense and shot at the darkness. The police fired back, hitting Taylor eight times and killing her. The officers involved have yet to be charged.

On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd left Target in Minneapolis after his money was declined for being allegedly counterfeit. Four officers arrested him outside the store. His main arresting officer, Derek Chauvin, proceeded to suffocate Floyd with his knee, killing him after 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Though the four officers are awaiting trial for second-degree murder, they will most likely walk free.