CHARLOTTE, N.C.–On August 27, Prosecutors announced there will be no retrial after a jury, a week earlier deadlocked 8-4 in the trial of the Mecklenburg-Charlotte, North Carolina cop Randall Kerrick, who was charged with voluntary manslaughter in 2013 after killing unarmed African Jonathan Ferrell, former A&M football player, who was seeking help after a car accident.
It is to be noted that this deadlock came from a jury composed of 7 whites, 2 Latin(x)s, and 3 Africans. The non-white representation combined doesn’t even total the amount of whites on this jury.
The same jury in which the majority of the people just couldn’t see where Kerrick shooting an unarmed Ferrell 10 times, 8 times while he was crawling, was “excessive” or not.
But for African people, we recognize this as the state at work. We are murdered daily and the state gets to decide when we get “justice” or not.
When African people don’t have power over our own lives, it allows for the state to continuously kill us without consequence.
This is why we must say “Black Power Matters!” We recognize that Ferrell’s life is significant, but only power in the hands of African people will make the state think twice before taking African lives.
Put the State on Trial!
