The City of Brooklyn Center, Minn. has settled a $3.25M wrongful death civil suit with the family of Daunte Wright, who was killed by an MN police officer.
Wright, an unarmed black man, was killed by Officer Kim Potter during a traffic stop in 2021. Potter claimed that she meant to reach for her stun gun instead of her firearm.
The reason Wright was originally pulled over was due to an outstanding warrant he had for robbing a woman at gunpoint and choking her. While Kim Potter's conviction and sentencing are justified due to her negligence, people should also be talking about how the country has, yet again, been coerced into believing that being killed by a cop makes you a model citizen to be mourned and celebrated.
Hopefully, this settlement will help black families and people of color feel safer in their communities, thanks to its agreement to provide training for law enforcement on how best to prevent senseless killings like what happened to Wright and so many others at the hands of the police. Police departments continue to murder hundreds of people each year, mostly black people - it's no wonder that there is a "defund the police" perspective in the US.