Killing in Washington State Offers ‘Ferguson’ Moment for Hispanics
*This is serious, it has been since the shooting happened last week. Only now is this story getting the attention of major “big box” media, and when it does it “offers a … moment for Hispanics?” So the story isn’t the outrage, the protests or the possible abuse of authority? No, it’s how the police offer an opportunity by shooting a Latino. An opportunity to what? Be covered in the news as a mob? The story itself is more balanced than the not-well-thought-out headline, we’ll see where this goes. VL
By Julie Turkewitz and Richard A. Oppel Jr., The New York Times
PASCO, Wash. — Members of the Zambrano family began arriving here three decades ago, picking apples in nearby orchards. Over time they have become part of the fabric of this harvesting town, growing to more than 50 and settling in tiny candy-colored homes, some ringed by white picket fences.
Then, last week, one of their own was killed by the police, his death caught in a video that has sped around the Internet. Antonio Zambrano-Montes, 35, is shown running from three Pasco officers. He turns and swings his hands upward, before he is felled by a spray of bullets, his body slamming the concrete. He had been throwing rocks at cars and police officers.
It was the third killing by the Pasco police since July, and the video has brought international attention, with a flurry of online commenters criticizing the use of force against a man without a gun or a knife, making comparisons to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Click HERE to read the full story.
[Screenshot of Pasco incident from YouTube]