Frederick Douglass once said there is no progress without struggle, but Philonise Floyd is tired of struggling.
Nobody should have to beg for justice, he said.
The brother of the late George Floyd, a man whose murder by police in Minnesota in 2020 ignited a burgeoning racial justice movement, shared the sentiment during a livestream Friday in commemoration of the sixth anniversary of Terence Crutchers fatal shooting by a Tulsa police officer.
Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons said Floyds sentiment was spot on.
Yes, were resilient, he said of himself and other activists. But we are humans, and we are tired, and we deserve justice without having to expend so much energy.
The pair joined two other panelists calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen the case into Crutchers death.
People are also reading
The Crutcher Family is owed an unbiased and objective investigation by the Department of Justice, read a video compilation shown before the virtual talk.
The moment of silence and virtual lunch conversation was one of several events the Terence Crutcher Foundation planned for and by the community to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the unarmed fathers killing and build community power to affect true change within the city of Tulsa and across the nation.
The foundation aims to create just and liberated communities free from racial violence and harm, working to shift the narrative that Black men are bad dudes and that Black people more broadly are inherently bad.
The phrase was what a Tulsa police officer in a helicopter could be heard uttering while watching over the soon-to-be fatal traffic stop on Sept. 16, 2016: Looks like a bad dude, too. Could be on something.
Then-Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby had stopped to investigate Crutchers vehicle, which was abandoned in the street on 36th Street North near Lewis Avenue, while on her way to another call that evening. She shot him after he walked toward his vehicle, not heeding her instructions to stop, and appeared to be attempting to reach inside, she has said.
Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter less than a week after the shooting, and eight months later, in May 2017, a Tulsa County jury deliberated nine hours before finding her not guilty. She later left the Tulsa Police Department.
In addition to Floyd and Solomon-Simmons, founder and executive director of Justice for Greenwood, the livestream, which began at noon on the Black Wall Street Times Facebook page, featured Tiffany Crutcher, Terence Crutchers twin sister and executive director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation; and national civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
After a 30-second moment of silence, the two attorneys thanked both family members for their perseverance in giving a voice to their loved ones after their respective deaths, encouraging them not to let hope fail.
I am expecting a miracle of justice for Terence Crutcher, Crump said. I know God is in control.
Tiffany Crutcher noted the somber anniversary, saying that even though its been six years, it doesnt get any better.
Just seeing Terences children and my father have to still stand and speak out six years later, I get a little bit emotional, she said.
Terence Crutcher Jr., Terence Crutchers son, along with several of his family members, spoke to the Tulsa City Council on Wednesday to advocate for police accountability.
A civil case filed in the matter has been ongoing for three years, Tiffany Crutcher said, and she chalked up the matter to a white supremacist tactic.
To those people who are trying to wait us out, we will not rest, she said. We will continue to stand.
Viewers were encouraged to share the organizers message on social media with the hashtags #Terencecrutcher and #Justice4Terence as well as email kristin.clarke@usdoj.gov, urging the Department of Justice to reopen the case.
The commemoration weeks final event is a Day of Service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the 36th Street North Event Center, 1125 E. 36th St. North.
The event will have family-friendly activities, free food trucks, a DJ, a resource fair, voter registration tables and a water bottle drive for the Tulsa Day Center as well as water relief efforts in Jackson, Mississippi.
Terence Crutcher, 40, dies after he was shot by a Tulsa officer near36th Street North, just west of Lewis Avenue. Crutcher leaves behind four children.
Tulsa police release the names of the two officers involved in the shooting. Officer Betty Shelby, 42, discharged her duty weapon and Officer Tyler Turnbough deployed his Taser, police said. Shelby is placed on routine administrative leave with pay.
Video and audio of the shooting is released to the public. Among the chatter heard from the police helicopter flying above the Crutcher scene: Looks like a bad dude, too. Could be on something.
The Crutcher family demands immediate charges against Shelby. During an afternoon news conference, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said officers found no gun on Crutcher or in his SUV.
The story is gaining statewide and nationwide attention. Everyone from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton to Mary Fallin to Colin Kaepernick comments on the Crutcher shooting.
Police announce that they found PCP in the vehicle used by Crutcher the night he was fatally shot.
Attorneys for the Crutcher family hold a news conference to address what they call misinformation reported by Tulsa police.
Attorney Benjamin Crump says he wants to draw the publics attention to the notion initially suggested by police that Crutcher was reaching into his vehicle when he was shot.
Attorneys show reporters poster-size images from police video footage, saying they show Crutchers hands raised above his head where he lies on the ground in a blood-soaked shirt next to his vehicle. They also point out what they believe is a blood streak on the vehicles drivers side window, which they say indicates that it was closed when Crutcher was shot.
The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office files a first-degree manslaughter charge against Betty Shelby.
Before marching almost a mile through downtown Tulsa with about 400 people, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civic leaders urge the crowd to remain peaceful as they seek justice for Crutcher's death.
Sharpton, other religious leaders, members of the Crutcher family and several attorneys speak at a National Prayer Call for Justice March before leading the crowd from the Greenwood Cultural Center, 322 N. Greenwood Ave., to City Hall, 175 E. Second St.
The crowd spans about a block as people march behind a banner that features a photo of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher and reads #Justice4Crutch and hands up, dont shoot.
Click here to view photos from the event
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher.
Shelby remained silent in the courtroom other than answering yes to acknowledge her presence.
Attorneys representing Terence Crutchers sister and parents argued Frenchel Renee Johnson was legally disqualified from being administrator due to past felony convictions and because Crutchers parents have temporary custody of the couples children.
Terence Crutcher had acute phencyclidine intoxication when Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby fatally shot him once in the upper right chest, the Oklahoma State Medical Examiners Office ruled.
Crutcher family attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons issued a statement saying that "today's toxicology report does not change the most pertinent facts of this tragedy: Officer Betty Shelby shot and killed Terence Crutcher who was, unarmed and had his hands up, without provocation or justification and she should be held accountable for her unlawful actions."
Tulsa County District Judge Kurt Glassco ordered that all the funds raised in a GoFundMe campaign, $150,000, initiated after Terence Crutchers death.
The judge also said he wont announce his decision on whether Terence Crutcher and Frenchel Johnson, the mother of Crutcher's three children, had a common-law marriage.
At a preliminary hearing, Tulsa Police Department homicide detective Sgt. Dave Walker testifies that Shelby and another officer saw Crutcher reach with his left hand through the half-open window of his vehicle, prompting them to deploy their weapons.
The daughter of Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby decried the media coverage of Terence Crutchers fatal shooting and told reporters her mother already has been tried in the court of public opinion.
District Judge Kurt Glassco wrote that Frenchel Johnsons relationship with Terence Crutcher, despite its length, does not meet the statutory burden for a common-law marriage in Oklahoma.
Glassco instead said Johnson and Crutchers three minor children are the heirs to the estate, as well as another child Crutcher had from a previous relationship.
The GoFundMe account received around $168,000 in contributions, which family attorneys said GoFundMe collected a percentage from before disbursing it.
Tulsa County District Judge Doug Drummond overruled two Jan. 11 motions from Betty Shelbys defense that sought to place her case again before a preliminary hearing judge or dismiss the charge due to insufficient evidence.
In making his ruling, Drummond said Special Judge Martha Rupp Carter did not abuse her discretion when she decided not to allow Shelby to call witnesses during her Nov. 29 preliminary hearing.
Shelby's trial is set for May 8, and she remains on Tulsa Police administrative leave without pay as of Sept. 22.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously ruled that District Judge Doug Drummond did not abuse his discretion when he affirmed a decision by Special Judge Martha Rupp Carter not to allow Betty Shelby to present witness testimony on her behalf at her Nov. 29 preliminary hearing.
Shelby remains on track for a May 8 jury trial.
Defense attorneys for Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby asked a judge to prohibit jurors from listening to irrelevant audio about Terence Crutchers appearance from officers in a police helicopter the day Shelby fatally shot Crutcher.
Attorney Shannon McMurray has also requested that jurors be allowed to hear information about Crutchers past, including a history of drug use and state incarceration.
The requests were denied in April.
Betty Shelby is featured on 60 Minutes and breaks down in tears while describing the circumstances that led to her decision to shoot Crutcher.
As a result, the judge presiding over Shelby's trial admonishes her in a written order after he had cautioned the state and defense on speaking publicly about the case.
"Former Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby has been given extraordinary privileges that the average person is not afforded at the courthouse," writes Tulsa World photo editor John Clanton. "She parks in a private lot on the west side of the courthouse. She enters the building through the Sheriffs Office and is led into the courtroom through judges chambers. She is not seen in the hallways at the courthouse. Shes led out the same way. Kept out of sight from everyone and protected by sheriffs deputies.
"All this from a Sheriffs Office that promised transparency.
"There also is black paper on the windows of the judges chambers and the courtroom. They are the only windows blacked out on the fourth floor. "
A national nonprofit organization that is raising funds to help embattled Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby issued a statement in her defense, describing her as on trial for her life and livelihood.
Jim Fotis, president of the National Center for Police Defense, told the Tulsa World his group has raised nearly $100,000 for Shelby since becoming involved in her case about a month after she fatally shot Terence Crutcher in September.
The Tulsa police union lodged an ethics complaint against District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, alleging he unfairly charged Officer Betty Shelby without probable cause because he rushed to a decision before all evidence had been submitted to his office.
The ethics complaint, filed with the Oklahoma Bar Association, alleges Kunzweiler didnt have probable cause to charge Shelby merely based on watching a video of her fatal encounter with Terence Crutcher.
A jury has been chosen, with 14 individuals set to hear the evidence against Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby.
The jury panel of 12 includes two black women, and a black man is among the two alternates.
Sharpton said he came to Tulsa because the Crutcher family asked him to come.
We didnt come to start trouble; we came to stop trouble.
He said the shooting of a man with his hands up has been the only violence committed in this entire ordeal.
Not one window was broken. Not one brick was thrown.
The defense motion cited perceived implications by prosecutors that Tulsa officer Betty Shelby took time to "get her story straight" before giving an official police interview about the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher.
The jurors in Betty Shelbys trial believed she acted according to her training when she fatally shot Terence Crutcher, but several believed she didnt do all she could to mitigate the situation, which left the group unable to get comfortable with the concept of Betty Shelby being blameless.
The jury deliberated for just more than nine hours before reaching its decision. Several jurors were in tears as the judge read the not-guilty verdicts for the two theories of manslaughter heat of passion and resisting criminal attempt for which Shelby was charged.
Downtown Tulsa's Mayfest was the site of protestors laying in the intersection of Main and Third streets in holding a "die in," demanding justice for Terence Crutcher.
Organizer Tykebrean McClain said the demonstrations other aim was to show people what it is like to be bombarded with images and videos on social media of the people, mainly of color, killed by police.
Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan in a statement said that Betty Shelby, pursuant to the jury verdict will return to work but not in a patrol capacity.
City spokeswoman Michelle Brooks said Shelby will receive back pay for the whole time she was on unpaid administrative leave, or almost $36,000 worth of salary.
Betty Shelby, who had returned to work in a different role a few days after her acquittal, resigns from the Tulsa Police Department.
Shelby is signed on by the Rogers County Sheriffs Office. Sheriff Scott Walton had been one of Shelby's biggest vocal supporters during her trial. She is sworn in a few days later. She joins as an active reserve deputy.
The petition states that Shelby has no criminal convictions, as well as no felony or misdemeanor charges pending. It asserts that Shelby faces dangers of unwarranted adverse consequences unless the case records are sealed.
(Shelby)s privacy interests outweigh the interests of the public in maintaining this arrest record as a public document, the petition contends.
Three of Terences children, ages 5, 12 and 16, live with his parents the Rev. Joey and Leanna Crutcher.
They have given us life after their fathers death, said Leanna Crutcher.
Theyve always been part of our daily lives. But since their dad is gone, theyre really part of it now, said Joey Crutcher. Their mother is trying to get her life together. Were the ones left to take care of them, and we love doing it. It makes us young again. Young Terence makes it so we have to run after him.
A judge grants Shelby's request to expunge the record of her manslaughter case, making her able to legally say she was never arrested or prosecuted for the shooting death of Terence Crutcher.
However, a federal wrongful death civil case is ongoing.
The form asks questions about excessive force, racial profiling and whether the person reporting is willing to testify in court. The reports can be dropped off at most north Tulsa churches and will be used by the foundation to create change, said Terence Crutcher's sister, Tiffany Crutcher.
The Tulsa Police Department has a culture, a practice and a pattern of racially profiling people in our community, discriminating against the people in our community, and we can no longer say its just a few bad apples, she said.
Tiffany Crutcher, twin sister of Terence Crutcher, is pleased that the Tulsa Police Department will begin implicit-bias training next month to help combat officers potential subconscious biases, including those involving race, but she believes reformation is far from complete.
Its one small step in the right direction, but we have a lot of work to do, Tiffany Crutcher told the Tulsa World. Its one thing to say that were going to implement implicit-bias training and another thing not to apply it.
Family attorneys said that Crutchers parents, according to state law, are not legally entitled to make a damage claim in the previously filed federal case against former Tulsa officer Betty Shelby, the city of Tulsa and Chief Chuck Jordan that alleges civil rights violations occurred at the time of Crutchers death in September 2016.
However, Oklahomas civil procedure statute on wrongful death claims indicates a family can file suit to recover damages for grief and loss of companionship for the children and parents of a decedent.
The lawsuit against the city was dismissed in May.
She transitioned to full-time patrol duty Dec. 1, 2017.
Because of Shelbys time in the spotlight, Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton discussed safety concerns with her before sending her to the streets. He said she expressed no hesitation about returning to patrol.
In 1974, he said, he lost a son to crib death. In 2008, his first grandson was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity. In 2014, his first-born son died at age 44 of colon cancer.
In each instance, the Rev. Joey Crutcher told councilors, the deaths were something that I could not control.
Continue reading here:
'Reopen the case': Six years since Crutcher's death in Tulsa police shooting, activists 'tired of struggling' - Tulsa World