In 1997, 14-year-old Herman Whitfield III was Indianapolis’ “virtuoso on the rise,” his mentors predicting that his compositions could bring him a Pulitzer. In 2009, he composed and conducted music for an opera set in a death row visiting room. But in 2022, the same criminal legal system he depicted in his music killed him.
On April 25, Whitfield’s parents called 911 for an ambulance when he had a mental health crisis. Instead, Indianapolis cops Tased, tackled, handcuffed, and suffocated Whitfield to death. Two were tried for manslaughter, reckless homicide, and battery but found not guilty. Indianapolis’ police chief and police union president claimed officers were in a “no-win” situation.
But Whitfield’s family and legal team compiled footage showing a litany of violated procedures. For example, police kept Whitfield on his stomach, even after he said he couldn’t breathe. In a shocking rejection of accountability, one officer blamed Whitfield’s parents for their son’s killing, arguing, “If you wouldn’t have called.” Another blamed the notoriously anti-Black pseudo-condition called “excited delirium.”
Police who are alive, with granted authority and power, aren’t victims. The people they kill are the victims. And from 2012 to 2021, cops killed “at least 740 people in similar prone position restraints.”
The narrative that police are both powerful arbiters of safety and victims who regret accidentally killing us is nonsense. Cops don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt when they don’t give it to Black people in crisis like Whitfield.