Tallahassee, Fla., Attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton announced they are taking up the case of Hunter Brittain, a white teenager who was killed by police in Arkansas last month.
This is the first case Crump has worked on involving an alleged white victim of a police operation.
Crump stressed that his mission has always been “to make sure that all our children get home safely and are not killed by the police who are supposed to protect and defend them”.
Previously, however, Crump described his fight against police brutality as “legalized genocide of colored people”.
Brittain, a 17-year-old, was driving home with a friend around 3:00 a.m. when the deputy of a Lonoke County Sheriff stopped him.
The family claims Brittain’s truck won’t go into the park, so he put a “large, light blue plastic bottle” of antifreeze behind a tire to keep the truck from rolling. A 16-year-old Jordan King who says he witnessed the shooting said he and Brittain were changing gears at his nearby auto repair shop.
After the blue bottle was placed behind a tire, the deputy opened fire.
Crump and Sharpton were invited to Brittain’s memorial service, where Sharpton delivered the laudatory speech.
“Police work is not about black and white. It’s about right and wrong, ”said Sharpton.
That year 156 whites and 102 blacks were killed by law enforcement agencies.
Sharpton has previously distanced itself from the progressive wing of the Black Lives Matter movement by criticizing the “abolitionist” crowd.
“Shutting down all the policing is something I think a latte liberal could aspire to when he’s in the Hamptons and discussing this as an academic issue,” Sharpton said.
Sharpton has also said that the riots and looting that took place as part of the George Floyd protests last summer were “ruthless”.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter for the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter for direct messaging tips.
Photo “Benjamin Crump” by Tony Webster CC BY-SA 2.0.
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