Editor's Note: (Issac Bailey is a longtime journalist based in South Carolina and the Batten Professor for Communication Studies at Davidson College. He's the author of "My Brother Moochie: Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty and Racism in the American South." His latest book is "Why Didn't We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland." The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.)
(CNN) Ronald Greene died in Louisiana State Police (LSP) custody two years ago. Bodycam footage of that fatal encounter has only now reached the public -- which is why we are only now getting to truth.
In clips of the leaked video, obtained by the Associated Press and published on Wednesday, we see officers tasing, kicking and dragging Greene, a Black man, who is heard saying "I'm scared." Like the phony initial police statement after the George Floyd murder in which police claimed it was just a "medical incident," none of this detail appears in the initial complaint written by the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division. Instead, the investigation officer's initial complaint into Greene's in-custody death minimizes the incident, saying that he died on the way to the hospital. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Greene's family, police told Greene's mother that he immediately died after his vehicle hit a tree while officers were in pursuit for a traffic violation.
The fact that the LSP still hasn't officially released bodycam footage of the 2019 incident -- even after this leak -- is telling. It's just the latest in a long line of attempts by police to withhold evidence that makes them look bad or might allow victims or their families to get closer to justice.
On Tuesday, Pasquotank County, North Carolina's district attorney Andrew Womble appeared to follow a similar playbook, showing contempt for those he represents with every word out of his mouth during a press conference where he announced the decision not to charge officers in the death of Andrew Brown Jr., who was fatally shot when officers were trying to execute a warrant.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the staggering, persistent lack of accountability for police brutality in this country knew this was going to be the decision the moment Womble argued that a judge should withhold video of the shooting from the public for several weeks while investigators look into the incident. The judge has yet to release all of the footage.
Womble called the decision by officers to kill Brown "tragic" but "justified." By that logic, justified simply means that it is now OK for cops in that county to continue acting as though they are mercenaries tracking down terrorists rather than trying to keep a small community in North Carolina safe. They can cobble together a gaggle of extremely well-armed agents of the state to unleash at least 14 bullets -- at least one hitting a nearby home -- on a residential community, a decision they likely would not have made had that community been wealthier and Whiter.
Make no mistake. That's the message Womble and those officers have sent to Black residents of that area in particular. They've got the guns. They've got the badges. They've got the backing of the entire system and can do whatever they want, even if it means filling a man's body with bullets for no good reason.
There is nothing in the snippets of bodycam video that Womble allowed the public to see, nothing in his explanation suggesting the officers had no other choice, that this was the best course of action. They were serving a warrant on someone who was allegedly selling drugs -- not someone suspected of serial murder. They were doing so in an environment in which law enforcement and elected officials throughout the country are admitting that the war on drugs has been a complete disaster and has caused much more harm than good. They were doing so in an environment in which the enforcement of drug laws is being reconsidered.
In what way is that part of North Carolina safer because of what those officers did? In what way has the trust deficit between police and community been repaired? Not only that, Womble's description of what happened is highly misleading given what the public has been allowed to see. "Brown's precise speed in attempting to flee and striking (a deputy) is uncertain. But that he drove recklessly and endangered the officers is not uncertain," he said. Those officers do not appear to be in danger of being run over by a fleeing Brown.
And yet Womble thought it "justified" that a police officer in Elizabeth City put a bullet in Brown's head.
I don't deal drugs. I don't have a criminal record. But there's little doubt I'd be scared out of my mind if a bunch of men screaming and pointing long guns my way suddenly showed up in my yard. In that state of mind, I don't know how I'd respond; none of us does. I'm not sure I'd even be able to hear them shouting "police" let alone have the wherewithal to obey commands to put my hands up and step out of my car -- all within a matter of a few seconds.
What's worse is that Womble said the officers knew in advance that Brown was not known to carry weapons, and none was found on him. Given that fact alone, it makes little sense that they decided that acting as though they were storming the beaches of Normandy was the right thing to do. There was nothing justified about anything those officers did. But a community feeling little more than disgust and contempt for them would be.
If you've ever wondered why chants of "defund the police" resonate among some of us, remember that the police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, created a dangerous situation, used that danger to justify putting a bullet in a man's brain in broad daylight while wearing body cameras and then the top law enforcement official in the area did his best to make it all go away. Remember how Greene was essentially tortured by officers in Louisiana and how bodycam footage contradicts what his family says police told them had happened. Then remember that these incidents are a part of a broader pattern that stretches back decades and seemingly won't end any time soon.