Late last month, Chicago Police Officer Melvina Bogard was acquitted of felony battery charges in the shooting of an unarmed man at a Chicago train station in 2020. While a handful of local media outlets reported on the story at the time, the case received far less attention than most in which a cop shoots a civilian.
Perhaps this has something to do with Bogard’s race — she is black and the shooting victim, Ariel Roman, is white. Whenever a white cop shoots and injures a black victim in the US, the media explodes with outrage, as journalists seek to prop up the narrative of systemic white supremacy and brutality within the police force. But there is far less appetite for the reverse scenario, even when that white victim isn’t armed, doesn’t appear to be a danger to police and is shot at close range.
