The unnecessary death of Dijon Kizzee

 NYT report on the death of Dijon Kizzee, who was shot to death by sheriff's deputies in LA:

On Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said deputies tried to stop a Black man who was riding a bike in South Los Angeles. They said he was stopped for a code violation related to the bike, but wouldn’t elaborate on what the alleged violation was.

The sheriff's office said Kizzee fled and then "made a motion" toward a dropped gun. I think we've learned by now that such accounts should be viewed as provisional, at best, and possibly false. But even if completely true, I'm trying to imagine a "code violation related to the bike" that was so worth enforcing that this outcome was worth it.

We need laws for good order and civilization. But the libertarian side of me has come to believe that maybe we go overboard -- and that the result, sometimes, is a death sentence for selling loose cigarettes, or having a bike code violation. At the very least, it criminalizes people who are just trying to get through the day. And, disproportionately, those people are Black. I'm not saying anything new, here, I realize, but really: If a bike code violation was the reason Dijon Kizzee is dead, then he should be alive today. 

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