Al-Jazeera reports that while American Indians make up less than 1 percent of the population, they account for 2 percent of those killed at the hands of law enforcement officials. Yet, as Al-Jazeera points out, these killings get little to no media attention.

“The police serve as a colonial occupying force in these [Native American] communities,” according to the family lawyer of Paul Castaway, a mentally ill citizen of the Rosebud Sioux tribe who was recently shot to death by Denver police.

“They are not there to serve and protect,” attorney David Lane says. “They are there to occupy these communities.”

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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#american indian#native american#people of color#police brutality