Review of
In
His Own Home, a documentary by Unbeliever Productions
Five out of five stars
One night on
the campus of the University of Florida, the apartment of Ghanian doctoral
student Kofi Adu-Brempong was forcibly entered by police. There are conflicting
accounts as to what took place, but the end result was that a white officer
shot Adu-Brempong twice with an assault rifle. Although he was seriously
injured and could no long teach, he was able to recover enough to complete his
doctoral degree.
Adu-Brempong
contracted polio when he was younger and was unable to walk without a cane. The
police were there in response to a 911 call from a tenant in a neighboring
apartment that reported shouting emanating from Adu-Brempong’s apartment. The
shooting was considered justified by the police and their reviewing agencies,
yet was widely viewed as unjustified by the majority of the residents of the
campus. There were widespread protests by students and faculty over the issue.
As is clear
from this video, the case is ambiguous, because only the police that entered
the apartment and Adu-Brempong know what really happened. A bystander filmed
the police actions outside the building and they clearly went in with guns
drawn shortly after they arrived. As would be expected, the police claimed that
he resisted, even to the point where his being tasered had no effect on him.
The video is
fairly neutral in that it reports both sides of the dispute and based on that
there is still reasonable doubt that the shooting was justified. However, two
points outside the incident raise questions about the officer that pulled the
trigger. Some time before this incident, that officer was disciplined with
others for driving through a prominently black neighborhood and throwing eggs
at the citizens. Some time after the shooting incident that same officer was
dismissed from the force after he roughed up a white man driving a Mercedes. A
third point is that the University of Florida paid out a significant settlement
to Adu-Brempong.
https://www.amazon.com/His-Own-Home-Various/dp/B0762JBFL1
https://www.amazon.com/His-Own-Home-Various/dp/B0762JBFL1