Dead Felon’s Family Claims Criminals Don’t Get Proper Respect
Last week, three police officers began talking to a convicted felon with a long criminal record, dating back to 1999, when he reached into his waistband for his gun. He fired at least one shot and then he was shot and killed. Frank “Scooterbug” Clark’s family claims that he didn’t get the respect that he deserved and that’s why he is dead. There was even a protest march by a dozen of Durham citizens who marched from the spot where he was killed to the local police station.
The odd thing is that the protesters nor Clark’s family dispute that he had a long violent police record, that he was carrying a gun or that he discharged that gun.
Family and friends are voicing their frustrations and concerns one day after police shot and killed a Durham man.
Frank Nathaniel Clark, 34, died after being shot during a struggle with three officers. Durham Police Chief C.J. Davis said the officers – Charles Barkley, Monte Southerland and Christopher Goss – stopped to talk to Clark when he reached for a gun in his waistband and they heard a shot.
About a dozen demonstrators marched a little over a mile from Fayetteville Road, near the McDougald Terrace community where Clark was shot, to Durham Police Headquarters, voicing their concerns about what they describe as a broken relationship between Durham police officers and the community.
The demonstrators took their call for justice to the front door of police headquarters before returning to the street and forming a circle in the middle of Chapel Hill Street, shutting down the intersection between Duke Street and Gregson Street.
Clark’s brother Michael said:
“Not only do I want change, the community wants change too.”
“The physical contact with the community, how they go about it; there’s another way instead of just hopping out, saying ‘put your hands up’, searching and patting you down for guns.”
Yeah, God forbid that they should take guns away from violent felons. What is this world coming to? Some in the community say they are now afraid of the police, but I know a way for them to overcome that. Quit shooting at the police and your life expectancy will increase exponentially.
