Police Killing in Western Massachusetts Tests Limits of Reform

“His girlfriend called because she was worried for him, and instead the people who were sent killed him"

Last month in the small western Massachusetts city of Pittsfield, police shot and killed Miguel Estrella, a 22-year-old man.

“His girlfriend called because she was worried for him, and instead the people who were sent killed him,” Dubois Thomas, Neighborhood Revitalization Director for Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, told reporters.

The cops claim that Estrella was advancing with a knife, but other members of the community contest that interpretation and instead say that Estrella was treated as a threat because he was a person of color.

"Clearly, what they saw was a person of color, large in size which, unfortunately, the color of his skin represented a threat to the officers," Berkshire NAACP President Dennis Powell said. "It is inconceivable that these officers did not realize that this young man was in crisis and needed help."

The shooting comes after years of attempts to reform the Pittsfield Police Department to avoid incidents like this.

The department recently formed a "Chelsea HUB" style program to have a better relationship with the community, but that did nothing to stop this situation from escalating. A citywide citizen-led review board made some noise in 2020 but lost steam and hasn't really done anything since Feb 2021.

Pittsfield has been caught between the will of the public to reform the department and policing in general and city officials blocking that reform.

“The police and the DA’s office have rebuffed demands for clarity or transparency regarding Miguel’s extrajudicial murder,” Dana Rasso, a local organizer, told local media. “The mayor’s office has offered some words of sympathy. Few, if any, local elected officials have spoken out publicly on this senseless tragedy.”

There's been little effort on the part of city officials to curtail the police power, the HUB system clearly failed its first test, and activists in the community stalled out with the new administration. It's hard to keep people engaged, and institutions will backslide without accountability.

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I covered current events on the podcast Thursday with special guest Aaron Thorpe.

On Tuesday, I talked to Katelyn Burns about the rise of the anti-trans hate movement in the US.

Her comments, particularly on the ramifications of Roe v Wade being overturned, are worth listening to.

℮oin Higgins @EoinHiggins_

Good commentary from @transscribe on the ramifications of Roe getting struck down, as it likely will in a month or two

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