August 8th, 1990. Geraldo Rivera on his namesake talk show brings us a segment of ‘Killer Cops’, are police officers too trigger happy on the job? Officer Bridges has had several near brushes with death during his work and Reverend Daughtry is representing the family of Phillip Pannell, a black teenager who was shot in the back with his hands up.
“…for arresting a large number of Hispanics. When you work in the barrio, that’s who you arrest. In Harlem, you’re gonna deal with blacks…”
We hear from the Reverend Daughtry the story of Mr. Pannell whom was killed in his encounter with the police, as well as several other incidents of black boys being shot and killed. Officer Bridges recounts being shot by teenagers in the past and discounts racial motivations for deaths during regular police operations.
The question of how much race plays a role in fatal police interactions remains today.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.