On June 21, Officer Jeronimo Yanez was found not guilty of manslaughter for shooting Philando Castile during a traffic stop. Castile’s girlfriend and young daughter were in the car when he was killed. The below story details how a White police officer was set free after killing a Black man while attempting to arrest a him and three friends for disorderly conduct arrest. The three friends were found not guilty of disorderly conduct.

Garnett Faces New Attack by NAACP

Pinkett Cites “Refusal” to Present Basey Case to Grand Jury

RECALLS 39 OTHER KILLINGS BY COPS

Congressional Action to Be Sought

Oct. 17, 1936

In a strongly worded statement, A.S. Pinkett, local NAACP secretary this week rapped District Attorney Leslie Garnett for failure to take action in the case of V. H. Landrum, white policeman, freed recently in the killing of Lawrence Basey, 27-year-old CCC worker.

Pointing out that Basey is the fortieth colored person killed by the local police (according to statistics compiled by the AFRO-AMERICAN) Pinkett charges Garnett with refusing to present the Basey case to the grand jury.

His statement follows:

“District Attorney Leslie Garnett refused to present the Basey case to the grand jury. Police officer V. H. Landrum gets another official OK of his wanton slaying of an innocent colored man.

“Thus the fortieth in eleven years to be killed by a policeman meets the fate of the other thirty nine.

“The coroner’s jury, with one colored person on it, brought in a verdict which was never before known in Morgue history. Here is the language:

“We believe that the said Vivian H. Landrum discharged his gun when he believed his life was in jeopardy, such jeopardy being initiated by a mental process and not by any overt act or acts on the part of those under arrest.”

“Now the District Attorney, after adequate opportunity to study the evidence adduced at the coroner’s inquest, refuses to present the case to the grand jury.

Innocence proved

“Basey was arrested for disorderly conduct. Three other men were arrested with him. The three which Landrum did not kill were tried and the case against them was dismissed.

“If Basey had lived to tell the story he, too, would have been acquitted, for all four cases rested upon the same evidence.

“Thus we have the picture of the policeman arresting men for behaving disorderly, when there was no disorder; the shooting to death of one of them by the arresting officer; a meaningless verdict by the coroner’s jury, and lastly the refusal by the District Attorney to lay the facts before the grand jury.

Association not Through

The D.C. branch of the NAACP, which has taken the matter to this point, has not quit and does not intend to quit.”

The NAACP branch will hold its first meeting of the present season on next Tuesday night at the YWCA, when a report will be made on the Basey case.