Casey Goodman shooting is renewing calls for change in a city fighting deeply rooted racism

Casey Goodson was returning home from a dental appointment and picking up Subway sandwiches for his family, his mother says, when he became the latest Black man in Columbus, Ohio, to be killed by police in recent years.

While Goodson’s fatal shooting remains under investigation, his death has prompted calls for police accountability in a city that has been deeply marked by racial inequalities for generations.

“They’re given a badge to serve, to protect us but because of the color of a Black men’s skin, they are not protected, they become targets,” Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday.

Goodson, 23, was fatally shot on Friday by a 17-year veteran of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, identified as deputy Jason Meade.

Authorities are investigating what happened that day, as there was no body camera footage and Goodson was not being sought by law enforcement at the time.

City leaders and residents believe Goodson’s death highlights the systemic racism in law enforcement that exists in Columbus and other communities.

“Casey’s case is just another reminder that the work continues and that racism is everywhere and we have to do the hard work as a nation to root it out,” Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said. “Racism is a part of this country’s, part of our cities and a part of just who we are and we can’t allow the challenges and how ubiquitous it is to overwhelm us in terms of where we go from here.”

Black people living in Ohio’s capital are still feeling the impacts of the decades-long redlining, the refusal by banks to lend mortgage loans to poor and minority communities, and their relationship with law enforcement has long been strained.

Those disparities became even more central this year as the Covid-19 pandemic began and protests against systemic racism and police violence erupted in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

The Columbus City Council and Franklin County, which encompasses the city, passed resolutions declaring racism as a public health crisis. In the resolutions, officials acknowledged the disparities people of color faced in health, poverty, economic mobility, education, crime and food access and promised to address them.

But activists say the resolutions did little to suppress the racial tension in Columbus.

Hana Abdur-Rahim, an activist and co-founder of the Black Abolitionist Collective of Ohio, said she believes city officials wanted to “pacify” the Black community after widespread Black Lives Matter protests.

“Columbus, Ohio, is not a safe place for Black citizens because we are continuously being targeted (by the police),” Abdur-Rahim said. She also added that city officials should consider abolishing the existing police department and find alternatives for patrolling the community.

Protesters and police clashed in Columbus during demonstrations this summer with police firing rubber bullets and pepper spray. Some protesters were injured and arrested during the unrest.

Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Black congresswoman from Ohio, and Hardin were briefly sprayed with “mace or pepper spray” in downtown Columbus talking to people protesting the death of George Floyd.

Abdur-Rahim said she was also hit with rubber bullets and still has scars on her body.

“They brutalized us and attacked us,” Abdur-Rahim said.

4 Black men and teen killed by police

Goodson’s shooting last week is the latest in a series of police shootings involving young Black men and teens in the city of nearly 900,000 people.

Among the Black males killed by Columbus police in recent years were Julius Tate, a 16-year-old who was fatally shot by an officer in December 2018 during a sting operation; Kareem Ali Nadir Jones, a 30-year-old who was fatally shot by officers in July 2017; Tyre King, a 13-year-old killed by police in September 2016; and Henry Green, a 23-year-old shot dead by plainclothes officers in June 2016.

In 2018, police statistics show, almost 55% of CDP’s use-of-force incidents targeted Black people, who compose less than 29% of the population.

Aramis Sundiata, founder and executive director of the Columbus-based People’s Justice Project, described the Black community’s relationship with law enforcement as “antagonistic,” saying that residents don’t trust law enforcement and are often afraid to call 911 for emergencies.

“People know that there is a reality that you can be killed,” Sundiata said.

For Rodney Revish, a 41-year-old Black man living in Columbus, Goodson’s death shows that last summer’s nationwide protests fell on deaf ears with law enforcement.

“The Black community of Columbus and the Black community as a whole have one simple request, and it’s not a hard one: stop shooting us,” Revish said.

The community, he says, is exhausted from being profiled and unfairly targeted by police and wants more Black officers patrolling their neighborhoods.

But some Black officers have recently said they are also battling police prejudice.

Last month, Columbus City Council voted to pay a $475,000 settlement to a Black police officer after the officer, a 28-year veteran, said he faced retaliation for reporting racism and other misconduct by a superior.

The officer, Karl Shawn, is not the only one who has experienced such treatment working in the Ohio capital. Mayor Andrew Ginther, through his spokeswoman, called racism in the department “systemic,” and three other officers — including Shaw’s old partner, who alleges he faced a death threat — have also filed discrimination lawsuits against the department.

“Black police officers who take an oath to protect the life and liberty of their communities far too often are muted, voiceless, subjugated and marginalized if they courageously speak their truth,” said Councilwoman Shayla Favor last month. “This is a tragedy for our city. It is our duty to create a safe space for every resident who seeks justice and reform.”

The city has denied the claims outlined in the three lawsuits and conceded no wrongdoing in the Shaw settlement.

Columbus is one of the top segregated cities in the US

Columbus’ racial tension goes beyond policing. Black residents say the town’s history of redlining, segregation and gentrification of Black neighborhoods has also been a boiling point.

Columbus is the fourth most economically segregated metro area in the country, according to a study the University of Toronto. The city is 59% white and 28% Black.

Morgan Harper, a local community activist, said the segregation in Columbus has prevented White residents from understanding the challenges Black residents face.

“If you never want to deal with anyone else’s (racial) experience, people don’t have to here,” Harper said. “And people have been comfortable with that.”

Sundiata, the executive director of People’s Justice Project, said some neighborhoods, including Short North, where Black residents once lived and felt welcome, have been transformed with expensive apartments, restaurants, bars and bike shops that seem to cater to White residents.

The city’s Southside and Linden neighborhood are also being slowly gentrified, Sundiata said.

“These are not places we (Black people) can actually attend, have dinner or shop at anymore,” Sundiata said. “The culture has shifted.”