In Police Violence, the Fates of Cities and Suburbs Are Intertwined

After news broke late last Friday that former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld was acquitted of murdering the black teenager Antwon Rose II, the reverberations were felt as far away as Virginia, where state senate candidate Qasim Rashid tweeted about the difference in how Rose was treated compared to Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers. His tweet was immediately met with a fusillade of replies explaining that there were different police forces involved in the two tragedies: Pittsburgh police and its SWAT unit for Bowers, and East Pittsburgh police for Rose.

East Pittsburgh is a small municipality that sits just outside of the city of Pittsburgh. It disbanded its police department in January, largely because of the Rose killing. And while Rashid’s clap-backers are technically correct about the differences between the police departments involved, the spirit of his tweet is still sound. For African Americans in greater Pittsburgh, there is little safety afforded to them when approached by police, whether in cities or suburbs. This is a concern for African Americans in almost every urban setting in the nation, but especially so in suburbs.