The Killing of Michael Brown…

set the stage for American rigor mortis to set in its bones. By default I love America. To a fault I come humbly to the mother who smacks me with an unloving hand for my kind. I am her darkest child. I am like an infant who would be consoled by her while healing from her abusive impulses. America killed Michael Brown much like Eric Garner in broad daylight. The eyes of the world saw that. This time there is no gray in a Black and White issue. An imperfect teenager was killed by a professional peace officer. I have said it once and I will be more adamant and distinct in my position. Police brutality is a racist act. It damages the trust of the people they are delegated to serve. It reminds me of slave stories where the slave master would take the bigger slave before his kinsmen and onlookers then beat him with a whip or hang him with a rope. I struggle to see the difference between life for Blacks now or 50 years ago or 100 years ago. America has not healed from its short comings just because we have a black president. The way they treat him is set for another blog post at another time. It’s deplorable. But the way that they (the patrollers) are gutting the black community is why I cannot love the mother of my freedom with unconscious abandonment. I am afraid I will wake up as Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner or James Byrd Jr.

But yet I love you for the glimmer of hope you project. You are diverse. There are those who see Darren Wilson’s actions, Michael Brown’s killer, as controversial, at best. Others see his actions as an abuse of power. Either way he has spark a nation to outrage because he was chosen as an officer through rigorous training to protect and serve, not to kill unarmed teenagers. One might say that he was tried by a jury and found not guilty so let it go. But how can you, if you’re black. How could you if he (Michael Brown) looked like you?

Killing Michael Brown is a metaphor. Honestly I see Blacks dying at the hands of police brutality as the bigger issue, BIGGER than the death of Michael Brown. He is a catalyst for an ongoing problem in his mother’s house. America kills her children at an alarming rate. If a my biological mother shot me repeatedly she would be sentenced to life in jail, if not the death sentence. So why does America get a pass? I thought she was diverse.

 

Why ‘I Can’t Breathe.’

It has been well document about the unfortunate death of Eric Garner. His death is one of the rare occasions that is recorded on video from beginning to end. So I will not belabor the issue of why his death was unjustified. However, I will voice my opinion on police brutality and where I think there efforts and aggression should be placed.

I can’t breathe when policemen ignore a known drug dealer and allow him to continue to operate within his community, unchallenged. But you take down a man for selling cigarettes. I get that he should have had a license. I understand that he cannot tell a policeman to leave him alone because if that were the case then it would send the wrong message to its citizens both upstanding and criminal. However a police officer chose a difficult profession so they have to use more critical thought than the people they are responsible for protecting.It is my guess that they will find that more often than not there is no need for physical aggression on for the average citizen. Eric Garner was an average citizen. A policeman/ woman should be able to say, “Move on, no solicitation or leave!” without putting on finger on him or anyone like him. Eric Garner did not have to die.

But he did after a multiple officer takedown. He died from an illegal chokehold. He died from shortness of breathe. When he could speak he repeated and said,”I can’t breathe!” There are several officers on the scene. He was not running away. At 350 lbs he was not going far. He was not physically combative. So at this point release your hold and treat a single cigarette selling offender as a citizen. Obviously you could not do that. But why not? Why was the end result so absolute?

Was it racism? Was it racial profiling? Surely there are other solicitors in New York that should desensitize an officer’s resolve. Surely Eric Garner was not a pioneer and therefore an unsuspected social phenomena. There had to be a deeper reason for such an approach. Surely. Again seeing that officers are put through stringent testing psychologically and trained as professionals I cannot give them a pass. Police brutality is a racist act. What are my options other than to believe that these professionals were deliberate in their actions. If not give me a solution that’s sound on its merits because I can’t breathe!