A grand jury in Missouri recently decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown, a young black male. Wilson got off on self-defense because he "feared for his life" during a physical altercation with Brown. Maybe this was the case, maybe it wasn't. I suppose one could say that much of the evidence was "circumstantial" and up to the eye of the beholder, so to speak, and not necessarily a matter of racism. While I have argued my opinion about this case with many (and I still stand firm to those opinions), I want to move past the idea of underlying racism and dig a little deeper into the real problem.
Let's look at another recent, more important case involving police brutality. Eric Garner and the NYPD. If you haven't seen the video of the altercation, you can do so here. Again, we are looking at a black male. But this time, it is very clear that he did not pose a real threat to these officers. He firmly stated his case that he had done nothing wrong, and when they attempted to arrest him, he resisted. But he was not armed and did not physically attack them in any way. He simply tried to pull his arms away from them. And then...the chokehold. Garner even stated many times that he couldn't breathe, yet Officer Pantaleo maintained the chokehold. He killed Garner, and the autopsy ruled Garner's death a homicide. Even better? Chokeholds were banned by the NYPD in 1993.
That fact alone should have been enough to take Pantaleo to trial for killing a non-threatening civilian with an illegal restraining move. But alas, no indictment. Who did they decide to indict instead? The man who filmed the video of the murder, Ramsey Orta, who was arrested almost immediately after Garner's death was ruled a homicide, on charges that he adamantly insists are retaliation meant to deter him from bringing more attention to the case.
I suppose one could chalk this up to coincidence, but seems kinda fishy to me, especially since his wife was also arrested for alleged assault and subsequently released from those charges. Also, it seems very similar to the investigation into Louis Head, Michael Brown's stepfather, for igniting riots in Ferguson (that were already taking place before he said anything) with his gut-wrenching, heartbroken reaction to the decision for no indictment against Officer Wilson in his son's death. Seems like an attempt to blame the victims again.
Not getting into the possible racism involved in these two cases, the Brown case might be able to be justified with "circumstantial" evidence and false witness testimonies. But the Garner case? We can see for ourselves that he was murdered and that the brutality of the officers involved, particularly Pantaleo, was unjustified.
Let's look at a couple more recent cases. First, a 12 year old boy, Tamir Rice, was shot and killed in Cleveland by police officers. Maybe this one could be justified by saying that the officers didn't know that it was a pellet gun. But they couldn't shoot him in the knee? Nonetheless, let's move on... in another case, two officers in Jasper, TX brutally beat Keyarika Diggles while she was in jail for an unpaid $100 traffic ticket (that she was making payments on), and again, no indictment. You can see the actual videos of these incidents yourself in the links. Watch them yourself, dammit.
Thus far, all of these very recent examples of police brutality have involved an African American victim and White officer(s). But again, we're not going to talk about race here. Even though it is absolutely true that African Americans are killed by police at higher rates than whites (unjust), for the purpose of this piece, we are looking at police brutality in general.
We are looking at the mind-blowing comparison between the 6,700 U.S. servicemen casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since the year 2000 and the estimated 10,000+ (at 1,000 per year) civilian casualties by non-military, U.S. law enforcement personnel during the same time period. As well as the starling fact that Americans are NINE times more likely to be killed by a U.S. police officer than a terrorist.
Is police brutality an issue that has just begin to surface? Absolutely not. It's been happening for years. There are plenty of examples here. Is this just a simple issue of racism? Absolutely not. Even though there are many aspects of racism deeply embedded into many of these situations, the truth is this is a much bigger issue.
This is an issue of the enforcers of our laws...the right-hand men of our government...taking their powers way too far. And even though this isn't a new phenomenon, there are a few things that are very worrisome to me at this point. (1) By turning police brutality into a race war entirely, we are once again ignoring the more important fact of the overall loss of American freedom. (2) It seems that while our government is slowly working to gain more control, their right-hand men are taking their authority to higher levels as well. (3) In the past five years, the federal government has spent $18 billion arming state and local law enforcement agencies with military grade equipment.
So, in a nutshell, we now have a federal government wanting more control and dispersing military grade equipment at alarming rates, state and local law enforcement agencies on massive power trips, and a race war. This should matter to ALL Americans, no matter what your skin color. Americans, as a whole, are gradually losing their freedom, and all we can fight over is the color of our skin.
The White House has even admitted themselves that the use of military grade equipment in local contexts can “facilitate excessive uses of force and serve as a highly visible barrier between police and the communities they serve.” Yet, they keep distributing it. Even in the midst of the recent cases that have brought about so much controversy and created increased racial tensions and protests within communities.
Citizens are going to fight back more. Police are going to fight back more. The cycle will continue. Until everything ends very, very badly. And when it does, I'm going to tell you all that you should've read this blog post and actually gave a shit.
In the words of Malcom X, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." Today, these words from a admirable, black man do not pertain to whites and blacks any longer. They pertain to American citizens and the American government. We all need to realize that before it's too late.
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