THEIR PERCEPTION, OUR REALITY
Prologue
“Oh boy…”
It has been a long, long time since I’ve witnessed that subtle behaviour.
But a couple Saturdays ago, after having done some shopping, I was getting close to home so I began to cross the street as I normally do.
Ahead of me was a white woman walking on the sidewalk, a little purse comfortably and securely ‘tucked’ between her arm and upper body.
With a quick furtive look she noticed me–and prepared. As I got closer to her, I noticed she squeezed the already secured purse juuuust a little bit tighter. Actually, as I began to pass her I thought about telling her, albeit tongue-in-cheek, that my purse snatching years were behind me. But I just kept walking, focused on getting home to do my weekend chores. No reason to react in any way.
“Oh boy!” That’s how the Gadfly normally sounds off with a deep breath whenever he becomes absolutely frustrated and nonplussed with “what’s going on” where Black people are concerned, in predominantly white societies, especially here in North America where more than ever Black people are in the sights of white policemen, and occasionally their complicit Black male and female aberrations, who pledge to “Serve and Protect” all of us.
And every time there’s another incident I think about Michael Jackson who, towards the end of his storied career and life, recorded a song, “They Don’t Care About Us.” It was clearly a social commentary on America’s unfinished business of righting the historical wrongs perpetrated against its slaves then, and their progeny, today.
And so, as stated a while ago, but worth reiterating, the constituency of white [North] Americans… on either side of the border whose minds are set in granite-like history and bent on maintaining the ‘old ways’ must understand that with each police shooting of another Black person and the automatic response, the appearance of “Black Lives Matter” placards, along with the chants, will come the specious “All lives matter” response to the movement as ‘they’ continue to sully and distort the raison d’être of the movement, the recurring shootings of Black people, especially Black males.
Along with those who serve and protect them, they refuse to stop treating Black people like [their proverbial] niggers.
Too late! Black Lives Matter, the movement and adherents, will continue to become increasingly relevant given the urgency of the matter of police killings, seemingly with impunity, of Black people.
Epilogue
So I was watching Online video footage of the latest police killings of Black men in Tulsa, Okla., and Charlotte, N.C. earlier this month.
I watched that “big Black dude…” who, according to a police in a hovering helicopter, “must be on something…” He was walking back to his vehicle, which was stalled on a Tulsa thoroughfare, his “hands up,” when he was set upon by several officers.
Then after they shot and killed him, the man was clearly ‘down’ they all slowly backed up as if he would get up and start shooting… The man was already dead.
Down in Charlotte, that Black guy was shot four times in the stomach. A Black woman was a witness; she saw it all happen, also a white woman who said the real shooter was a white policeman in a read vest, not a Black policeman who has been fingered as the killer.
One thing is certain, Black men are dying at the hands of the police. It’s a veritable crisis. And none other than the UN, which is headquartered in New York City, has broken its silence vis-à-vis the continuing human rights abuses of Black people.
[Never mind the Rudolph Giuliani, Donald Trump, and people of their ideological ilk and their narrative, which even some Boyz In The Hood types have lapped up. Talking about “Black on Black” crime is causing the deaths of more Black people than police killings [of Black people].
As to suggest that killing primarily innocent Black men—and occasionally women, and as someone recently pointed out, now adolescents, are all justified.
Oh, by the way, isn’t white people killing white people everyday too? How do the media not describe that practice of “white-on-white killings? Or is there no descriptive of that sort of killing?
Human beings kill one another for myriad reasons. So please stop that nonsense about “black-on-black” crime.
The over-policing, demonizing and killing (the general mistreatment of Black people) have forced the UN to take notice and speak out, the international paragon of justice which essentially prides itself on telling countries with questionable human rights records can no longer tell others about the right way to do justice, while at home Black people –the children of the slaves that built America are being subjected to all forms of human rights injustices, which have been a practice for generations, but are now in plain view, thanks to technology: the ubiquitous video camera and cell phone. Police shootings of Black people, especially Black men in America, could no longer be ignored.
According to a Reuters story “Police killings of Black people in the United States are reminiscent of lynchings and the government must do far more to protect them, a United Nations working group says in a report that will be debated at the U.N. Human Rights Council…”
It continues, “[…] the hard-hitting criticism – drawing a comparison between modern police behavior and mob killings of blacks in the 19th and 20th centuries – comes at a time of renewed racial tension in the United States…Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching,” said the report by a 5-member U.N. Working Group.
“[…] the group said it remained “extremely concerned” about the human rights situation of African-Americans. In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Impunity for State violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
A more damning UN observation: “Police killings go unpunished because initial investigations are usually conducted by the police department where the alleged perpetrator works, because prosecutors have wide discretion over presenting charges, and because the use of force is not subject to international standards, the experts’ group said.”
They recommended the United States create a reliable national system to track killings and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, and end racial profiling, which is “a rampant practice and seriously damages the trust between African-Americans and law enforcement officials.”
To improve race relations, education should be “accompanied by acts of reconciliation” to overcome bigotry and past injustices, while federal and state laws should recognize the negative impact of enslavement and racial injustice,” the report added.
Now, this is all coming out of the United Nations, which the U.S. (many Americans) does not hold in high esteem. But the evidence is there, proof that Black people are under those who took an oath to “Protect and Serve”, not some, but all Americans.
In the meantime the police have been emboldened; they know that if they kill a Black person, even with damning incontrovertible video or cell phone camera evidence, there’s always a high probability of walking… and getting on with their lives.
So is Michael Jackson right, they don’t really care about us? The increasing supporting evidence is there to prove it.
Some people are now saying, “[…] the nefarious, sinister forces cannot get to their president, Barack Obama, so they’ll take out as many Black people, especially Black males, as they possibly can as compensation.
The bodies of Terence Crutcher shot and killed by police in Tulsa, Okla., and Keith Lamont Scott (was he a relative of Walter Scott who was shot and killed the morning of Saturday, April 4 in North Charleston, South Carolina by white police officer Michael Thomas Slager?) in Charlotte, N.C., didn’t quite cool down before another Black body, that of Alfred Olango, shot and killed by police in a San Diego, Ca suburb named El Cajon, was added to the police body count, the result of their coast-to-coast police shootings-to-kill of Black men.
In this latest shooting the afternoon of Tuesday, September 27, conflicting eyewitness accounts of the incident notwithstanding, the sister of the victim described her brother as mentally ill. She told the media, “I just called for help, and you came and killed him…”
“Oh my God, you killed my brother…He’s sick, he needs help…I told you guys he’s sick. You guys came and killed my brother.”
They really don’t care about us. They know that they always will be exonerated.
So the wanton and deliberate police shootings-to-kill of Black men in America will continue with impunity, and a bonus: paid desk duty.
