Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Black Lives Matter


 
 
BLACK LIVES MATTER

by

Anthonystjoseph

     A lot of people are expressing their dislike and sheer distaste for the hashtag and idea surrounding the movement for ‘Black Lives Matter’.  The movement is a soulful, guttural, and at this historical point, almost a genetic cry from a race of people that have been treated as less than others for far too long.  I, as a young child, learned the lesson that my people, my race of African people, were looked on as less than others and were clearly allowed to be openly treated as such.  I have a clear message to say to those who feel distaste for the efforts in regards to the movement of ‘Black Lives Matter’; you do not know what we feel, you do not know what we go through; you are too removed from the situation to even understand.  We are screaming from our collective soul as a race of people for this mass treatment from the rest of you humans on this planet to stop regarding our lives as unworthy.  Stop regarding our lives and their destinies as not a consequence.  Stop treating us like we are not you.

     The situation is currently boiling over in our country due to the cry from the African soul turning itself into an actual physical manifestation as in; African American fringe thinkers are starting to shoot back and kill policemen who have been freely killing African Americans for decades.  And it is boiling over with the top of the pot shaking and splashes of hot water with tons of steam.

     I, and I believe a few of my other African American brethren, could have told you that this day of cops being killed by African American fringe elements was coming…  It was inevitable if a change had not come about.  The iconic group N.W.A. even rapped about the subject of killing policemen in their lyrics.  I think back to being a young child and coming home from Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota while my uncle slowly drove past a separate isolated fenced off entrance to the zoo where three parked police cars had driven two young African American men to deliver a ‘beat down’.  We drove by in silence and watched as the police officers pulled the two young African American men from the rear of their cars and commenced to physically beat the men.  We all remained silent in the car as we slowly drove by and watched the scene unfold.  Even as a young child I was already aware that this was the way and silence was the path and there was nothing we could do.  The troubled African soul of everyone in our car was crying and the two young men who were being legally beat were physically crying.  The fringe soul was also crying.

     I was able to view the ‘fringe’ in its early stages as a young child as well.  I was around five or so years old when I held my mother’s hand as she walked me past the iron gates and the armed men who guarded the entrance to what I was told was a Black Panther held and controlled apartment building.  My young mind was fascinated and I can never forget the guys dressed in all black with black caps and dangerous looking guns.  The fringe soul of the African was saying to the world through the Black Panther movement, ‘We will fight back!’.

     It was only five or so years later when I was in the Minneapolis airport and asked a cashier for change for a dollar bill to play the video games when everything went dark!  After a few seconds or so of my mind tumbling in its own darkness I realized my eyes were closed from physical shock and trauma.  I had been placed in a headlock as a young boy and was being dragged through the Minneapolis airport by a ‘rent-a-cop’!  Airports are huge!  This society that continually revealed and showed itself to openly display the fact that ‘Black Lives Don’t Matter’ was now using me as a display tool.  I, as a young African American boy, was being physically dragged by the neck with brute force through the entire Minneapolis airport for asking a cashier for change for a dollar one too many times.  I was starting to think that black panthers were my favorite animal.

     Currently, I am in shock at this moment because yesterday one of these fringe elements from our African American community has apparently shot and killed three cops in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Although something like that is and should always be shocking, that is not what has me in shock as it is the third or fourth such event; and anyone who knew a Black Panther knew something like this was going to happen.  Every race has their crazies! As black folks we know we got our crazies.  I remember Richard Pryor talking to a black audience trying to convince them that white folks had their crazies too.  Richard Pryor said, “Them white folks got people down in Alabama so crazy, they keep ‘em chained up in the basement!”  Too funny.  But the shocking thing for me is that only one day after the Baton Rouge slayings of innocent police officers.  Only one day, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams finds Police Officer Brian Rice not guilty of ‘involuntary’ manslaughter in regards to the death of another African American, Freddie Gray!  Gray’s death was ruled a ‘homicide’ by the coroner. Stay with me; his death was due to being tossed around in the back of a police van while not wearing a seat belt…  The accused and subsequently acquitted Officer Rice was legally bound to put the seat belt on his prisoner Mister Gray.  Officer Rice didn’t mean to break the law (wink wink)…  No matter how you break it down, the fact is, Officer Rice’s actions resulted in the death of Freddie Gray.  If those actions were not voluntary, then they were definitely ‘involuntary’; those are the only two choices, fact.  All of our actions are either voluntary or involuntary, very simple.

     Freddie Gray is or was an African American male who was chased down and arrested while riding his bike in a high crime area.  The officers said he acted suspicious. Um huh.  Freddie Gray was handcuffed and placed in the back of that police van with his legs shackled with no seat belt.  He was then ‘driven’ around violently and tossed about in the back of the van which resulted in his death due to a broken neck.  Supposedly, the violent drive is an old move known by many officers and offenders alike in order to meet out punishment. 

     Putting the seat belt on an offender placed in the back of a police van is a legal requirement.  The law!  As many know, cops are the first to break laws because they know they can get away with breaking the law, they are the law!  The seat belt is known to often be ‘intentionally’ left off in order to make the meted out punishment of a ‘violent’ drive with an offender being tossed around worse and more effective.

     So, Officer Brian Rice used the defense of not knowing that a suspect was supposed to be placed in a seat belt when being put in the back of a police van; Rice was the supervisor.  He claims ‘ignorance’!  Now we all know and any legal advisor can tell you that legally, ignorance of the law is no excuse.  Well, not if you’re a policeman who is supposed to uphold those laws.  Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams declared Officer Brian Rice not guilty of ‘involuntary manslaughter’! I think the word ‘involuntary’ covered this supervising officers ‘ignorance’ of the law.  He didn’t know (wink wink) that he was supposed to place the suspect in a seat belt before he gave him the ‘violent’ toss-around drive, so breaking the guys neck was ‘involuntary’; case closed; GUILTY!

     Now, since this acquittal and not guilty verdict come the morning after three officers are killed in a fringe elements retaliation against the murdering of African Americans by police officers, you have to wonder what motivations are at work here.  Did evil itself incarnate and manifest itself and appear in Judge Barry Williams chambers and tell him to acquit Officer Brian Rice.  Judge Williams has to know the ramifications to our society and the turmoil it will cause if these officers are continually allowed to openly kill African Americans and suffer no consequences.  Did Judge Williams, who is seemingly of African origin get a visit from men in suits who forced him to throw more fire on the flames of one of our country’s biggest problems?  Did he get a call from Chief Uncle Tom Obama where Obama told him, “Just do what I do when it comes to police killing our people, nothing!”

     We have got to do something fast to stop this violence and end this taking of innocent lives on all sides of the coin…  A police officer should not lose his life by simply going to work to protect others.  An African American woman should not end up dead because she tried to pull over and get out of a police cars way without turning on her blinker due to her nervousness.  An African American man should not end up dead from a broken neck received while in police custody due to riding a bicycle in a bad neighborhood.  And last but not least, a young African American kid should not end up shot to death because he went to the store to buy a bag of Skittles. 

     If you find yourself whining about the hashtag and movement of Black Lives Matter then try and tell yourself that you do not understand and tell yourself that you should ‘try’ and understand the centuries of treatment that led all of us to where we are.  The centuries of mistreatment that has led mentally deranged and misguided individuals to take up arms and kill innocent people.  The centuries of this treatment that has led us to scream such a self-centered slogan as Black Lives Matter.  We will make you a deal though.  We, as African American’s, will make the deal that we will never use the Black Lives Matter hashtag or slogan again when you start acting like our lives do matter.  Because the problem right now is simple and anyone with a clear mind can see that problem.  The problem is that to a lot of you, Black lives don’t matter. 

By

Anthonystjoseph

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