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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