Cops, Shootings, & Jesse Williams Speech

I have rarely commented on racial issues as they tend to be ravenous topics that are hot beds of very strong opinions across the board.  You cannot seem to comment without being labeled a 'racist' or 'you have not lived it' or some other response discounting your opinion on the matter.  Either way, in this blog, I am going to express my thoughts as I see them.

First, let's admit there is racism and it is everywhere.  I truly believe every person at one point or another has done or said something racist.  That goes for all of us.  The issue is something that we'll need to work on for the forseeable future.  We need to have very public discussions about racism without being labeled one if your opinion deviates from a politically correct answer.

And before I get started, just a short historical note...the human race began on the African continent. Over millions of years people spread across the globe.  Before you assume your a tad better than someone else, just remember where we all started.  We have more in common than you can possibly imagine.

Over the past year, I have seen the "Black Lives Matter" movement grow.  I have seen several police shootings shown on TV and culminating in the killing of the Dallas police officers last week. I hope we can all agree..first and foremost, violence is not the answer.

Here's a hot potato right off the bat...we need to focus on ALL lives matter.  Regardless of being white, black, asian, or hispanic...we all matter.  Some will state I do not get the point, that I am hindered by the color of my skin.  If that is true...then you are as well.  Points brought up include that African Americans are disproportionately poorer, more likely to be targeted by police and arrested, and more likely to attend poor or failing schools. All of these social indicators place one at greater risk for being either a victim or a perpetrator of violent crime  Yes, I get that.  We change the system! Enhancing BLM while not addressing all of us is not going to work.  I still believe all lives matter.

The police.  Many shootings of unarmed African Americans are WRONG, unjustified, and the officers or offenders must be proscecuted to the full extent of the law.  Did the officer have a racial bias?..Do not care if he did or did not.  He wrongly used excessive force, took a life and must pay for that.

Let's also note that many of these shootings are not black or white either.  We may not have the evidence a jury or judge has.  We may not have background on the situation or what was going through the officer's mind at the time.  Let's be clear...some of these shootings were probably reasonable under the circumstances.  Not all...but some.

Freddie Gray...Died in the back of a police van.  Handcuffed.  No seat-belt.  I'll leave this to the judge and jury.  What was the offense to begin with?  Do they routinely have arrested individuals placed within a seat belt in those vans?  I believe this was a mix of white and black officers on the scene. This one is not so clear to me.

Alton Sterling.  Looks like a pretty clear case of excessive force.  Pinned down and certainly unable to fire a weapon but shot nonetheless.  This is awful news.

Philando Castile.  Shot while in a car.  Was licensed to carry a weapon.  Officer says he told him to not reach for anything.  He did.  He was shot.  I assume he was searching for his identification and not his gun.  To me...at this point...pretty compelling case for excessive force.

Eric Garner.  Chokehold by officers leading to death.  Sickening to me.  Totally unnecessary unless I missed the boat on this one.  Excessive force personified.  Hope the officers pay for this.

Sandra Bland.  This one to me is a mess.  Was she confrontational?  Did she assault the officer?  She did have high levels of weed in her blood but is that relevant?  Was it a suicide?  We will never know the answer to this one but I'll defer to the police without more information.

Trayvon Martin.  Shot by George Zimmerman.  This one is awful.  Clearly in my opinion Mr. Zimmerman was looking for a confrontation and got one.  He should be on death row for this.

Michael Brown.  Shot by officer in Ferguson, MO.  Since we have limited evidence but indications that Mr. Brown was inside the officers vehicle tusseling from the outside of the window when he was shot seem valid.  All those that said he held up his hands were later found not credible.  The US Dept. of Justice investigation collaborated the officer's story and no charges were brought.  Still a sad case.

When a crime is committed by police, they must be held accountable.  Also, those that engage in a criminal act must also be held accountable.  In terms of police treatment...it should be 'treat others as you would have them treat you'.  It should not be a colorized issued.  I understand that might be a 'wish' I have and that everyone sees through glass colored lenses but we are all human.  This recent bevy of shootings is sad.  Sad for the victims and families of those shot.

Killing police is not the answer either.

Finally, I would like to take issue with some of Jesse Williams recent 2016 BET speech.  While I understand his frustration, some of the comments he made I just did not agree with.

Mr. Williams states "a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do." Let's be honest here, there are as many poor and improverished white families who suffer with the current system.  I understand the inner city issue is predominately African American but in fairness, many poor white communities are in the same condition.  I believe he is trying to compare white surburbia to inner city life which is not a fair comparison.  Is that more of a 'rich' vs. 'poor' consideration?  Might we compare it to poor farming communities as well?

Mr. Williams goes on and says "Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours."  Are you serious?  Yes, recent published events center on white officers shooting black people but white officers are also shooting white people everyday.  Are you really saying police 'don't kill white people?'  Outside of the media frenzy, I believe the Washington Post reported that the data does support that whites are killed more often but as a percentage of the population, African Americans are.  I just do not see his argument doing anything but inflaming the situation.

Then we have "Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich."  While many shootings are un-justified...is one in which a child is brandishing what looks like a pistol...with the toy orange tip indicating its a toy...removed and playing with it in a public park worth bringing up?  I may not have all the evidence but I doubt you do either.

Jesse then gets ready to close with "we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit."  What does this even mean?  Culture.  So if a white woman wears cornrows...it's offensive but if a black woman straightens her hair out then it's not?  Cultural borrowing has been ongoing.  Was Chuck Berry stealing when he started doing rock and roll music?  Was Eminem stealing when he started doing rap?  Demeaning your creations, discarding bodies like strange fruit.  Damn.  I would argue Mr. Williams only inflames the situation.

That's all I have for now.

2016 Police Shootings

I may take some backlash for this opinion but then that's what life is all about isn't it?

In terms of all the recent shootings by police of unarmed blacks...we can all agree that many of them clearly cross the line.  The most recent two...Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana really do look like an over-extension of force.  We'll need to wait until the facts are in to confirm that what we saw in the video was a fair representation of what occured.  The sheer video evidence is compelling.  For the sake of law enforcement, I hope they have additional evidence to show a threat existed before using deadly force.

Unless additional evidence is released, those officers guilty of excessive force should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  The only way that all of us will trust the police is if they have a fair and methodical process in dealing with all of us...white, black, hispanic, etc.

Now to bring perspective to this...not all of these shootings are unjustified.  Many of the victims did have guns or toys that looked like guns or acted in such a way as to threaten the life of an officer. Under those conditions, the shooting is justified.  Of course, the courts will determine the viability of that defense in some cases but it is worth noting that not all shootings are unjustified.

That said, the targeting of police officers in Dallas, TX is wrong.  This is tantamount to a mass murder spree.  It is astounding.  Those officers gave their lives helping others get out of the way. They did nothing wrong.  Targeting police is not the answer.

For a little context:  In 2015 Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks. According to data compiled by The Washington Post.  50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black.  More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks. According to MacDonald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers.

That's not to say we do not have criminal cops on the streets but let's keep it in perspective.