The only people who don’t understand the refrain “how many
deaths will it takes till he knows that too many people have died” seem to
exclusively serve on grand juries. From
Ferguson down to Staten Island our justice system has really failed us. But it’s not just the justice system; it’s
the people that serve in these juries.
To repurpose an old George Carlin line, maybe it’s the people that
suck. How could these grand juries not
indict clear cut killers of unarmed black men?
It just makes no sense. Granted
the Ferguson case had some room (minimal at best) for doubt, but surely not the
Eric Garner murder. He was murdered
plain and simple and the murder was captured fully on camera. That calls for an indictment at the
least. The same calls for Ferguson and
Michael Brown. At least put these
policemen on trial so that the evidence and case can be explored. That’s what the indictment is. It is a start towards justice for the unarmed
black men who were murdered by two police officers. This country has proved once again that life
isn’t fair for those born without white skin (for more on this listen to “Only
a Pawn in Their Game” by Bob Dylan). How
many of these deaths will it take for an indictment? Will there be any justice for the family of
Akai Gurley, another man shot down for absolutely no reason? What will be the breaking point for the
criminal justice system because we the general public have already reached our
breaking point. This reminds me of the
Sandy Hook aftermath where 90% of Americans supported gun control regulations
but the measures still couldn’t pass because apparently the 10% opposed served
in Congress. Today the only people who
aren’t outraged by these murders of black men are serving on grand juries. Even conservatives are coming out for
indictment, like Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News. This is a man who believes that Lincoln shouldn’t
have fought the Civil War but is now coming out in favor of indictment. You can’t get more and cut and dry than this
case. I mean Eric Garner’s death was
ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.
A homicide in my understanding is a synonym of the word murder which
means the unlawful killing of another person.
Did the people on the grand jury not know what that word meant? I guess the only thing to say is that the
answer to this and many questions may be blowin’ in the wind. Blowin’ in the wind indeed.
Stop saying black on black violence or black on black crime,
the phrase reeks of racism. It is just a
lame dodge by people who refuse to look at the real issues like race and
economic inequality. I believe Larry
Wilmore said it best on the Daily Show
when he said we should just call it crime.
I agree with that and wish people would realize that most crime is intraracial. We don’t hear the phrase white on white crime
tossed around now do we? When Bernie
Madoff stole money from Elie Wiesel and Fred Wilpon it wasn’t called a Jew on
Jew crime. I call for a stop of this
ridiculous Fox News term used to avert attention from the real issue of how
minorities in this country aren’t treated fairly and equally. Let’s start with that crime.
Nothing brings out the police like people exercising their 1st
amendment rights and marching against chronic injustice. I was in Grand Central and saw at least 30
police officers rushing to areas with nobody in sight. On the night of the Ferguson non-indictment I
saw three to four rows of police officers with helicopters roving around the
night sky for hours. I can’t remember
seeing this kind of police activity in Manhattan other than the aftermath of
9/11, when they had a real right to be out and about. Police chief Bratton said that the cops
showed great restraint in only arresting 200 protesters. I guess restraint these days means they
didn’t shoot anybody in cold blood. We
need better policing policies in this country and that starts with a more
diverse and representative force coupled with a demilitarization of these
squads. That would be a real step for
progress (I just want to pull the obligatory but true mention that most police
are good cops and blah blah blah). Below
I have a couple of good links to a Bill Maher routine about police militarization
and the Larry Wilmore bit referenced before.
Relevant Links and Articles
Bill Maher Police Militarization
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