Police brutality has surfaced and resurfaced as an issue over the last year. Each new case of an officer brutally beating or killing another human being, regardless of their race or religion, brings with it more protests, more excuses and more public anger. Yet, these officers, without a hint of regret, are acquitted of all charges again and again.
In the media, videos of police violence play on a loop almost daily, from the moment we wake until we go to bed. The latest example in Baltimore, I will not discuss in detail as it has been in every newspaper and television news show for days now. And I feel that the continued naming of the victims publicly only makes it that much harder for the friends and family of the murdered to heal.
With each new shooting or brutalization, the same routine plays out again and again. The video plays on the news repeatedly, the suspect's criminal history is broken down and examined in detail, as if this is an excuse for an officer being the judge, jury and executioner in every new case.
It's as though by examining the criminal history of each new victim, who's deaths at the hands of police officers we find disturbing, that we can somehow give ourselves some relief by collectively excusing the systemic corruption within criminal justice system by blaming the victim.
But the truth of the matter is that each and every one of us who doesn't fight back, whether through words or actions, are complicit in every new case of brutality, every police shooting, every aspect of an institution steeped in violence and racism.
We are equally guilty every time we participate by listening to the talking heads and pundits in the news media. Those who discuss with a faux expertise, the criminal background of the victims of police violence as if that absolves the police of any and all responsibility in the murder of black men and women.
It doesn't matter what crime a person may or may not have committed. It doesn't matter whether the victim was unemployed or not. It doesn't even matter whether the victim ran from the police or not. No one. I mean absolutely no one, has the right to take another women or man's life.
Whether the killer is a police officer or a neighborhood watch member, no one has a constitutional nor moral right to be an executioner. Anyone who kills another person who poses no immediate threat should be arrested, judged by a jury of their peers and imprisoned for committing such a heinous, hate based crime.
Indeed, it is up to each and every one of us to stand up and say, "No More Death! Black Lives Do Matter!"
Change isn't something that just happens. Change comes when a movement gathers enough popular momentum, when the anger is so pervasive as to interrupt the lives of those in power. When those in power can no longer ignore the cries of the Black community, who far outnumber the powerful. Only then will change come. And that is something we are all responsible for whatever our race or religion may be.
UPDATE:
As I alluded to earlier, the power of the people to put pressure on those with power, can and will be what leads to change. Today, May 1st, Six of the arresting Officers involved in the Baltimore incident have been charged with Homicide.
No woman or man needs a gun to hold power, nor do they need money to hold power. Violence and money may hold weight in some arenas, but today, The People held the power by protesting an unwarranted, unnecessary death. They stuck together, they made their voices heard and now justice will be served.
Thank you to the many residents of Baltimore for showing the world how to take power and wield it against those who would see us powerless and weak.