We are six days into the month of July, already cops have killed 15 people in the month of July alone, in six days. Why is this not a major headline? Alton Sterling became the 558th person killed by the police so far this year and we are barely half way through the year.
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Why isn’t this major problem, a huge topic for the upcoming election? The headline could read something like: "Citizens are Being Used for Target Practice"! Or, "Are You Safe Driving in Your Car?" Why is this not considered domestic terrorism? Citizens are not safe and it is those who swore to protect and serve; they are the ones harassing and murdering innocent people.
During the Fourth of July holiday weekend, a 21 year old recent college graduate gassed up her car, with the daunting task of driving from VA back home to CA. Suddenly, she was stopped by the police, not once, not twice, but three different times she was stopped by the same police officer in less than 30 minutes. After the third time she was handcuffed and arrested for reckless driving. She is currently still in jail and being held with no bond, most likely because she has an out of state license. Her mother had to fly into town from California and get a lawyer after getting a call from her daughter, after her daughter was in custody for more than 15 hours. Kai Kitchens, as I type this, is still waiting to see a judge and is still sitting in a jail cell and has been for days.
What is wrong with our country? What is going on right before our eyes? We type articles all the time about trips to take and tips on how to do this and that, but right now a 21 year old girl, who has never been in trouble, and does not have a criminal record is being held in a jail cell for days with no bond because of a traffic ticket? Can a cop even stop you over and over like that?
Even as I type this, I just watched the press conference of a 15 year old boy breaking down and weeping as he mourns the loss of his father who was publically executed on the streets by police. Alton Sterling is now the latest justice for hashtag. He was tackled, wrestled to the ground, arms stretched out and then shot point blank range. Executed. Similar to a lynching that happened often in public market areas.
I am literally sick to my stomach. There are people out there actually arguing and saying the police were right. What happened to humanity I asked myself, but then I remember. It has never been about humanity in this country.
Slavery did not end because of humanity, despite how the story has been told. Slavery ended because the south was becoming too rich and powerful and the North was not. Freeing the Africans was the only way to make things more even. The south did not agree - wanted to succeed and become their own country, thus the civil war.
Emmett Till was 14 when he was tortured, mutilated and killed for the world to see. Yet it took the work of many boycotts along with marches and protests to finally get what appeared to be equal rights, at least on paper.
Historically, revolutions happen when the oppressors fear for their lives or fear for their money being lost.
Maybe if instead of taxpayers paying these large settlements on behalf of the police for these wrongful deaths (murders) ,maybe the funds should be taken out of the police retirement funds. According to a Huffington Post article by Nick Wing, Taxpayers in Baltimore paid $5.7 million between 2011-2014 to settle for police misconduct money that could have been used elsewhere.
So we are being targeted, many are being held in jails where they do not belong and some are dead for what these cops are allowed to do. Then, to add insult to injury we (taxpayers) have to foot the bill?
What are we left to do? What are our options? Marching and protesting is not enough. People are still out here getting murdered. Rioting, that only feeds into the stereotype that we are animals and gives the cops more reason to kill more of us.
Let the law prevail, right?
Trayvon Martin = No conviction.
Sandra Bland = No conviction.
Kathryn Johnston = No conviction.
Eric Garner = No conviction.
Rekia Boyd = No conviction.
Amadou Diallo = No conviction.
Sean Bell = No conviction.
Mike Brown = No conviction.
Kimani Gray = No conviction.
Kenneith Chamberlain = No conviction.
Travares McGill = No conviction.
Tamir Rice = No conviction.
Aiyana Stanley-Jones = No conviction.
Freddie Gray = No conviction.
Oscar Grant = No conviction.
Justice seems like something we will never get from the courts. Over and over and over and over again. Mother’s cry, kids left without a parent, DA’s call grand juries, no charges, no convictions. If it does go to trial, everyone walks.
People are tired. People are sick and tired. Tired of marching, tired of hashtags and battling it out in comment sections on Facebook.
“Even with videotaped evidence of police destroying black people, many freedom-loving Americans remain unconvinced of a systemic problem.”- Jesse Williams
