Sandra Bland, Michael Brown Jr., Eric Garner and now Sam Dubose.
These are the black lives that might have mattered if they were not quite so black. I'm not actually referring to their skin color, though I'm certain that melanoma played a role in their deaths. I'm referring to their black characterizations that quickly became the narrative reason why losing these lives didn't really matter as much because of THC in the blood, taking or selling tobacco products or driving without a license.
When the young white lady got killed by a Mexican illegal, Fox News ran that story as though little white girls in America are getting accidentally killed by Mexican illegals every day but we just don't hear about it. The criminal that admitted to the crime was sufficiently blackened for his five time, illegal return to America, while the victim and her family were treated with the grace and dignity that they deserved. Her background wasn't publicly besmirched like Trayvon Martin was after George Zimmerman took his life.
The real idea of black lives matter is the notion that a white boy suspected of murdering the Emmanuel 9 gets the kind of dignity that Sam Dubose was begging for when he asked University of Cincinnati police officer Roy Tensing to simply run his name and confirm that he was a licensed driver who lived in the area.
Was Dubose concerned that a minor incident was quickly escalating towards the demise he endured when he tried to start his car and drive away? Officer Tensing was forcibly attempting to remove the driver from his car just as Dubose appears to think to drive away instead of standing clear of the door and requesting the driver to exit the car as is normal procedure with non-violent confrontations. If there was any damage to Tensing's arm that happens from the car pulling away (he claims a tingling in his arm after the incident), it appears to happen after Tensing has already shot Dubose in the head and as his limp body presses on the accelerator which then forces Tensing to the ground when the car takes off. Apparently, driving without your license was concerning enough to this officer to the degree of forcibly figuring out why.
When Walter Scott ran away from an officer for reasons that only he could answer if he were still alive, his fleeing was about to be characterized as fleeing while struggling for the officers taser gun if a video didn't change the story. The video bleached away the blackening of Scott that made the previous explanation of a long distance kill shot from the back plausible somehow.
Black lives matter is an attempt to stop making black people responsible for being church going people who are also in church at the time they get killed type church going people: who also have family that are full of grace and dignity in the face of hate and terror, before we feel the compassion it takes to empathize with the black legislators in South Carolina who reminded us for years that the Confederate message and the flag was both offensive and dangerous.
White Lives and Lion's Lives Matter Too?!?!
Black lives matter is a recognition that no man would persist to achieve something for someone else that they don't insure exists for themselves. Black lives don't seem to matter at times because no lives really matter that much any more. What appears to be white derision towards disadvantaged blacks is more accurately described as subjugation of blacks in the pursuit of the green. Poor people of every color are unfortunate victims of capitalism's engine. Post blackening the reputation of the victims of oppression is often times more about economics than racism. yet to fix this we must recognize that our weakest links are not responsible for the persistence of perception.
This is a hard thing to digest because how exactly do you repair innocent victims from being stuck at the wrong end of the lens? If you have a blackened view of black people, it doesn't matter how pure white or young and innocent they actually might be. Even 12 year old Tamir Rice couldn't get a customary "drop the gun or we'll shoot" command that could have saved his life. Without this horrendous video, God only knows how blackened the reputation of this 12 year old boy would have been beyond the blame of being too old looking and playing with a pellet gun in the park which white boys apparently have never done. Without the bleach of video, Rice would have been blackened with an accusation of pointing the gun at police to justify his killing.
Sam Dubose is the most recent killing and the Cincinnati prosecutor is trying the officer with murder. He probably should be trying for a conviction that could be achieved, like manslaughter because the battle is now over whether or not this black man, who had no license and could have been driving away with the officers hand stuck in the car, deserved to die since the officer feared for his own life. Because of the blackening of people who deserve better, half of America will see this video one way and the rest another.
Black lives matter is the dream of the day when most of us will see Dubose, the only one who didn't have a lethal weapon, fleeing the escalating aggression posed by the only person who did have a lethal weapon and see the exact same thing. What a dream.
I wish I could not relate so easily to young black men who find themselves in
the predicament that Michael Brown Jr. found himself that fateful day he left
to become Michael, an angel.
I aint sayin’ he was an angel during his lifetime. He was human, and he’s likely the kid on the
video who "strong-armed" those cigarillos, which are cigars that are used for rolling
blunts (marijuana joints rolled with cigar skins).
Reasonable accounts have Michael Brown Jr. and Dorian
Johnson stealin’ and thuggin’ the day Darren Wilson took Brown Jr's life. It’s something I might have done myself
on some level or another growing up in places that make you choose one path versus the other. I have certainly seen it live and in living color on many occasions. For many inner city youth, you either follow those who are stealin’ and thuggin’ or you follow those who are mackin’ and
hangin’. I was not properly suited for
either endeavor, so I avoided both and settled on the more traditional route of
sports and school, but so did Michael Brown Jr.
To graduate high school means you shunned enough
distractions to make it through. He did no less than any high school
kid does in the end; he survived and got a diploma and was scheduled to
continue his education.
And then the real tug-o-war began.
The world is a scary place and life will be challenging
under the best of circumstances. Every hood in America is basically the same. On one
corner they are mackin’ and hangin’ and on the other they are stealin’ and
thuggin'. Young black men who live in really tough areas have a duty to insure
that they maintain a tough exterior, even if they would prefer to only do the
mackin’ and hangin’ instead of the stealin' and thuggin' that Michael Brown Jr.
looked to be doing just before he was shot down in the street. Black men who reject both directions learn how to play act either role for survival sake. If the streets know you are aspiring to do more than these hopeless endeavors, the streets will make every attempt to keep you near.
There simply is no way to question the obvious fear that America
has for black men, especially young and dark and big like Michael Brown
Jr. Black men fear one another
too. Turns out that growing up as a
young black man is so difficult, you never know who is handling the task very well,
so you have to be ready to deal with an angry black man at all times....especially if you are one. WE understand black male fear because WE live in it.
The oddest part about facing a scary world is that some
folks decide it’s easier to be scary instead of scared. On some level or another, we all assume this survival posture in life, but few of us do it in such a way to incite felony
convictions or gunfire. If you are an inner city black man,
avoiding felony convictions or gunfire is a magic trick of sorts. It’s
not impossible to pull off, but demands more energy than anybody who is not a
black man quite understands. Growing up naturally insures mistakes. A world
that is inclined to see you as a villain is apt to think you are doing something
wrong, even when you're not. People who prefer to label only work to prove themselves right. Incarceration trends have not matched crime for 40 years.
This story demands speculation and it is often unfair to do much speculation,
but Michael Brown Jr., much like Trayvon Martin, has risen above his own name
and become the symbol of what many poor American’s have said about bad cops for years. Seldom, if ever, are bad cops convicted for the
crimes they commit against regular citizens, so to expect differently is
foolish. Darren Wilson will likely walk, or
he will be given a charge of manslaughter and suspended jail time that won’t
satisfy the angry. If he actually goes
down for Murder 2 and see's real time, this statue becomes a monument that is higher and more significant than any of us have seen
thus far in this age-old debate.
Michael Brown Jr. is the new and improved Trayvon Martin
because the evidence, especially witnesses, have elevated this beyond simple
supposition. This is probability at its
finest, and it is probable that we will have all of the pertinent facts
necessary to achieve a necessary conviction…….yet we still must preserve the
sanctity of policing by not trying to heap years of oppression onto the back of
Darren Wilson.
We (I’m talking to my black folk now) should prepare
ourselves for the necessity of leniency. On that special day when the police force becomes 67%
black in Ferguson because the city is 67% black, those 67% will be YOUR friends
and family members burdened with the challenge of policing desperate
populations in their area. One day the news
report is of the lost life of a citizen, and tomorrow it is the lost life of an off duty police officer who stepped in to calm young folks who decided thuggin’ at a
Jazz festival in Denver City park is a great way to flex your muscle. Not at
all the same topic, but young black men are dying at the hand of a lot of
bullets and the residual casualties are making the whole issue harder to ignore.
Michael Brown Jr. should have never lost his life, but neither
should have Celena Hollis of the Denver police force. I only mention her because when I think of anger towards police, I remember Celena Hollis and her family. Darren Wilson has a family too.
Is one death more emblematic of a bigger
societal problem? Probably!
Yet, if we cause the best of our society to stop sacrificing
themselves to the demands of law enforcement, what kind of new societal
problem will we experience? Police are
something nobody seems to like except everybody that needs one. I can only imagine how frustrating these days must
be to the good cops of Ferguson; having to listen to the anger of some the same people they
had to rescue prior to the death of Michael Brown Jr.
I am not an advocate of disrupting the sanctity of policing, not even for Michael Brown Jr. The spirit
tells me that we won’t have to because Michael Brown Jr., like Trayvon
Martin is a flash point to a greater, long overdue discussion. Our angels for change. Michael
Brown Jr. told his grandpa that the world would know him one day, and he was right.
SquareBiz stands committed to this discussion and all of
America’s important conversations that we have yet to seriously start or
sensibly finish. Rodney King was the
first of this kind; modern day police brutality
caught on camera. While we do not have
actual footage of the Brown Jr. shooting, eye witness
and forensic evidence caused nearly two weeks of street protests and rare federal oversight. Fortunately for Rodney, he lived and L.A. recovered from the destruction it experienced when the cops got
off. Unfortunately for America, the
discussion did not live, as it only revealed how opposed many of us were over
the latitude we believe policing demands and how this flexibility has disproportionately smacked the hell out of brown skinned people. Quickly, we retreated into our
respective corners only to pretend that this was not a fight worth having. After all, Rodney lived.
Michael Brown Jr. did not live, but will his memory die as well?
We have had our head violently yanked from the sand on this
one, but despite oxygen deprivation, it seems we often prefer to shove our head back
where it came. Eyewitness testimony may
be inspiring the black president and his black Attorney General to move with haste, but
the Ferguson mayor, Missouri governor and every presidential candidate who could be forced to
oversee America’s future conversations on race have been slow and silent, much
like racial progress. It’s rather easy to alter the face of racism by turning
your back on it, but in doing so, you have done little to affect historical change and
nothing to lead the change that’s needed today. If leaders chose only to speak
on the importance of respecting our good cops during these angered moments, that
would have value. Silence is a message of another kind.
If we slap a chest camera on every officer
in America is that the license to continue the silent delusion that community policing was not the
solution to begin with? Cities that have
implemented chest cam’s have seen up to 80% reductions in violent policing, but have they
seen a change in attitude? Integrating will help, but does that ultimately mean more
cops, of whatever color, and more jails?
Breaking the tragic cycles of life and prejudice that result in incarceration (or death by cop) should be the greater goals that we look to gain from the senseless loss of
another young black man, but even that places the wrong focus on this
issue. Michael Brown Jr., good, bad or in between should not have been shot that day, so the idea of
mentoring, as suggested by the president’s My Brother’s Keeper comments, lends
itself to the notion that mentoring could have saved the life of Michael Brown
Jr. Six foot four, big black and scary, Michael Brown Jr. needed a cop who saw his
own son, and not some menace to society. America needs this too.
What mentoring could have done is offered a summer program
for college credit that Brown Jr. could have been attending instead of stealin’
and thuggin’, and walking in the middle of the street to go do some mackin’ and hangin'. Seeing a non-athletic, scary black man in college is a visual mentoring of its own kind. In this case, mentoring could have only forced this awful plight on some other black family, at a different time and place, to watch their loved one become the poster child for police brutality
run amok. At the rate of death to young black men by insensitive white cops, this day was inevitable, which also means that some other innocent family of the killer cop would be dealing with whatever the family of Darren Wilson is dealing with in St. Louis. God Bless both families during this trying time.
I know that my white neighbor, the surgeon, did not call it stealin’
and thuggin’ when he too behaved like Michael Brown Jr. as a kid, despite a much more privileged life than Brown Jr., but he always shakes his head when he
thinks about how awful, and how fortunate he was given his travails while coming of age. Imagine the outcry if he'd been killed by police while doing some of the same stuff black kids die for all of the time?
Which lead me to wonder. Could Big Mike have become a world famous surgeon, or was he
always destined to be an angel named Mike?
I disagree. (with my original post) This is clearly an example of murder and I believe the trial will bear that out. One thing that is clearly missing from the discussion is that statistically speaking, a person who legally owns a gun or a conceal
carry permit, is far less likely to commit a criminal act than any demographic.
I am not saying crimes are not committed, but as a whole, they are the most law abiding of all citizens. I don't know many "Stand your ground" supporters that are holding this guy up as a poster boy. He, at least from the coverage, shot an un-armed person, who was not a threat to him.
Zimmerman case is a bit different in that eye witness testimony, along with other evidence showed Zimmerman was at least taking a beating.
If you go to Colorado and you are an adult, you can now legally smoke marijuana. If you travel to Washington, the same is true. Head out to Vegas and there is legal gambling a plenty. The prostitution is not technically legal in Vegas like it is in neighboring Reno, Nevada, but no one seems to care that prostitutes advertise openly in the phone book.
There are states you move to when you wish to have lower taxes on your income and states that have plentiful wild game, along with the freedom to bag a few. If for some reason you are a gun advocate and are sick of crime taking over our streets, you could live in a few states that might cater to your qualms, but none better than Florida. Sunny skies, plush beaches, beautiful people and the kind of stand your ground laws that make you excited to be carrying a weapon.
Did you ever get the feeling that the Keystone pipeline is an inevitable that is getting jammed up for as long as environmentalist can? Guns make me feel the same way. The more people scream about banning guns, the higher sales rise in response. Guns are more than a protected constitutional right, they are a big time business and the line of shoppers seems to never disappear. Anything that inspires big money can only be defeated by bigger money.
Moreover, the voice of those who use guns has made it perfectly clear that we need more guns in the hands of the good guys just to keep pace with the bad guys. We have to stop relying on law enforcement and make everyone a potential enforcer of the law. We must encourage criminals to stop and think about the risk of encountering a person who is prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.
What that means in the end is that we must put our laws where our mouth is by creating an environment that tests the theories. If Florida is going to create a state that starts teaching these thugs to be afraid, Florida must preserve the rights of the vigilante, rights that Florida forged into law. Many rats die in the science lab, but not because no one tried to keep them alive. Florida has to keep this lab rat alive for the sake of the experiment and for the sake of the argument.
Michael Dunn has the weight of a social ideology behind him on this killing. Zimmerman did too, but Zimmerman silenced the only voice that could send him to jail. Dunn has voices to the contrary of his recollection, but they are not fighting for the right to bear arms or the right to use them like Florida lawmakers intended in the making of state gun use laws.
If I had only been so clever as a young man, I would have told mom that I shot my brother with the BB gun because he was walking near me with that same look on his face that he had the last time he beat me up. What does she want me to do? Take the first strike, or protect myself and explain my motives later?
Since the choice involved a gun, mom probably charges Dunn with manslaughter (in accordance with Florida law) and I lose my gun for the summer, or until she forgets she is punishing me. Both punishments will hardly fit the crime....(sorry mom).
Whenever you create laws that protect your use of guns, you run the risk of indisputable vigilantism.
The real surprise is not that we have yet another teen killing in Florida, the surprise is that we don't have more. 'When Michael Dunn gets off for the murder of 17 year old Jordan Davis, we all will get to argue over some peculiar facts. Dunn will get acquitted for rolling down his window and asking the car load of black youth, "are you talking to me?". It appears that they were guilty of playing that "rap crap" a bit too loudly for Dunn's liking. But it was the shot gun that they just so happened to be riding down the street with, which they proceeded to aim at Dunn, causing him to shoot back in self defense. No shotgun was found so Dunn surmises that they got rid of it before they tried to save the life of their friend.
Did Dunn just so happen to have his gun cocked and ready when he saw the shotgun, or did he swiftly respond to the sight of a shotgun by reaching to get his own gun and opening fire before getting one bullet in return fire; especially from a shooter who already had their hand on the trigger of the gun Dunn claims to have stared down the barrel at.
Much like George Zimmerman, he only has sensibility working against him, none of which resides in Florida. Well, to be fair, there might be a lot of sensible people living in Florida. Some might even be on the jury in this trial, but the law that they allowed through intention or neglect has offered an easy way to ease an itchy trigger finger.
You don't have to own guns as an adult to remember your journey with guns. For boys and girls all over the land, our love affair with guns began long long ago, after fulfilling some birthday or Christmas wish.
Your first piece was one of those noise making kind that look pretty fake, but made you feel like a cowboy. These guns are wrought with positives and negatives. The positive is that a kid with a pretty good imagination could spend hours with that noisy crap and never make you worry about damage to anything but your nerves.
The down side is that kids grow up pointing safe guns at the face of one another, which is not a habit that works well when the trigger finally releases more than a noise. Our safe guns became like candy cigarettes; probably okay to have, but an odd behavior to promote.
When I first got a BB gun, I couldn't wait to go outside each morning and try to take out a squirrel or a bird in my area. I tried to be a safe user of the toy, as did my friends, but most of us remember hitting someone in the face with a pellet, or taking one ourselves.
Firing ranges are probably fun, but don't you ever drive around with your legal gun, or walk in an ugly side of town with your permit to carry and think; "I really hope some idiot gives me a reason today"?
No?
Never?
Well, if you never get the urge to wake up early and clean your new assault rifle and stand with it in your front room and imagine that burglar you bought it for, you are better than me. I had to get rid of all thoughts of video games because I get obsessive over new toys. An actual gun would have me dreaming of making one of those internet videos, 'murder of a watermelon'. My first watermelon was a poor squirrel that got the unfortunate luck of my sling shot and a strong wind when it fell from the power line to the ground. (Head trauma.....didn't end well).
I am certain that this has something to do with my aversion to weapons of all kind, yet the depravity did not end there.
That dead squirrel that I accidentally killed on purpose did not cure me. Someone, probably not me, had to finish that squirrel with a shovel and dump it in the dumpster because I made excuses when confronted with what had happened, and I ran from the responsibility in the end. I wasn't quite 7 yet, but I knew better even though killing that squirrel was the reason for making the sling shot. If I got caught hitting a person I would not get to use them anymore, so I practiced on bottles until I thought I could hit an animal.
I missed every animal, until I didn't.
Guns are so dangerous that most states put harsh penalties around the misuse of them. Florida has made it easier to consider the option more readily. Florida has said what all gun rights activist seem to believe, that our problem is not too many guns, its not enough guns in the hands of good people. What that statement declares is that good people, whoever and wherever you are, must start packing a piece and LOOK for an opportunity to do good for your country. If you do not feel safe to act, the very concept of citizens with guns loses its value and purpose.
You see, the theory is that criminals need to start getting shocked when they discover that people will defend themselves and pop a cap in your ass. Once again, this demands the willingness and freedom to shoot first and ask questions later....and not go to prison. You can't claim the power of a gun in the hands of normal people and not make it easier for normal people to use them without hesitation. The people who write these laws are the normal people with guns imagining what they might need from the law when they are forced to pop a cap in your ass.
They are absolutely right in regards to the demands of a law that says shooting people is the way to get bad folks to worry about who has a gun. If you make a mistake in the process, you need only the defense of motive to gain the protection of the law. Even if their theory happens to one day coincide with reduced crime in Florida, the connection to the killing of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, and others before them, and more to come will be coincidental at best.
If Michael Dunn gets convicted to anything, it won't be hard time like some are hoping for. Such a conviction and sentence would shoot a bullet into the intent of this Florida law. A soft sentence like probation and anger management training will preserve the sanctity of this stand your ground law.......and will piss off those looking for justice to high heaven.
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