He said I will fight for your right to protest and I could feel the tears forming. I dont know why I chose finally watching Ferguson/Michael Brown Murder news reports to be tonights insomnia activity. One of the clips I saw was Capt. Ron Johnson the solidly build African-American head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was shoehorned into this situation and seems to have been elected for his ability to sit exactly between a rock (the historically disenfranchised community of African-Americans) and the hard place(the Police in Ferguson who as a group have largely deflected the law). Capt. Johnson started with an apology to Michael Browns family, speaking in uniform as a member of law enforcement in that state. But you know got me, what gave me pause? When Capt. Johnson said to the parishioners ,Ill protect your right to protest my eyes watered up. I had to stop watching and wonder if I was just going to start bawling flat out. If you havent watched all these black people, not just in the last two months, or two years but since lets just say the last twenty or thirty years, watching all these black people, many of whom havent committed a crime, several who committed misdemeanors or were caught in situations where they didnt know they were interacting with police, be killed by law enforcement. If you havent witnessed that through the life of a black, brown or some other variation of Other person, then in some ways frankly youre lucky. Lucky to know youre a citizen of a country that cant get enough talking about Freedom and almost always feels an obligation to protect yours. Do you who are not visually other have to interact with assholes despite being an American? Of course. Do you wonder if the government is not trying to take advantage or misuse your tax dollars, despite your not being an other american? Yes of course. Theres lots of concerns. But usually law enforcement doesnt target you. If someone in law enforcement does target you, you have options, you can seek and expect justice, mistreatment of you will most always only go so far. Thats what hurts. The cop who shot a kid hed probably never met ten minutes earlier is all kinds of idiot. But the entire police force felt it justifiable to back that idiot. Thats a big part of being other usually Black as in this case and most cases. The police backed the murder, the victim was Black.Thats the full on injustice. Its the same damned injustice. Even with a deep tan in the white house. The injustice starts with the precept that an unarmed, (very possibly innocent) brown skinned male is deserving of gun violence. Its an idea promoted across american society and embraced by law enforcement. Then the injustice continues when the officer of the law kills that black male without (we now know) knowing anything about this male. Then the injustice reaches full voice in the chorus of systematic American racism, when those in charge of the Ferguson Police force decide to back the murder. It starts with a racial history and the ideas that come out of it. But to understand the crime, for friends of those who dont, understand a police officer made very bad decisions, over reacted, killed a person he knew nothing about, and then the Police force decided to do everything it could including leaking false information in public media, to protect the murder. Thats what happened. When the Highway Patrol officer told the congregation Ill protect your right to protest they erupted in cheers. CHEERS. Capt, Ron Johnson didnt promise to get justice (he cant alone) he didnt promise to hunt down the murderer (whos not been charged and was allowed to leave the state) he didnt promise to end racism and bias. He said hell defend the crowds American rights, and the people cheered. If you’re anything people refer to as “Black” you know this already. You’ve lived this, near and from afar but always as a member of the group not able to get equal treatment under our law. If you aren’t what people call Black, or married, parented, bonded, brothered and sistered in some authentic way to someone considered as Black, I’m laying this out for you. The crowd cheered, at a member of law enforcement who resembles us, saying that he’ll simply do his job so we could simply have our right to say we’re terribly sad and upset, without us having to fear those we pay to protect us. Because thats not something were used to from American police forces, despite us being American. The speech: mediaite/tv/in-powerful-speech-cpt-johnson-apologizes-to-brown-family-promises-to-stand-by-ferguson/
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 08:18:10 +0000
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