But I wanted to take the opportunity to weigh in on an issue that is very pressing in the news, and that is the Trayvon Martin issue. Currently I am a 3rd year law student in Arkansas, after finishing my undergraduate degree at Morehouse College. Being that I am from Orlando, Florida, this issue struck a real nerve with me, and has continued to bother me. They are killing us.
Though we don't know the real facts of what happened that night, and are left to speculation, because there are only two people who know what happened and one of them is sadly deceased. I know that my anger, and truth be told fear, stems from the fact that this is not the first situation in which WE are being killed, and there is either no justice or in the case of police officers, it's ruled a "justifiable homicide." I believe that is where a lot of the anger we see right now is coming from. While the true facts of the case may never be known, when is it that we will not be subjected to unfair police practices, miscarriages of justice, and what's worse is the constant degradation of our image in the media. It's a shame that we see another young black male killed, who is clearly the victim in this instance, and the media wants to drag his name through the mud and try to find every reason that he was at fault for another man shooting him. We saw Geraldo Rivera blame Trayvon and his parents for allowing him to wear hoodies, because allegedly the image that is conjured up is that of a "thug robbing a convenience store." Then we saw Zimmerman's friend on the national media, stating that the issue would have been avoided if Trayvon had simply told Zimmerman that he was visiting his father and his father's fiancé. But why is it that Trayvon is made to be the cause of his own death, he had no gun, he didn't self-admittedly follow anyone that night, and more importantly since when does a person have to identify themselves to another person who is NOT law enforcement. They are killing us, and the media, police, and truth be told white America is allowing these murders to occur. I say again, they are killing us.
Both of my parents still live in Orlando, and I spoke to my mother the other day and her words touched my heart when she told me, "Shad, be careful, I'm afraid for you." As I told you, I'm a 3rd year law student and getting ready to embark on my life's journey, and for my mother to feel it necessary to tell me she is afraid for me, says a lot. I am not and never have been one to "run the streets," I've never been in any amount of serious trouble, and yet my mother fears for my life and my safety for no other reason than the mass murders that are occurring across this nation; and what's worse is the murders that go unreported or get less than a blip on the radar of our national news.
Most recently I saw a report that stated in your own hometown an OFF-duty officer fired five (5) shots out of his car, struck a man in the hand and a woman in the head (she sadly passed away after being held on life support for a few days), and claimed he thought the man's cell phone was a gun. However the man who was shot in the hand stated he was talking on the phone at the time the officer shot. But what's yet worsens the situation is that the Chicago police department stated it was a "justified shooting." There are instances all over, Sean Bell on the night of his bachelor party, 50 shots into an occupied car where there were NO weapons. Amadou Diallo in New York who reached for a wallet. The young man in Oakland who was handcuffed and shot on the train platform. All of these were considered "justifiable homicides." And while three of the officers in the Sean Bell incident were recently fired, that doesn't mitigate the situation in which this innocent man is murdered by the hands of those that are supposed to "protect and serve" not "maim and murder." I say again, they are killing us.
However, I feel the root of the problem is that there are no police for the police. Police no longer fear retribution from their actions. I believe the problem all started back in the 1990's with the Rodney King beating. The fact that videotaped evidence of police brutality was not even enough to get a conviction in a court of law, just allows the police to act and behave with reckless abandonment. Now, though this situation did not directly involve the police; the Sanford police botched the LACK OF an investigation from the beginning. It was a situation in which there was a caucasian looking man as the shooter and a young black "hoodlum" dead, and the police took his word that the shooting was justified. I say again, they are killing us. White America and the media have devalued the life of not only black people, but ESPECIALLY black men to the point that it is almost impossible to get justice if you are not white in this country.
As a 3rd year law student, I have had to complete an upper level writing requirement this semester, my topic is "War on Drugs in America: Directive - Mass Genocide of the Black Male," and in my research I came across a court case which we have all heard of before, Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which a slave was taken to a free state and then back to a slave state and he argued that because he was taken to a free state, he should retain his freedom. Many know that the case was decided against Dred Scott and he was ultimately made a slave again, however, what most don't know is that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for 240 pages gave an exceedingly hateful diatribe against blacks in America, free or enslaved. In the decision the Chief Justice, Taney, stated that blacks were the lowest group on the Earth, and that all persons of African decent cannot be, nor were ever intended to be citizens under the United States Constitution. Taney goes further to say that ALL white Americans and ALL institutions of the United States endorsed his viewpoint, including the President (James Buchanan) and the Congress. Furthermore, Taney says that Native Americans would be granted citizenship rights before blacks and that even they would only get these rights if they are willing to abandon their "savage ways." So essentially Taney states that blacks are lower than the Native Americans, who in his and the rest of white Americas view, are savages. So what exactly would that make blacks?
The problem is, though the Dred Scott case was decided in 1857, we continue to this day to be treated as Taney stated in his hateful rhetoric. We continue to be treated as lower than life and as second class or no class citizens and situations like Trayvon Martin's murder (we have to call it what it is) and the rates by which they continue to lock us up in the nation's prisons (the new age slavery), are just an expression and clear view that no matter how far we think we have come, the permeating view in America is still the same as Taney in 1857. If we can't progress to the point of having a value on our lives in 2012, how can we ever hope to stop the senseless violence which we are being subjected to on a daily basis. I say again, they are killing us.
I'm only 25, and as my mother told me she is afraid for me, I have no children, but to be honest, I think I'm afraid to have a son and bring him in a world where skittles, iced tea, a hoodie, and not talking to strangers can get him murdered in cold blood with no recourse or punishment for the murderer that we can readily identify.
May God continue to bless and keep you.
