I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of watching the news about police beating and killing people. We have watched the news about Rodney King being beaten and no one intervened. Now, we’ve watched Tyre Nichols being beaten and no one intervened. We watched George Floyd having life being snuffed out of him when a police officer kept his knee on his neck. When will it be safe for people to sleep in their own beda and not be fearful of dying by bullets from a police officer or by their hands? When will it stop?
Some people will say, those killed by police officers are simply not complying with police orders. Non-compliance, and being unarmed, is not an acceptable excuse for taking the life of a human being. We have seen even when victims were compliant, they were still killed by police officers, devoid of a sense of right and wrong. When will it stop?
I am not anti-police when those who are honorable, act honorably in all situations. I am anti-killing black folks, when there are other means to deter, behavior. I am against children losing parents when killed by police officers who forget human beings are “human beings” and deserve to be treated as such. I am against parents losing children who were killed by police officers who treated them worse than animals. I am against the senseless loss of life, by those in a position of authority, who choose to misuse and abuse their authority. When will it stop?
We hear all sorts of excuses to justify black on black crime and white officers who kill black victims. We blame the rise in crime across the nation on poverty and illiteracy and lack of opportunities by which anyone could sustain a lifestyle that lifts them, instead of lowering them into a grave. We blame the absence of fathers and the abandonment of children by mothers, the lack of mental health and all sorts of issues, but it appears to me, the greatest factor in the loss of lives at the hands of police or those who “claim to have authority to police others” (George Zimmerman) is the fact that they have forgotten how to treat other human beings. They lack humanity and it’s the lack of humanity, having respect of all people regardless of their situation in life or the color of their skin, that has led to the deaths of those who could have, if given the chance to live, been great in our nation. When will the excuses stop?
