Following the senseless murders of Mr. Alton Sterling – a 37 year-old Black father who while selling CDs outside a convenience store on the early Tuesday morning of June 6th was killed by Baton Rouge police officers after he allegedly attempted to reach for a gun – and Mr. Philando Castile, another Black father who on the following day was shot and killed in front of his family by a police officer in Minnesota following a traffic stop for a broken taillight, many African-Americans I spoke to, beside being consumed with rage, frustration and confusion, expressed a deep feeling of helplessness.
What am I to do when faced with government tyranny? I want to affect change to ensure this doesn’t happen again, but where do I start?
Those two questions in one wording or another was posed to me by a number of folks in the aftermath of gruesome acts of state violence which reignited nationwide #BlackLivesMatter protests and the conversation on how some police officers interact with communities of color.
Those questions are great ones, but they unfortunately get quickly overshadowed in our society, and in our media, by inquiries of race and hate. Said another way, because we focus so much on whether or not these police killings are motivated by racism, and whether this level of disregard for life would be shown for a White body, we often lose sight of the more pressing problem: the unequal distribution of power between police and citizens.
The power of an officer and the lack thereof among the citizenry is a reality that can be altered logistically and legislatively much faster than eradicating anti-black racism. In these moments following state violence where we experience profound sadness and righteous indignation, our desire is to figure out how to ensure it doesn’t happen ever again, and rightfully so. It’s a natural reaction, but it doesn’t mean it’s the correct reaction for the context.
The context is that police officers, who many Americans have been socialized to believe are infallible heroes, hold the power of life and death within their discretion and those they encounter on the street or roadside are legally defenseless to their sovereignty. Until that power dynamic is changed, these killings, like that of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile, will continue, and so will our sadness, fear, anxiety, and appetite for retribution.
When someone has power over you, and you don’t have the power to defend yourself, you will likely be abused, that’s what history has shown to be true. Regardless of what’s in that person’s heart – hate, love or indifference – absolute power corrupts absolutely. If our desire is to truly change the context in which we live, we must begin with a conversation about power, and checks and balances within the American policing infrastructure.
For starters, we have to ask different questions of our lawmakers, or as some may see them, our oppressors. Instead of an inquiry like: “What are you going to do to stop police killings?,” a more direct questions is “Are you comfortable with the fact that citizens are have no recourse in real-time to defend themselves from an officer who is acting with unreasonable aggression?”
The latter question – beyond organically enabling a follow-up inquiry no matter what side the response falls on and making the lawmaker disclose their personal standing on the issue – explicitly illuminates a variable able to be altered and forces the lawmaker(s) to confront it.
Secondly, we need to force an honest discussion about threat neutralization. Because if neutralizing a threat is really the goal when a police officer is faced with grave danger or is in fear for his/her life, that can be accomplished without a bullet. Why don’t police officers use, instead of a gun, high-power tranquilizers that can immediately stop a person in their tracks without the risk of loss of life?
The aforementioned could be an answer to this problem, but American policing, and the role of the lawmakers which empower that arm of government, often goes under-scrutinized and unchallenged by the public, and it’s that concession of power to the state – more so than racism, because White people are killed and brutalized by cops, too – that enable these police killings.
We must protest and display our anger at police, but we must also confront, with equal energy, the entire system of government and challenge its very existence and purpose for being. We, the people, must set a new standard for policing and demand it be carried out with fidelity. We, the people, must reclaim our power from the bureaucrats and institutions of government and be unafraid in well-doing.
We can no longer afford to feel helpless in our communities and live in fear of our lives. A change to this context must come, but, we, the people, must also keep in mind that change is not simply an occurrence but rather an outcome of the relentless pursuit of it.
CORRECTION: This post originally mis-stated the context in which Mr. Sterling was shot. The article said he was on his stomach with an officer’s knee in his back; that was a mistake.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™