Body cameras are important, but shouldn’t precede a federal mandate of minimum consequences for police officers who, without cause, murder citizens.
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Like Bill Murray’s character in “Groundhog Day,” I dread waking up knowing that a series of events which I already experienced will repeat itself.
In my world, the days look exactly the same, except there’s almost always a different name appearing as a hashtag on Twitter, a now routine way of memorializing African-Americans and people of color killed by police.
Instead of the alarm clock going off at a certain hour playing the same old song, a notification is sent to my phone, as breaking news, alerting me that a police officer has either mishandled, brutalized or killed an African-American or person of color, or that they’ve been cleared of any-wrong doing after indulging in the aforementioned.
There’s almost always a call for calm and I’m sure to hear, at least once a day, about an open investigation somewhere that’s not really open to the public.
There are always people in the street demanding justice and there will most certainly be bureaucrats looking on in fear and confusion, but mostly indifference.
Like clockwork, a well-intentioned reporter or active citizen, already knowing the answer to their inquiry, will ask me how I feel about the repetition of racist rampage that have consumed America’s consciousness.
I keep my ear to the ground all day waiting to hear the line “I feared for my life” from a cop, which comes at different times but is sure to sound off, and sleep doesn’t overtake me without my eardrums being treated to either a chant of “Black Lives Matter” or a lecture from a cable talking head advising African-Americans and people of color how to survive a traffic stop.
It has become clear to me that the solution to life’s monotony, for me and others who share in my reality, is revolution, which in this context means a stark removal from the norm of everyday life and politics.
For example, in addition to making our slain brothers and sisters into hashtags, let’s use their name in the halls of power to represent bold, progressive and anything-but-normal legislation.
Instead of a call for calm to those oppressed, let’s issue a call for outrage from those who are indifferent.
Rather than having the Federal government mandate a body camera policy to mitigate ambiguity in investigations of officer-involved shootings, we should push for laws that will erode the culture that enables a Cincinnati University police officer, while wearing a body camera, to engage is gross misconduct, lie about it and then have his colleagues validate his fable.
Body cameras are important, but they shouldn’t precede a federal mandate of minimum consequences for police officers who, without cause, murder citizens. America’s routine must evolve from responding to tragedies to, by any means necessary, preventing them.
And to be clear, every man or woman who’s been unjustly killed by a police officer is a tragedy and these tragedies could mostly certainly have been avoided if there was culture that shames and severely punishes police misconduct.
For #SamDuBose, #SandraBland, #BrandonTateBrown, #MikeBrown, #TanishaAnderson and the countless others who’ve been slain by police violence, let’s break our own and America’s routine and accelerate the revolution, because, at this point, it’s the only solution.
*Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening during the 6 o’clock hour to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
Thanks. It did show up in moderation status. Cool with that
There were 2 comments here Chris. Not just one. I’ll assume it’s still in moderation and when realized no offense will be published
Chris. You’re a smart guy. You know as well as I that prosecutors charged this cop because of bad publicity. They have no Co Jones to determine the facts because of it stinks. A hard job they will never do in this political climate. And because they do this the treat black people like unruly children. It’s disrespectful but if this is what black people truly want then it’s truly a sad state of affairs for them.
You can surmise all you want Chris but you just committed a fatal flaw of civility. One you despise from the start. Being jury judge and executioner of the Cincinnati officer and his peers without giving a fair hearing to. It all. Your end result may be correct but your means to get there are not. I agree with a revolution of deposit the oligarchs. You think it’s only about black folk but in truth they are indifferent to all of us. The American aristocracy of clinton’s, bush’s, reid’s and Pelosi. R or DVD doesn’t matter but they convince the… Read more »