When Open Carry Becomes Open Season

Every time I write about gun violence in the US, I tell myself, This is going to be the last time I cover the subject. As you can see, I just can’t leave it alone. Not enough people are talking about it. Even though incident after disheartening incident keeps the matter in the media, the right things are not being heard. They are being said, but at the same time as other frivolous topics. Therefore drowning out the real conversation. Losing the important post among a bunch of dumb videos in a social media feed.

America. Middle class and lower class, I’m talking to you. Are we fed up, yet? It’s evident to me now that we don’t have enough people with power having these conversations. Let alone doing anything to provide solutions. Nobody has taken a stand and said anything since Colin Kaepernick. Even before him. There was next to nobody speaking out against the brutalities. Nobody marching. Well, that’s not entirely true. Seems like the cool thing to do is respond to police brutality with a cardboard sign that says ” Black Lives Matter.” And about face…

My question is how can a man be supposedly witnessed wielding a firearm, in an open carry state, end up dead behind it? Police have released their own video which shows no gun, no threat, no sense. He walked very calmly away from his vehicle. Posing no threat at all. And ends up dead.

If, in fact, he had a gun, it’s not against North Carolina law. So, what was the problem? Oh, wait. The police said he was waving it at them. Um, the video didn’t show that. The video shows guns being drawn on an unarmed man who later is killed on camera. In front of his wife and other witnesses.

Seems to me the law of the land is not covered for the land a black man stands on. It’s a Catch-22. It’s legal to bear your arms. But they make it seem like it’s a suspect act to do so if you are black, Hispanic, or any race other than white. As cold as it may seem, I don’t share the same rights as many white people do. And, that,  is a huge problem. That is the reason a black man in this country will get pulled over and end up dead for no apparent reason. No threat to justice, no threat to the officer(s), no threat to the public. Well, then. Why?

How many times does this question have to be asked before there is some sort of change? I don’t want an answer, I want a change. Because the question continues to go unanswered. I want a change. I want a change in the attitudes of the law enforcement. I want a change in the training of the law enforcement. I want a change in the way media portrays criminals of color as opposed to criminals who are white. I want a change in society’s perception of us. Just the other day, a white woman called me aggressive. Because I wouldn’t let her take the washing machine I was using at the laundromat. White privilege needs to change.

The plight of a black man in America. Racist views need to change. Well, honestly, they need to vanish. I can remember being in one high school that was predominantly white and experiencing racism, firsthand. I just transferred to this white school because my grandmother thought it would be better for me if I did not study with my own peers. In retrospect, that’s kinda racist, too. Ya know?

She sent me to this school, outside of our city, to white rural America. I had some good times there, some bad times there and some alright times there. Good times were had with old and new friends, alike. The only problem I had with the school was when they tried to expel me for having a C average. A C average? While white students were cutting class and doing drugs right out in the back of the school. They were threatening me with expulsion for getting Cs. As a token of my un-appreciation, I transferred back into the public school system. I was not going to stand for this racist treatment from these school officials.

I went back to the city. I went back to the hood. I went back to the same streets that were policed by authorities who too often than others, took their authority for granted. Officers of the law who acted like they were above the very law they were supposed to uphold. And the streets I returned to were no different than the streets in the news.

The streets where force used by today’s police officers was excessive. Excessive or exceptional? Or even acceptable, for that matter. Is it out of hand or do criminals deserve these penalties?

First. Let us take a look at the word criminal. A person who has committed a crime. Plain and simple. A person. Not a black male as the media leads us to believe. When speaking of criminals, the media always equates that story with a black male.

But, when the report is of a person breaking the law, the description is anything but black male. It has been Asian, Indian, Puerto Rican. Almost every time—a white male.

Now, when police respond to crime scenes, they appear according to the description they’ve been given. Someone breaking the law. They show up calm. Ready to cuff. Serve and protect. Because the suspect might be white. Someone described as a criminal. Guns get drawn, SWAT team is called. They show up. Ready to kill. Cease and desist any and all problems. By any means necessary. I wouldn’t even be surprised if this synchronicity existed in their training manuals.

This has gotten me worried. Worried senseless. I am losing more and more of my marbles each day.

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