Tuesday, April 28, 2015

"Thug Life" meets Quiet Riot in Baltimore

Sigh. Another day, another guy who dared to be black around law enforcement and fatally got his spine nearly severed among other injuries after being in police custody.

Wait, that implies a casual nonchalance that doesn't express the infuriating horror of this atrocity. So let me start again with a statement that is more reflective of yet another African American slain by cops

FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!! (And damn the racist ass-wipes for making me bust out the ALL CAPS like a disgruntled 12 year-old YouTube viewer!)

God dammit! It wasn't that long ago when I did a post on Walter Scott's murder. Since that short amount of time, there multiple high-profile cases of police brutality toward black men (and reports are surfacing that Baltimore has had particular bad problem with this issue. And not just with men as victims either. But I can't underestimate how "thuggish" an 87 year-old grandmother can be.)  And these are just the high-profile abuses that has happened within this month alone! This has become SO WIDESPREAD that's getting hard to keep track of them all. I'm sure I'm missing a few. This really is becoming like a "rite of passage" for black folk, where it seems like we are all just waiting for it to be "our turn" to be a victim of cop abuse. (Trivia Challenge: if I didn't provide a link would you even know which instance of police brutality i was even talking about?)

Since the Baltimore killing resulted in a protest that turned into a riot, I'm going to focus on the Freddie Gray case for now. As per usual idiotic commentators are spending all there time blowing the usual media dog-whistle about out-of-control "thugs" (of course)  who deserve to be met with violence (irony!) with Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake getting in on the fun. I am anti-riot, people (it accomplishes very little but getting innocent people from the very communities victimized caught in the crossfire; the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot to make a point.) I understand why breaking windows and looting stores is going to get condemnation. However rioting is a response. A bad response sure, but a response, nevertheless. It needs a catalyst to erupt like it does. It doesn't just spontaneously combust.  If history is indication, this will then be used to dismiss and belittle the legitimate anger at cops critically injuring people in their custody with little concern for their very humanity. As I said in a few message boards about this issue:

Aw, but the real question that citizens should be wondering is if these people will refer to the cops that way. I'm just saying that dealing with police brutality would solve two problems for the price of one.

Basically, let's not be tempted to lose sight of who the "dangerous thugs" actually are.



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