I got upset when Trayvon Martin was murdered. I felt some kind of way when Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and so many other lost their lives at the hands of the people who are paid and sworn to protect them. Then there was Freddie Gray. As a resident of Baltimore, I witnessed first hand the effect of police officers extinguishing black lives. The video of Ahmaud Arbery's death broke my heart. He was hunted like wild game..tracked, cornered and slaughtered. And if the video was not shared, the three men who murdered him would in all likelihood would have never been arrested. Atatiana Jefferson and Breonna Taylor...at home, the place where we are supposed to be safest, shot and killed by police. For me, it all came to a head with George Floyd. When I saw that officer kneeling on the neck of Mr. Floyd, I was livid. I won't give him the honor of saying his name, but the officer knelt on the neck of George with his hands in his pockets, casually like he was doing nothing wrong. To find that two other officers participated in kneeling on another human being and a third watched as Mr. Floyd begged, repented, apologized and ultimately crying out for his dead mother before he himself took his last breath.
Protests have been going on since May 26th and still police departments feel that its OK to murder unarmed black people. Jacob Blake, not dead but forever his life has been altered. Walking away with an officer trailing behind with gun drawn at the ready. Mr. Blake, shot in the back, the BACK seven times. Shot seven times in front of his young children. A white boy days later in the same town, armed with a semi-automatic rifle walked down the street after killing two people and injuring another. The police do nothing. Is an unarmed black person is more dangerous than a white man with a weapon of war? Is brown skin a weapon? Is brown skin so powerful that the sight of it can elicit fear in those paid to protect us?
I don't want the police departments defunded. That's not where this is going. I just want to be afforded the same protections under the law that my fellow Americans enjoy. I don't want to be afraid when a police officer pulls behind me in traffic. I don't want to have the fight or flight response when I make eye contact with an officer. I want to feel safe and protected. I want to know that if I call for assistance, I won't become another victim of bad policing.
Protections for police officers who kill and abuse power need to be repealed. Bad officers need to lose their jobs and freedom if they commit crimes while in uniform. The unions that protect them need to be disbanded and bad officers need to get weeded out. I know that most officers are good. They want to do their job without the stigma of the bad cops that do illegal things. That "blue lives matter" chant from those who oppose any police reforms need to understand that "blue life" is not a "life", its a uniform. A uniform worn by people who swear an oath to protect and serve. Police officers have to be held to a higher standard of conduct. Police officers used to be revered. They were respected members of society. That respect in the black community has turned to fear.
I feel that I am in a one-sided relationship with The United States of America. I love my country but she does not show her love for me consistently. In any other relationship it would be deemed emotionally abusive. I do everything to gain approval and acceptance but at every turn, I am spurned. The racism is so deeply embedded into society, that it seems impossible to change, but it has to. For America to live up to her potential, ALL people have to be treated equally. ALL people regardless of skin color. Because we are all people. "Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer...If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?" - William Shakespeare. People are people. I want to be treated like a person, ALWAYS.
I am a black person in America and I matter.
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