The American justice system has been broken for a long time. It's been broken long before I was born, and it will remain that way as long as those who control it hold racist and/or ruthlessly capitalistic views. I'm warning you now that this may not be the most eloquent and I will run off on a tangent, but I will try and tie it together at the end.
The recent events of the Mike Brown & Eric Garner verdict, coupled with my views of race relations in America has lead me to the belief that being black in America is considered a stain. Being black and poor is even worse.
Now do I believe my skin color is a stain? No. My race, my complexion, my bloodline is a thing of unparalleled beauty. I look upon our people and see kings, queens and gods walking the earth. Unfortunately I also see the fallen. Some of the damage done by our own hand, but the hands of others have also contributed to our demise. Blacks in America have gone from property to second class citizens, to citizens. But the one thing we've always been, was a target.
Ask yourself how President Obama, the most powerful man in the free world(or so we'd like to think) has been one of the most openly disrespected president we've ever seen. Political colleagues, and the general public have taken their shots. I'm not an Obama supporter(for my own reasons) but to deny the existence of a racist undertone from some of his political colleagues would be a flat out lie. His color is a stain in many of their eyes. Never heard of a presidential candidate asked for verification of his U.S.citizenship. I can't recall any past presidents having their daughters (ages 13 & 16) likened to tramps at a bar.
I can list a few more rich or powerful black figures that have been treated unfairly strictly on the count of race (Magic Johnson, Oprah, Jay-Z), they've all encountered it. We can look at pundits, critics or your nearest YouTube comments section and it'll be littered with the most vile slurs. I don't feel particularly sorry for those I've mentioned, because they've made it past the biggest hurdle in America, poverty.
If being black is a stain, then being poor in America is a crime, and prison is big business. It doesn't matter what color you are.
There's a level of respect that comes with wealth. You live well, dress better, and your values maybe different because frankly your world is vast, you're exposed to more. You're treated differently, with a certain reverence, depending on the circle you're in. There are issues that you can focus on that you otherwise wouldn't be able to, if you were poor. Money isn't happiness, money is freedom, and that gives you to chance at happiness. Everyone wants to be wealthy or least comfortable, doesn't matter what color.
You can live with being black and affluent, because that at least makes you a citizen. But when you're black and poor, you're no citizen, you're cattle.
Eric Garner was black and poor.
Mike Brown was black and poor.
Both were killed in circumstances that would ultimately not exist if the system was built egregiously unfair. A system that has historically targeted your race and socio-economic class with equal force. A system that wasn't designed for us.
Systemic poverty affected their values, the choices they made, as well as Police treatment. Their skin color made it only easier for the police to get away with it.
Since the Mike Brown situation is shrouded in doubt, with the one blatant fact that he was unarmed and several feet away from Darren Wilson, lemme tackle some arguments that I've heard about the Eric Garner incident.
He was breaking the law:
Selling untaxed cigarettes is a crime, but so is selling fake mortgages. Where's the eagerness to arrest the folks that sent the country into a tailspin? Was any one arrested? I wonder if they resisted arrest
would they have gotten choked? What's funny is that in the video, the police were responding to a fight, a situation that Eric Garner diffused prior to their arrival.
An unhealthy diet and pre-existing conditions lead to his death:
I hope by pre existing, you mean the fuckin knee that the cop had in his back along with having his face pressed against the concrete.
*I could make a case about his years of eating genetically altered food approved by our government, as well as not being able afford shopping at Whole Foods, which isn't as readily accessible in his neck of the woods, like any fast food spot, but that's weak.
He could have resisted:
He could've. But watching the entire seven minute video (not the 30 seconds that they show on TV) you saw that Eric Garner was frustrated. The cops that arrested him, knew him. They harassed him, if what he was doing was so terribly wrong then he would've been arrested every single day. But like every shop that sells loose cigarettes or fake bags in China town, the cops pick and choose who to harass.
Eric was fed up because he wasn't killing anyone, he wasn't stealing. He purchased the pack of cigarettes he decided to resell. A product that knowingly kills you, but since you can tax it, it's all good.
He was simply tired of the harassment. He had six kids, he hustled, just like the cops hustle for overtime by arresting people and call it cleaning up the streets.
He was tired because all he was trying to do was keep his head above water so that he and his family could breathe. But like he told the police officers, 11 times, I Can't Breathe.
We can get into the logistics of the actually arrest and say that the chokehold was not a legal maneuver. Some might say that once it was a applied, Eric could've laid down. But if he moved forward, the cops grip would've tightened, leaning backward ultimately swayed him off balance because the murde- I mean officer was shorter and was pulling him backward. So explain to me again how can a man simply lay as soon as he was put in a hold like that?
I'm not gonna make Eric Garner or Mike Brown out to be saints, when you're living in hell, how can you be? But I shouldn't have to make a case for them to have rights.
Basic human rights.
Eric Garner had a right to live. He had a right to voice his physical distress and have a cop do his job and monitor his condition so that excessive injury doesn't occur(that falls under the guidelines of serve & protect). He wasn't a savage, thug, or mental patient. It's sad.
Jesus, he was killed on video.
There's a hash tag floating around that says "Black Lives Matter". And while all lives matter, black lives have unjustly swirled in the oceans, soaked the roots of trees, and stained the concrete far too long. Police brutality is real and the country has turned a blind eye.
When a man can be killed on video, his death ruled a homicide and still not get an indictment, something has to change. It starts now. It starts with us.
