All across the United States, for the past few years, there’s been Unarmed-Civilian, after Unarmed-Civilian, murdered at the hands of Law-Enforcement. The reasons why these individuals were killed in cold-blood were never justified, the Police-Officers involved were always either acquitted of all charges against their victims, served with only minor-sentences, or not even indicted for their crimes against Humanity & Citizenry. When we observe these trends of violence, based solely upon ethno-cultural, socio-economic, socio-political circumstances, especially after the advent of the Obama-Era, an historic time in America where People have allowed themselves to believe that since there’s a Non-White President in the Oval-Office, that all is now right with our United States. But, then, ever since Obama’s been a President, it seems as though there’s been an even more blatant presence of Hate-Crimes against Citizenry, committed by Law-Enforcement, during the Obama-Years.
Which brings us to the title of this article: Lynchings without Nooses-Back in the days, from about the 1870’s to the 1970’s in America, the Noose was the most common scare-tactic & weapon of choice, for the racist White-Establishment in the United States, against all Non-Christian/Non-White Peoples, courtesy of the Ku Klux Klan. However, now, within the past 4-decades, it’s not been the Noose that’s killed significant numbers of Black/Latino/Non-White, Urban-Youth, instead, it’s been a Policeman’s Gun. Now, instead of People being fearful of the sight of a Klansman’s Burning-Cross, they’re afraid of the sight of a Policeman’s Badge.
From Florida, with the murder of Trayvon Martin…to Ferguson, MO, with the murder of Michael Brown…to Staten Island, NY, with the murder of Eric Garner…to Santa Rosa, CA, with the murder of Andy Lopez…to Cleveland, OH, with the murder of Tamir Rice…every channel you watch on the News, every article you read in the Papers, every Internet-Search: there’s something reported and/or written about yet another Person being shot/killed by Law-Enforcement. There’s several things wrong with this blatant “Open-Season” mentality, which Law-Enforcement has, when attacking Citizenry. And, I know that there are Community-Leaders, Politicians, members of Law-Enforcement, etc., who try to sweep this reality under the rug. But, things are just too obvious to ignore. And, the People who are members of the most demographically marginalized ethnic-groups in the United States are taking things to the streets, in almost every major city in America: there are rallies, protests, riots everywhere.
It’s very easy for People who aren’t members of these marginalized demographics, and/or hail from well-appointed places in Life to say, “Stop the Violence”, “Stop the Protests”, Stop the Rioting”, when these same People aren’t the ones being subjected to the atrocities that their fellow Humans across the United States face on a day-to-day basis, which is Racial-Profiling. You can sugar-coat the reality of Racial-Profiling with Police-Officers “just doing their duty” all you want. But, the news-stories don’t lie. Year after year, we hear the same types of stories: Unarmed-Person shot by Police. This story has been told for decades, and generations. How many more funerals for Unarmed-Civilians have to be attended, how Fathers & Mothers have to mourn the losses of their Children to Police-on-Civilian Violence, how many more Police-Officers are going to either get acquitted of any/all crimes against Citizenry or not even get indicted for these crimes?
The voices of Citizenry can be clearly heard, yet Politicians, Law-Enforcement Agents, Presidents, refuse to listen to the complaints & cries of the People, and this is exactly how revolutions begin. Even with the recent indictments & prosecutions of the Baltimore Police-Officers who held Freddie Grey against his will, and caused him to die in Police-Custody. How far will this really go: will these Officers receive another slap on the wrist, courtesy of yet another puppeteered Kangaroo-Jury, selected to acquit yet another group of Police-Officers, to send yet another message that Law-Enforcement is above the Law? Until then, let’s all just keep in mind that Justice for all requires us all to be impartial, unbiased, and willing to fight to erase Oppression from our Societies.
