A couple of days ago in Staten Island, New York a Large Black Man was placed in a chokehold by seven Police Officers and choked until he was dead.  He was not resisting arrest.  There is no evidence he even cursed at the officer.

When I first began to write this blog I wrote a post about the nature of police brutality.  When I did that I wrote of what I observed.  The Long Beach Police Department of Long Beach, CA has a practice of having the detained lean against the hood of their police car.  I observed a young, shirtless, Afrikan American Male directed to lay of the hood of the vehicle chest down.  It was in the high 90's and the hood was hot!

The Officers checked the young man's id via radio while he laid across the hood.  I stated that I believed this was torture.  Why not allow the young Man to sit on the curb? He was not in handcuffs. There were two officers, both young, both with hand weapons.

I got attacked as being anti police.  I am not anti police.  I am ANTI Brutality!

Here is the problem as I see it.  An Officer has awesome power but when that Officer is not responsible the stakes are just too high.  Often we end up DEAD! There is no do over for DEAD!
There is no do over for false imprisonment.

It's time that Police and Law Enforcement agencies pay the ultimate penalty when they transgress.  Maximum jail time.  25 years to Life or more. Loss of Fortune etc.

It's time for the cities to step up too. Better job training. More cultural sensitivity.  Penalties that are enacted long before these incidents occur.


BE Prayerful! BE Mindful! BE Careful!

Jaycee

Allen Stone - "The Bed I Made" Taylor Sessions

No one ever said I'd get rich by writing. They never even said that I would be successful.  I write because it is what I am. When I am not writing I am dreaming and preparing to write.  When a short story is finished, I email it to friends, sometimes family and once in a while I'll hear it was good. I liked it.

That's it?  It was good? I liked it?

No one reads all the drafts, the half started ideas, the rejection letters except you.  They mention your passion as a hobby or ask how's your "lil" writing thang going?

But you write.  Sometimes they think they are helping you by suggesting that maybe you take a class, or maybe the character would be better received if he was younger.

And you write.  Why? It's what you do.  It is what I am.

Remember what you are.  A saxophonist is gonna play a lot of off notes, and play a lot of shit that people are not gonna to want to hear but if he does not play he will never be a master.

So do your thing.

BE Prayerful! BE Mindful! BE Careful!

Jaycee

If you think this is what racism is supposed to look like then you are truly naive. 

A teenager was shot in the back of the head by an Asian merchant in Watts, CA.  Her name was Latasha Harland.  She had gone in the store just before school to get some orange juice.  She was followed around by the store clerks, harassed and finally decided she would take no more and would leave the store.  The merchant, a Woman tried to search Latasha Harland's back pack.  Latasha refused and was walking out of the store.  The Woman shot her in the back of head.  Later when she was brought to court she was not sentenced to life in prison for cold blooded murder but to probation.

That was the early 1990's.  A White Hispanic Man named George Zimmerman, a self styled neighborhood watchman followed an unarmed teenager through a gated community. Zimmerman called the police, was told to cease following the teenager but persisted and shoots the teen killing him saying he feared for his life.  The teen, Travon Martin, age 17, had a can of Arizona Ice tea and a package of skittles candy.  Zimmerman was brought to trail and acquitted. Martin, deceased was painted to be a thug kid.  

Jordan Davis was shot and killed sitting in a truck after Michael Dunn an older White Man emptied a hand weapon into the vehicle wounding several teenagers and killing Davis.  He was convicted of attempted murder but not murder.  

So what do these incidents tell us?  It tells Black People that there lives are not worth anything in the eyes of the American judicial system.  Don't believe me. Go back to Rodney King. He was beaten by several police officers, it was filmed by a White Man and still the officers were acquitted. They were caught on tape.  

So in spite of evidence.  In spite of eye witnesses. In spite of the whole world watching all these people were abused, mistreated and killed. Afterwards their characters were defamed and slandered. Why? Because of their clothing? Because of their music? Because of their regional style of walk, talk and attitude.  Because they were Black! 

If you think that the racist power structure is not alive and well or that racism looks like the above photo then I feel bad for you because you are blind. 

BE Prayerful! BE Mindful! BE Careful! 

Jaycee