Protecting Black Life Is Still Not A Priority For Police
It’s been a little over 2 years since the wanton murder by Minnesota police of George Floyd. It was a horrific event that had seemingly turned into a spark for real change. Sadly though, since the worldwide protests that took over mainstream media ceased, the Pandemic restrictions lifted, and the justified convictions of Mr. Floyd’s murderer, it’s as if the world has gone back to “business as usual”. It’s sickening to me to even utter these words, but it feels as if business as usual is that police are going to continue not caring about Black people.
In just the first year since the terrible murder of George Floyd 229 Black people were murdered by police. Yeah, real change was not happening. That was just to put on a show for the media. In the second year since Mr. Floyd’s murder the killings are still going on. Just this past week 8 police officers in Akron, Ohio shot an unarmed Black man named Jayland Walker 60 times. They fired 90 bullets at him. They put 60 bullets into him. There is no instance in this world where a man, unarmed, should have to be shot 60 times. This horrendous event came after a car chase, but that is irrelevant for this story. What is relevant is that if Jayland Walker had been white, he would be alive. These cops shot first and asked questions later. They continued shooting even after Jayland was on the ground. They handcuffed his bullet ridden body after they were finished shooting. That is the opposite of having humanity. The mass shooter in Buffalo, who wantonly murder Black people in a supermarket, was white with an AR-15 rifle and was taken alive. Dylann Roof, who is white, murdered 9 Black people in Charleston and was taken alive. These are two examples of the division of justice. The police have the capability in arresting people without incident, but in the case of Black people they often choose that death is the only option.
Case in point, a week after the cops murdered Jayland Walker over a traffic violation, a white man, who killed six people, wounded over 20 others after firing 80 times into a crowd of bystanders, was arrested without incident. There were no shots fired at him, no cops kneeling on his neck, no chokeholds applied, no tasers used. They just put him in handcuffs. By all comparison they treated this guy with respect. I’ll say it again, these cops do in fact have the training to arrest people without killing them. They just conveniently forget all that training when it comes to Black people.
There was a thought that after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that there would be real change enacted. That true accountability would start being enforced. It seems that was just hope, and not in fact a reality. If police were fearful of being held accountable and facing repercussions, then there would not have been 229 murders of Black people in the year following George Floyd’s murder. The police instead have kept moving without fear of being charged.
It’s apparent that actual change is not going to happen until ACTUAL CHANGE happens. Where police STOP killing Black people. They are not supposed to be operating as judge, jury, and executioners. If someone breaks the law, let the justice system work it out. Don’t fire 60 bullets into that person. Let them get their day in court. At the time of this article, police are still out there operating as bullies with guns and badges, and that needs to stop.
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