The Crusader Newspaper Group

THE STATE OF THE POLICE STATE

So far this year, at least 194 Black people have been killed by the police in the United States according to The Guardian, a project that tracks police killings of Black people. The latest incident in Charlotte, North Carolina, involved the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, a man who was disabled, according to a relative. This incident has set off a firestorm of protests along with calls to release the video of the event. Though this is the case, the authorities released a video that did not prove one way or another that Mr. Scott had a gun. His family insists he was not armed, and that he had a book. Incredibly, the police chief stated that they were not going to give 100 percent transparency, and that they would not release additional footage at this time. The family of the victim was allowed to view the one video that was released, but agreed that the video left more questions than answers. What it did show, however, was Mr. Scott backing away from the car and not acting aggressively toward the police. He did not have a gun in his hand at the time he was shot, though police say they found a small handgun on the ground after the shooting.

The day before Scott was killed, police shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher to death after officers spotted his SUV stalled in the middle of a road. It was said that Crutcher did not follow directions from the police to put his hands up, but a video that was released showed him walking towards his car with his hands in the air.

What has become very obvious is that police lie. They have been caught on several occasions in their lies because of the prevalence of videos. This is why the Black community is extremely distrustful of the police, and today that distrust is expanding exponentially, even though rational people admit that all police are not cut from the same malevolent cloth.

Some activists are now calling for more diversity on the police force as a stop gap measure to help curtail the spate of police murders of Black people. But, as pointed out by others, the police officer who killed Scott was Black, as was the Charlotte, NC police chief. Race, therefore, is not the only factor involved in the issue of police shootings of Black citizens, although it has been known for some years that the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations have infiltrated police forces in the United States.

The real issue that we face is that we are becoming (have become!) a police state. We constantly decry the use of unnecessary force by the police, but police murders of Blacks are continuing unabated with very few offending officers being brought to justice for their crimes. There are a lot of historical reasons for this descent into oppression by law enforcement, but chief among the current madness is the ascent of President Barack Obama to the Oval Office. Die hard racist bigots just can’t take seeing a Black man in power, and it has become alright to express extremely bigoted opinions and demonstrate crass behavior while eschewing so-called “political correctness.”

America is at a crossroads, and the future of Blacks in this country will depend greatly upon who becomes the next president. One of the candidates, Donald Trump, has loudly trumpeted “law and order” as a remedy for problems facing the country. For Blacks who support him please take heed and READ BETWEEN THE LINES: a law and order platform would not bode well for the Black community! It would probably end up looking like the current situation on steroids if Trump is elected. He is calling for a re-instatement of “stop and frisk,” with a lot of his sycophants strongly supporting this ill-conceived stance. If he had done his homework, he would know that it did not work in New York, and it would not work now, especially since a lot of states have concealed carry laws. It would only result in the further legal enslavement and murder of Black citizens. A luta continua.

 

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