Race and Police Brutality.

The United States of America had to deal with the issue of race since its founding. Many of the authors of the Declaration of the Independence and the Constitution wrote about liberty, but didn’t practice what they preached in their acts as slave-owners. America is unique in the sense that we have the most diverse amount of people in human history, and we still have to fight for rights that should have been inborn from the beginning. When Barack Obama became President, some naively believed that we lived in a post racial nation (and that racism would be gone soon). Back in November 2009, conservative host Lou Dobbs inaccurately states that we live in a “21st century post partisan, post racial society." Immediately, when President Barack Obama was in office, he experienced racism from many people. Some racists called him a witchdoctor (on the issue of the ACA), questioned his nationality (in claiming that he was born in Kenya, which was false), the bigots disrespected his wife plus his children, and some called him racial slurs. That is totally unjustified. It is one thing to express legitimate critique of his Presidency (in dealing with his drone strikes, hawkish actions, his harsh actions against whistleblowers, and on other issues). Yet, the racism against Obama was evil and disgusting. On October 28, 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed to authorize federal prosecution of all racially motivated hate crimes. In 2010, Shirley Sherrod is a black woman who was falsely accused of being racist towards white Americans. She was from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Fair Sentencing Act was passed on August 3, 2010 that reduced sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine to an 18:1 ratio. Today, we have people from across the political spectrum opposing the corruption found in the criminal justice system. Many people in America don’t see eye to eye on many issues. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in December 2014, about 50% of white respondents said they believed that the justice system treats Americans of all races equally, but only 10% of African-Americans said the same. In the spring of 2015, according to a Gallup poll, 13 percent of black Americans surveyed identified race relations as the most important problem the United States faces, compared with 4 percent of white Americans. So, it is obvious that we must deal with the issues of race, sex, and class in order for us to go into the Promised Land of true freedom and justice. During the Obama era and beyond, the epidemic of police brutality continues to exist in America plus worldwide. This is not just an American issue. It’s a global issue. In Brazil, many victims of police brutality exist. In 2015, according to a study by The Guardian, police officers in the United States killed 7.13 black Americans per million, compared with 2.91 white Americans per million. People from many quarters have exposed the killings of African Americans and people of every color. The Obama Presidency dealt with many of these issues of the killings of black Americans whether by vigilantes or by the police. 

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was killed on November 19, 2011. The death of Trayvon Martin was caused by the racist vigilante George Zimmerman (he is a racist since he was caught on tape using the n word, and he is pictured celebrating the Confederate flag). Zimmerman was told by the police to not follow Trayvon Martin, but he did anyway. He provoked a confrontation and killed Trayvon Martin. If Zimmerman left that child Trayvon Martin alone, Trayvon Martin would be alive today. Zimmerman has a known history of stalking people in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon Martin’s death took place on February 26, 2012. The country of America was divided. Debates on stand your ground, race, class, and vigilantes existed. Zimmerman escaped justice by being acquitted by a jury. Zimmerman later became involved in incidents with the police, his girlfriends, and other people. He has been accused of domestic abuse, and he is recorded on tape using a racist slur against a black man. Trayvon’s friend Rachel Jeantel has been slandered, but she is multilingual and achieved great accomplishments. The documentary "I am Trayvon Martin" documented Zimmerman’s racism and extremism with facts. Zimmerman has threatened the co-executive producer of the documentary Michael Gasparro, Jay Z, and Beyonce. Zimmerman is a total fraud and a coward. Malcolm Shabazz or Malcolm X’s grandson was killed in Mexico. One of the worst decisions in history was when the Supreme Court overturned part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. Since June 25, 2013, draconian anti-voting rights laws have been passed in the South and in the Midwest. The Voting Rights Act is gutted of Section Five. After George Zimmerman was acquitted on July 13, 2013, tons of protested existed from Florida to NYC, Chicago, etc. By 2013, a new movement was created. It was a combination of the old school protests of the Civil Rights Movement and the progressive side of the Black Power movement with its emphasis on Blackness. It is the Black Lives Matter movement. It was created by 3 black women whose names are Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. It has been loved and hated. It has been praised and condemned, but it has existed to this very day since 2013. We can all agree with their views of police brutality being bad, racial profiling must be eliminated, and all black lives should be protected. They condemn sexism, ageism, and make it their mission to protect the lives of black LGBTQIA+ human beings. Worse news came about involving innocent lives in Missouri. By 2014, Michael Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson at Ferguson, Missouri. The officer said that he used self-defense, while Brown’s family said it was a murder. Immediately, a rebellion existed in Ferguson which never occurred in America on that scale since the 1992 LA rebellion.

The “Hands up, Don’t shoot” movement existed. Progressives, black activists, and other people met in Ferguson to organize, protest, and stand up for their rights. During the Ferguson uprising, many cops deployed military weapons, some innocent journalists plus citizens were unjustly arrested, and many people suffered tea gas (from ordinary citizens to journalists). During the funeral of Michael Brown, Al Sharpton (who was a FBI informant) made the disrespectful comment that people shouldn't make "ghetto pity parties" when the truth is that silence is betrayal. Through ups and down, Ferguson became the start of a new era of black youth activism. July 17, 2014 was when Eric Garner was choked to death unjustly by a police officer. Other cops around Garner did nothing to stop it. This was in New York City. Black children, black women, black men and the black elderly continued to be killed across America. Nine African Americans were murdered at the Charleston Church called the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church at downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The community in Charleston came together to fight racism and murder. President Barack Obama came to remember the victims via his eulogy about the Charleston victims. Barack Obama has a mixed record on police brutality issues. He set up legitimate policies to address police brutality with consent decrees, meetings, etc. Likewise, he gave middle of the road speeches that mention respectability politics and compromise. The Say Her Name movement addresses the epidemic of black women being murdered by the police and other criminals. Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail after a traffic stop where the cop acted inappropriately towards her.

In 2015, Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police, and he died in custody while he was in a hospital afterwards. Immediately, Baltimore had its rebellion which was its largest since 1968. We still have a system of oligarchy, racism, and classism. That is why we have some cops acting as occupiers in poorer communities. The system of racism/white supremacy is global. What goes on in America does happen internationally. The rebellion in Baltimore never existed as a product of a vacuum. It existed after decades of neglect, austerity, poverty, deindustralization, lax educational opportunities, racism, police brutality, and other evils (by the system of white supremacy). People have been hurting in Baltimore and throughout the Americas for centuries. Police terrorism and police occupation have been a common occurrence against black people. Baltimore Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and former Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake worked in the city as well. Marilyn Mosby is still the Attorney in Baltimore in 2019.

Most of the cops involved in the arrest of Gray were acquitted. This is a common pattern, because the police union and the police institution is one of the most powerful lobbyists in America. They influence laws, they fund politicians, they ask for donations, and it is very difficult to cause any cop to be held accountable for misconduct. That is why many cops have gotten away with harassing, murdering, raping, and brutalizing people. As media coverage of police shootings intensified, protests erupted in the wake of the July 5, 2016 shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the July 6, 2016 shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. A respected school nutritionist, Castile was one of 233 African-Americans shot and killed by police in 2016, a startling number when demographics are considered. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 24 percent of people fatally shot by police. According to the Washington Post, blacks are "2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers." The irony is that one of the issues that those in the March on Washington from 1963 wanted was the end to police brutality. Over 55 years later, we are still fighting for that same end. 

On July 7, 2016, towards the end of one of these protests in Dallas, Texas, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and fired upon a group of police officers, killing five officers and injuring nine others. Two civilians were also wounded. Later, the United the Right rally featured neo-Nazis, Neo-Confederates, and other extremists who support white supremacy. They are a disgrace to real freedom loving people. One young black person was assaulted and one white woman was murdered by a white racist. Her name was Heather Mayer. Many people of color like Native Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, etc. do experience racism, police brutality, and discrimination. The separation of families on the U.S./Mexico border is horrible. The stealing of Native Americans’ lands to build a pipeline is evil. Therefore, oppression is intersectional. In 2019, debates on racism and police brutality continue with Democratic Presidential candidates dealing with those issues too.  Police brutality is not new. Back during the 19th century, many police agencies kidnapped runaway slaves. Back during the date of March 7, 1965, there was Bloody Sunday where cops assaulted innocent protesters at Selma, Alabama. Rodney King in the early 1990’s was viciously assaulted by crooked cops with nightsticks on tape. The difference now is that Black Lives Matter, Hands Up Don’t Shoot, and other movements use cell phone evidence and other technologies to record such misconduct. There should be no blue wall of silence. In 2019, there is another police killing of an unarmed, mentally ill black woman named Pamela Turner in Baytown, Texas.  Video of the incident existed, and the officer claimed that the mother grabbed his taser and had multiple warrants. The woman was only 44 years old, and she should have experience assistance not a death sentence. There is no excuse to shoot the woman 5 times when medical assistance can easily be called to help Pamela Turner. Supporters of the “All Lives Matter” phrase readily want to minimize the systemic threats and institutionalized oppression faced by African Americans.  The fatal shootings of Aiyana Jones, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, and other Brothers and Sisters make us aware that we have so much to go in seeing a better union in America. Also, we want human liberation. There is no human liberation without black people being liberated indeed.


By Timothy