HUNKERED DOWN RACISM vs. JUSTICE?

Racism came pouring out of America’s closets when a black man began sleeping in the christian nation’s White House.   Is there more racism today or is it merely harder to shove under the carpet?

What if the kidnapping of Africans had been on video?  Or if all the abuse and murders of slaves had been filmed?  Or if the KKK had been followed by a film crew doing a documentary on man’s inhumanity and the prejudice of ignorant primitive white christians – followed up by a documentary on elitist WASP’s who wanted to maintain a caste system of low paid workers to maximize their profits?

Fortunately for all who harbor and act on irrational hate none of this was on video or film, so for hundreds of years in America there was a public illusion of equal treatment and opportunity for all.  Who knew that police treated different complexions from white with disdain and suspicion, and accepted the necessity of force to control the “thugs.”  And how many Americans since the Civil War and the Civil Rights Act considered how often their black friends were stopped on the street or in their cars for no particular reason except their complexion was suspicious.

Any American that does not get the following headlines, which are only a tip of the iceberg that has existed in police departments and kitchens throughout America for hundreds of years, should look in a mirror.  Here are a few headlines:

• MILWAUKEE COP WILL NOT BE CHARGED IN SHOOTING OF UNARMED BLACK MAN, SAYS DA 

Fired police officer Christopher Manney won’t face criminal charges for shooting mentally ill Dontre Hamilton 14 times… A white former Milwaukee police officer who fatally shot a black man in a downtown park in April won’t face criminal charges, the county’s top prosecutor said on Monday…

• Cop cleared in chokehold death of Eric Garner…

A Staten Island grand jury cleared an NYPD cop in the chokehold death of Eric Garner during his caught-on-video arrest for peddling loose cigarettes, the Staten Island district attorney confirmed Wednesday…

• AFTER POLICE KILLED JOHN CRAWFORD AT A WALMART, THEY THREATENED HIS GIRLFRIEND WITH  By German Lopez December 15, 2014 10:50 AM

A newly released video shows Ohio police aggressively interrogating the girlfriend of a young black man officers had shot and killed earlier in the day.  A detective threatened Tasha Thomas, John Crawford‘s girlfriend, with jail time and suggested she was high during an interrogation that lasted more than 90 minutes…

• POLICE SHOOTING OF TAMIR RICE IS RULLED A HOMICIDE

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. DEC. 12, 2014  … Continue reading the main story

The medical examiner in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has ruled that the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a rookie Cleveland police officer last month was a homicide, and that the boy died from a gunshot wound just above his navel…

• TRAYVON MARTIN SYMBOLIZES 21ST CENTURY AMERICAN RACISM Posted in Politics by ehenry .. Racism and ignorance reign in Florida, true to form. The jurors should be shunned, and I am confounded by the performance of the prosecutors which cannot just be incompetence. I am sickened by the verdict and the process. The rule of law is not just about process, but about standing up for truth. The self-evident nature of racial profiling which resulted in the murder of a 17 year old boy, does not allow the not guilty verdict to be respected merely because the process allowed a trial. The lies and latent prejudice exhibited by the defense were manifestly apparent to anyone who cares about the truth – and the comatose prosecution was on display…

 

• FERGUSON POLICE OFFICER WON’T BE CHARGED IN FATAL SHOOTING www.washingtonpost.com/…ferguson–officer/…/de48…

Darren Wilson on why he shot Michael Brown

By Joe Tacopino Officer Darren Wilson released a statement after a grand jury decided not to indict him for fatally shooting Michael Brown. Following the decision, protests broke out in Ferguson and New York City. Photo: EPA ; Reuters  November 25, 2014 | 2:29a

• POLICE UNION LINKS COP KILLINGS TO PROTESTS; NYPD CRITICS CONDEMN SHOOTINGS

Updated December 21, 2014 12:10 AM By DARRAN SIMON and TED PHILLIPS  darran.simon@newsday.com,ted.phillips@newsday.com

A police union leader’s anger boiled over Saturday night as he linked the execution-style slayings of two officers to weeks of protests over NYPD conduct and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to assuage police critics…

Patrick Lynch, NYPD union president,  is symbolic of how police and their embedded prosecutors have hunkered down in abject avoidance and denial of the self-evident nature of centuries of abuse, brutality, rousting and murders without consequences.   The New York Police Department’s response is a microcosm of how racist murders have been dealt with across America.  However, American’s do not need a Grand Jury or any jury to know what happened, it was recorded and played back for all to see, except for racists who are blind to their own lack of humanity and profound ignorant hate.  This is the NYPDs response:

• NYPD UNION PRESIDENT SAYS ERIC GARNER CAUSED HIS OWN DEATH

By Matt Agorist on December 5, 2014

Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, speaks during a news conference after the bodies of two fallen NYPD police officers were transported from Woodhull Medical Center on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014.

No cops have been charged, and prosecutors have failed the victims, their families and society.   And Trayvon Martin is the shining example of state prosecutors having a trial to prove a murderer’s statement is false?

So where is the justice – hunkered down?   CLEVELAND – Since last week’s release of the U.S. Department of Justice’s scathing report of the use of force by Cleveland police and the November 22 police-involved shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, community leaders and even city officials are now calling for the resignation of two top city administrators.

• LEBRON JAMES, KYRIE IRVING AND NETS PLAYERS WEAR ‘I CAN’T BREATHE’ SHIRTS BEFORE CAVS GAME   By: Chris Strauss and Nate Scott December 8, 2014 6:56 pm ET

The culture of structured racism in police departments nationally – that makes all the good cops look bad – and makes all people of color afraid – must be addressed.  There is a distinction between a mere protest and a movement.  Hopefully for America the protests are peaceful and the manifestation of a movement whose time has finally come.

These headlines are only the tip of the iceberg underneath HUNKERED DOWN RACISM – AND IT IS TIME TO ACKNOWLEGE THIS AND FIX IT.  IT COULD BE AS SIMPLE AS IMMEDIATELY ESTABLISHING ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONSEQUENCES.

i can’t breathe, can you?