killed by the police in 2016.
Mintpress provides an even scarier statistic:
776 people were killed by police in 2015.
161 of them were unarmed.
It is ironic to observe the inhumanity that goes on,
in a nation that plays superhero to every other
country's at the slightest 'inhuman act', while
their own police kill innocent people every day
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| Photo: Matthew Takes |
My last post discusses the truth about police brutality in America.
It also explains what #blacklivesmatter truly means,
and why #blacklivesmatter does not mean anti-cop or anti-white.
It also explains what #blacklivesmatter truly means,
and why #blacklivesmatter does not mean anti-cop or anti-white.
Before I go further, here is my chance to clarify that
obviously, there are good and bad cops all over the world!
Good and bad people in general!
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| Photo Credit: www.Activistpost.com |
people, not those who risk their lives for us daily
like Officer Nakia Jones, Officer Tammy M Norman
and others whom I don’t know about .
I also sympathize with the cops who lost their lives in the line of duty, in the recent shootings in Dallas, ( According to Mic.com, they were Officers Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, 32, Michael Krol, 40, Michael Smith, 55, Lorne Ahrens, 48 and Baton Rouge .
Without much ado, here are my suggestions on things we the people can do to help solve the issue of police brutality in America, especially towards minorities.
HOW CAN WE (BLACKS) HELP?
The black community can no longer only rely on the government to help.
must genuinely come together; not only in times of adversity,
(when it’s a trending hashtag) but in times of peace and calm.
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| Photo: www.isreview.org |
“For a change to become effective, it requires consistency”.
WHAT IS THIS ACTION EXACTLY? :
*A REFORM In the
Criminal Justice System.
The current system allows these murderers like Officer Darren Wilson (shooter of Michael Brown) and Officer Daniel Pantaleo ( shooter of Eric Garner) to go unpunished.
Best explained by an American Progress News Article, prosecutors rely on police officers to make arrests, investigate cases interrogate suspects and so on. In turn, the police rely on prosecutors too in their line of duty.
This makes us wonder whether prosecutors can fairly represent the state in these trials. It’s natural that one would be on their friend’s side if made a jury on the panel hearing their case.
“There should be an Increase
the use of special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations”
There should also be a Law that incriminates a policeman if he shoots an unarmed person. (See Trayvon Martin)
There should also be a Law that incriminates a policeman if he shoots a person walking away, backing you or even crawling away! (See Nicholas Robinson)
There should also be a Law that incriminates a policeman if he shoots a person lying on the floor! (see Alton Sterling).
There should also be a Law that incriminates a policeman if he shoots in front of their child. (See Philando Castille).
Simple! The cop can’t possibly say, he was afraid he will get killed through voodoo if the person has no weapon. Or do men now kill cops with bare hands? I didn’t know we were in the jungle! And! These guys shoot to kill! It is not a one shot bullet, in self-defence, but six times. At that point, any logical human can agree that it is with the intention of murder.
The cop is probably thinking to himself “ Nothing will happen to me.” As history repeats itself, nothing ever happens to this stone cold murderers dressed in blue. They are sent away on paid leaves, defended by their superiors and in the case of Trayvon’s killer, get to walk scot free and auction their murder weapon for $250,000.
The police department cannot also wrongly frame a man on national TV and refuse to apologize to him for labeling him ‘America’s most wanted man’ on TV, as was the case with the Texas Police Department and peaceful protester Mike Hughes, who was framed as the suspect in the Dallas police shooting.
At this time, according to Mediaate.com, no apology has still been made, and the department hasn’t taken down the photo, even after Mike has been exonerated.
According to New York Daily News, Mike has since received several death threats, such that he is hiding. He has even fled Texas.
These types of things scream ego and tell us that the police force may be feeling invincible. Isn’t such an act punishable as defamation in the court of Law?
Photo By Matthew Takes
Also, all federal law-enforcement should legally be forced to take bias training before they are sworn in;
and inherent racists should either leave the force or write to their supervisors to change jurisdiction if they serve in a predominantly black community. At this point, I have no problem with a person being racist. I have a problem with you abusing your power and ending another person’s life as a result.
Officer Nakia Jones put it best:
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| Source: Independent Newspaper, UK. |
Watch Full Video Here:
- There should also be Improved police training; data collection
and accountability in these cases.
- An attempt at Repairing the fractured relationship
between police and community should be put in place.
- In instances where lives are taken, the promise of a
diligent, independent, and thorough investigation and
prosecution, when appropriate. (including apologies)
Here Are Some Things We (the people) can do to
help the enforcement of Better Laws:
ACTIONS TO TAKE
- COLLECTIVELY WRITE TO CONGRESS:
We must contact our politicians and assemblies. Let us write to our representatives to congress about the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as well as the above-mentioned reforms. Our voices are more powerful than we think they are! We shouldn’t expect only the city shouldn’t tackle Police brutality. The state and federal governments can also work to improve oversight and accountability in this department. This Huffington Post article advises us to Contact our representatives and ask what they are doing to address police brutality. If they don’t give us measurable action, we must demand that they get started.
It is for this reason that a host of celebrities like Beyonce, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Pink, Jennifer Hudson, Bono, and others joined the #wearehere campaign to take action to heal the long history of systemic racism in America:
Take a stand by Adding Your Name to Tell Obama and Congress that you are tired of this here: http://weareheremovement.com/moonshot
"It is up to us to take a stand and demand that they 'stop killing us,'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VaNhI4CLo
- SUPPORT POSITIVE ACTION LIKE ISSA RAE’S SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR ALTON STERLING:
HBO’s “Insecure” actress Issa Rae took action by setting up the #AltonSterlingFoundationFamilyScholarship. So far, it has surpassed it’s $200k goal, and raised up $714,428.
100% of this money is going to Alton Sterling’s family. This is support from us, showing the family that they are not alone, this time.
- MONEY TALKS; BULLSHIT WALKS:
You’ve all heard the boycott whispers. You’ve either joined or laughed about how silly these pan-African radicals are. Boycott wall street? How laughable? You know what? It is not. If you don’t believe in the power of your dollar, find out what happened to Black Wall Street; the first time the American government intentionally used bombs on their own citizens. According to Ebony Magazine, Greenwood(aka little Africa) was bombed from the sky by White local and national law enforcement organizations.
So, yes! Your $1 counts. That Oklahoma city believed that! Several thousands of dollars later, they became a very influential community, which was shamefully destroyed by the same people who still haunt us today.
That being said, Spend your dollars on banks, hospitals, businesses and farmers that care about you! Other communities do this. It is literally impossible for the police to target innocent Chinese in America. They will surely have it hot with the Chinese Government which is tied in all types of business deals vital to the Western economy. In the case of the black American, there is no financial backing. So, yes! I am clearly saying: SUPPORT BLACK BUSINESSES. If you know any Jewish people, ask them how they feel about supporting each other, and they will tell you that they see each other as the “chosen few” according to this PBS Article.
So, ACT NOW. Get an account with the Black Wall Street Page. Find everything from food, wine, apparel, beauty, medical, banking services etc.
Dr. Claud Anderson explains this idea brilliantly in this video
- VOTE FOR YOUR CITY GOVERNMENT:
This, as far as I am concerned is the most important step in the list of things you can do to help the situation. We need to pay as much attention to the city (local) government, as we do to Donald Trump’s wife stolen speech.
We need to flock city elections and vote for the city government (Governor, mayor etc), as the city leadership directly influences the behavior of the police.
E.g the Las Vegas, Police brutality rate literally reduced by 36% when they admitted there was a better way for police to interact with suspects. Just by acknowledging that, and training their officers how to assess and de-escalate a situation.
4b) PRESSURE YOUR MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL TO ADDRESS GAPS IN THIS PROCESS:
Both the mayor and the city council hold a lot of influence over the police force and their disciplinary process. This is where you want to put pressure. Through petitions, letter writing campaigns, city council meetings, and town hall meetings you can push your city government to commit to concrete and actionable steps to increase insight and accountability into police conduct. If you have city council members already committed to reform, ask what you can do to contribute.
Don’t just ask once. Ask and follow up regularly. This is an issue that local politicians love to give lip service to, and then drop. Vigilance and measurable accountability is required if you want to create lasting change.
4C) VOTE FOR REFORM-MINDED CITY GOVERNMENT: Reform-minded judges, district or prosecuting attorneys, city council members, and mayors are integral to the battle against police brutality. We all know that politicians are always campaigning. Make this a hot button issue. Make police reform a requirement for your vote.
- STAGE PEACEFUL PROTESTS:
Flock to Police stations, city hall and other government venues must be protested against and marched on after every incident of police brutality.
I, personally don’t recommend this particular step because some of the recent peaceful protests ended up turning into chaos with people being accused of murder or cops being killed.
- POLICE ETIQUETTE:
You must protect yourself in all circumstances. It’s hard to know if you are one minute away from a hashtag. So, do you give up and live in fear? No. Use these tips:
- According to Huffington Post, Educate yourself on your city’s police conduct review process. This can be done by conducting a Google search of “police conduct review” and your city name, Look for areas where independent review can be strengthened, where union interference can be minimized, and where transparency can be increased. Write these as part of your letters to congress.
- GET A CAMERA: Know your right to record police encounters. If a brave civilian bystander hadn’t recorded the murder of Walter Scott, there is no way the cop who killed him would be in jail right now. When you encounter police, it’s important to know your rights regarding visual and audio recording of the encounter before you are faced with a cop telling you to put your cell phone away. You can learn more about your rights here. We must use our cameras every time police harass us to catch them in the act. Then we can use the Internet and the viral media to expose these actions worldwide. In their heyday, the Black Panthers would do this. They had a police watch and would follow the police with a camera and record their actions. Now that cameras are so cheap and people have cameras on their phones, it is a lot easier to hold the police accountable for their actions.
- Also comply with police when you are pulled over.
- BLACK ARTISTS :
*Rappers should be spending a lot less time glamorizing black on black crime and dissing each other, and more time documenting police brutality.
*African American entertainers and activists have a strong voice in America and they must also use that voice to fight the problems in our community. Rappers like J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Common, Mos Def and most recently Beyoncé are taking on the role of what Tupac used to do when he was alive.
- CREATE AWARENESS:
-Teach people that Black Lives matter doesn’t mean anti-cop or anti-white.
- Teach people that Black Lives DO Matter.
- Support legal defense funds and activism groups. Join a chapter of Black Lives Matter. Often we don’t hear about cases of police misconduct or brutality because victims do not have the resources to fight the injustice they have faced. This is where your money talks. Fund the groups who are working hard every day for justice for those who have been violated by the criminal justice system. You can support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund here, and the ACLU here.
- PETITIONS:
Sign petitions such as this one by Dream Defenders, Petitioning to Barack Obama and Congress, Demanding National Change to Protect Citizens and Communities from Police Violence and Misconduct.
- DIALOGUE:
We must use moderate police organizations to work with the police to stop police brutality. Groups like 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement have done a lot to combat police brutality and people should work with them as an intermediary to deal with community issues with the police.
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