This piece
is about the recent police shootings in Dallas. This piece will infuriate those
who are used to reacting emotionally to things like this instead of using their
brain and thinking. I ask that you read this entire piece, then think about
what you’ve read. I do not condone what happened in Dallas. You have been
warned.
I am a huge
proponent of the second amendment. When you ask most ardent gun owners about
the purpose of the second amendment, almost every one of them will tell you
that our forefathers wanted guns in the hands of the people as a hedge against
a tyrannical government. When we look at what happened in Dallas, isn’t that
what the shooters are saying was their motivation? To them, the government has
gone tyrannical and they are using their guns to fight back.
Black
people see a system that has failed them. When police are brought up on
charges, many times they are exonerated. In the case of Freddie Gray, the
police officers have chosen a bench trial over trial by jury. You know why that
is, don’t you? They don’t want their fate to be in the hands of everyday
people. They want their fate to be in the hands of someone that they see as
being sympathetic to them, the judge. Judges work with these policemen daily
and there is a certain chumminess that exists between the two. Police are
supposed to represent the administrative branch of our government while the
courts represent the judicial branch, but it’s hard to tell that they are two
separate branches by the way they work so harmoniously. When black people see
police repeatedly “get away” with murder, they no longer have faith in the
government.
A white
governor in Minnesota has even said that the man shot dead recently in
Minnesota probably died because he was black. He said that if that couple had
been white, the outcome would have been much different. The black community
hears this, but instead of justice, they see a policeman who was comforted by
his fellow officers while the victim’s welfare seemed an after-thought. These
policemen generally get put on paid administrative leave, only to be returned
to work after they get what appears to the black community to be a pass.
We are told
that the reason we give such latitude to police officers is because if we held
them to the same standards that we hold normal citizens, our police force would
not be as effective. We are told that we cannot have police officers constantly
second guessing themselves. Tell that to those who have been murdered by
police. Who is there to advocate for these victims? We see big fancy funerals
for slain officers. Not so much for the citizens who lose their lives to the
hands of police officers, no matter how innocent they may have been.
It’s not
just black people being killed by errant police. Police routinely raid homes
and kill innocent people inside. Police use no knock warrants, sometimes on the
wrong homes, and the inhabitants of these homes, not knowing that it’s the
police, try defending themselves. They get murdered by the police and the families
have to fight in court for any monetary award for their loss, and many times,
the police refuse to admit any wrong-doing, so they continue to kill people in
this manner. Google the name Jose Guerena as just one example of this
happening. In his case, the police officers claimed they were being shot at
when the evidence clearly pointed to the contrary. The outcome is maddening
because the family had to fight for any monetary award, but in the end, no
amount of money can replace this family’s husband and father.
I would be
remiss if I didn’t bring up the recent situation with Hillary Clinton. She did
things that would put most people in jail. The FBI director admitted as much,
but he also said that no prosecutor would pursue the charges against her. What
he doesn’t tell you is why that is. There is a double standard in this country
and he knows it. Most Americans know it, and the black community knows it.
This brings
me to the tragedy that happened in Dallas. The shooter who was blown up told
negotiators that he was mad at Black Lives Matter, he was mad at police, and he
was mad at white people. He obviously felt that he had no recourse through a
failed justice system which historically has let those in power off while
trivializing the losses that the American people have suffered at the hands of
police.
This isn’t
to say that the police who died deserved to die. They didn’t. However, they are
the face of the broken system to many who feel like they are being hunted by a
police force that is rarely, if ever, held accountable. Those who have been
harmed have seen the system fail to bring justice to those in power on so many
occasions, so they have turned to their guns and have taken justice into their
own hands.
If we want
to defuse the situation, we need to admit that the system has failed. We need
to start holding all those in public trust accountable for mistakes. Police are
human beings. They freely choose their profession, knowing full well the
dangers that come with it. They need to be held to a higher standard than the
people they protect. The average citizen rarely has the training that a police officer has, or at least, should have. When the
untrained citizen is held to a higher standard than the well trained police officer,
we have a problem. Police should think about their actions. We see what happens
when they aren’t held accountable. Public trust breaks down and we have
incidents like we find ourselves in now. It’s not just the police, but every
level of public service.
In summary,
the system has failed and people are starting to take matters into their own
hands. People are angry, and rightfully so. Killing police officers is
unacceptable, but so is killing innocent people because of police mistakes.
Until public confidence is restored in the justice system, we will continue to
see this lashing out against those in power.
God bless
those who have lost their lives on both sides of the aisle.
