War of Words
I said in a recent post that violence, not race, was the real issue in the debate about the recent spate of deaths involving America's police officers and black Americans.
Because it seems to me to be thoroughly irresponsible to be making wild claims that people were killed simply because of they were black.
And now things seem to have come full-circle with the news that a black American has murdered two fellow citizens, presumably because they were police officers and not black.
To make matters worse the police union has accused the New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio, of having 'blood on his hands' and so the war of words goes on with both sides ramping up the rhetoric to suit their own narrow agendas.
Brooklyn shooting: Two police officers murdered 'execution-style' in apparent revenge attack for deaths of black suspects in custody
Gunman Ismayyil Brinsley, who took his own life after the shootings, had posted 'anti-police' messages on social media
By ANDREW BUNCOMBE - The Independent
New York is reeling after two police officers were shot and killed on Saturday in an “assassination” by a man who appeared to claim on social media he was acting in revenge for the deaths of black suspects who died in custody.
Officials said the uniformed officers were shot “execution-style” by a man who approached their marked police car shortly before 3pm in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. The gunman, who was named as 28-year-old, Ismayyil Brinsley, then ran into the entrance of a subway station, pursued by other officers, where he shot himself in the head.
In the wake of the attack, the city’s main police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, blamed the mayor, Bill de Blasio" for the shootings claiming that his "words, actions and policies" had turned the NYPD into a "wartime police department".
At a press conference on Saturday evening at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Centre, where the two fatally inured officers were taken, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said it was believed that earlier in the day the suspect had shot and injured his ex-girlfriend in the city of Baltimore. He had then posted a several “anti-police” messages on social media that officers were investigating.
US media said that in the messages posted on Instagram, Brinsley had said he was “putting wings on pigs”. He then referred to Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two unarmed black men whose deaths at at the hands of police have sparked national protests, and added: “Let’s take two of theirs.”
Brinsley also posted a picture of a silver handgun. Police said they recovered a semi-automatic handgun from the subway station where Brinsley had taken his own life.
New York is reeling after two police officers were shot and killed on Saturday in an “assassination” by a man who appeared to claim on social media he was acting in revenge for the deaths of black suspects who died in custody.
Officials said the uniformed officers were shot “execution-style” by a man who approached their marked police car shortly before 3pm in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. The gunman, who was named as 28-year-old, Ismayyil Brinsley, then ran into the entrance of a subway station, pursued by other officers, where he shot himself in the head.
In the wake of the attack, the city’s main police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, blamed the mayor, Bill de Blasio" for the shootings claiming that his "words, actions and policies" had turned the NYPD into a "wartime police department".
At a press conference on Saturday evening at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Centre, where the two fatally inured officers were taken, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said it was believed that earlier in the day the suspect had shot and injured his ex-girlfriend in the city of Baltimore. He had then posted a several “anti-police” messages on social media that officers were investigating.
US media said that in the messages posted on Instagram, Brinsley had said he was “putting wings on pigs”. He then referred to Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two unarmed black men whose deaths at at the hands of police have sparked national protests, and added: “Let’s take two of theirs.”
Brinsley also posted a picture of a silver handgun. Police said they recovered a semi-automatic handgun from the subway station where Brinsley had taken his own life.
A chilling post by Ismayyil Brinsley on Instagram
Mr Bratton said that in the wake of the shooting in Baltimore, police there had issued an alert about Brinsley, which police in New York received sometime after 2pm on Saturday.
Mr Bratton said tragically this warning arrived at around the same time that Brinsley approached the side of the police car, took a shooting stance and fired several shots through the window, hitting the officers in the head. He said the two patrolmen did not have an opportunity to draw their weapons and may not have even have seen the killer.
Mr Bratton said that in the wake of the shooting in Baltimore, police there had issued an alert about Brinsley, which police in New York received sometime after 2pm on Saturday.
Mr Bratton said tragically this warning arrived at around the same time that Brinsley approached the side of the police car, took a shooting stance and fired several shots through the window, hitting the officers in the head. He said the two patrolmen did not have an opportunity to draw their weapons and may not have even have seen the killer.
A protester at the scene. New York has seen demonstrations from protesters angry over a decision not to take action over the death of Eric Garner (Reuters)
“Two of New York’s finest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation,” said Mr Bratton. “They were, quite simply, assassinated - targeted for their uniform and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe.”
The two officers were named as Wenjin Liu, a seven-year veteran of the force who had recently married, and Rafael Ramos, who was married with a 13-year-old son.
The killing of the officers comes at a time of widespread public anger directed at police in the US after the failure to prosecute officers for their alleged role in a flurry of deaths of black suspects.
In recent days, New York has seen daily demonstrations from protesters angry over a decision not to prosecute an officer who put Mr Garner in a so-called choke-hold, a move that killed him. Protesters have carried placards based on the last words said to have been uttered by Mr Garner – ‘I can’t breathe’.
“Two of New York’s finest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation,” said Mr Bratton. “They were, quite simply, assassinated - targeted for their uniform and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe.”
The two officers were named as Wenjin Liu, a seven-year veteran of the force who had recently married, and Rafael Ramos, who was married with a 13-year-old son.
The killing of the officers comes at a time of widespread public anger directed at police in the US after the failure to prosecute officers for their alleged role in a flurry of deaths of black suspects.
In recent days, New York has seen daily demonstrations from protesters angry over a decision not to prosecute an officer who put Mr Garner in a so-called choke-hold, a move that killed him. Protesters have carried placards based on the last words said to have been uttered by Mr Garner – ‘I can’t breathe’.
Police at the scene of the fatal shootings in BrooklynThe move not to prosecute the man who had placed Mr Garner in the choke-hold followed soon on the heels of a decision by a Missouri grand jury not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Mr Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
The president of the police officers union, Patrick Lynch, and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the New York grand jury’s decision. Just days ago, Mr Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die in the line of duty.
A statement apparently issued by the city’s main police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, blamed the mayor for Saturday’s shootings.
“The mayor’s hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a wartime police department,” it said. “We will act accordingly.”
The president of the police officers union, Patrick Lynch, and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the New York grand jury’s decision. Just days ago, Mr Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die in the line of duty.
A statement apparently issued by the city’s main police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, blamed the mayor for Saturday’s shootings.
“The mayor’s hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a wartime police department,” it said. “We will act accordingly.”
New York mayor Bill de Blasio reacts during the police press conference
Mr de Blasio took part in Saturday’s press conference. He said the officers had been killed “execution-style” and said he had met with the officers’ family members, including Mr Ramos’s teenage son who was struggling to make sense of what had happened.
Taking questions from reporters, the mayor sought to avoid further controversy. “This is a time to think about these families, not politics. We should be thinking about how to support these families,” he said.
The Rev Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights leader who has supported the families of Mr Brown and Mr Garner, said he was outraged by the officers' killings and the suggestion they were linked to the men’s deaths.
“Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases,” he said in a statement.
Mr Bratton, the police commissioner, said there was no evidence that Brinsley was linked to any terrorist group but said officers would probe whether he was linked to any groups involved in anti-police protests.
One unconfirmed media report suggested Brinsley, who had most recently been living in Atlanta, Georgia, may have been linked to the Black Guerrilla Family, a Baltimore-based gang that had vowed to kill officers in retaliation for the death of Mr Garner,
Mr Bratton said that it was the seventh time since 1972 since two police partners had been killed in the line of duty.
The last officer killed by gunfire was Peter Figoski, who lost his life in 2011. Mr Figoski was responding to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment. He was shot in the face and killed by one of the suspects hiding in a side room when officers arrived.
Justin Webb makes a valid point in this piece from The Times in which he argues that the bigger issue for Americans to confront is the violence problem, not the race problem.
The overall figure quoted by Justin of 410 American citizens being "justifiably killed" by their police officers, surely has a story to tell.
How many were white, black, hispanic etc and what was the ethnic background of the cops doing the shooting?
Because it strikes me that if the recent high-profile cases, such as Michael Brown's, are pursued on a narrow black/white basis then they are unlikely to attract sufficient support to achieve and real political change.
Trigger-happy US cops are guilty of overkill
As I read this article by Bonnie Green, an American born commentator, my attention was drawn to a TV interview with the former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giulani, who was pointing out on screen that 'only' 1% of black Americans are killed by white cops and that 93% of deaths are the result of black on black killings.
Now I imagine these figures are accurate in which case strap line of the article is not just untrue, but irresponsible into the bargain.
Because as far as I can see Michael Brown was not shot as a result of the colour of his skin; rather he was being arrested after committing a violent robbery and shots were fired only after Mr Brown assaulted the police officer effecting his arrest.
So to suggest that white on black is the motive and the real problem facing African Americans seems ridiculous to me, as does the suggestion that Asian Americans have effectively become 'Uncle Toms' by replacing the white man as the Community's oppressors.
If I were an Asian American, I would feel quite insulted by such a cheap shot which smacks to me of prejudice against another ethnic minority, as I would if someone suggested that a Black Man is just acting 'stupid' while committing a violent robbery.
Now rousing a rabble is a useful thing to do sometimes, but political wisdom lies in knowing where you want to lead the rabble once roused, as opposed to playing to the gallery and making things worse.
And in Bonnie Greer's case I think she is just leading people up the garden path, from the relative safety and comfort of her adopted home in the UK, particularly as news filters through of another death during the Ferguson riots of another Black Man, DeAndre Joshua, who was shot and died in his car.
Now the circumstances surrounding this young man's killing are not clear as and although it seems likely DeAndre was murdered one thing's for sure, he wasn't shot by a white cop which means there won't be a big campaign over his sad and untimely death.
Ferguson: The sad truth is that Michael Brown was killed because he was a black man
If you’re a black man you can still get mowed down by an officer
By BONNIE GREER - The Independent
Forty-six years ago this past spring, I was on the edge of throwing a brick. On a warm spring evening in early April, just as I was about to go out and clandestinely meet my boyfriend, I heard over my transistor radio that Martin Luther King had been murdered in Memphis.
I can remember staring in the mirror and thinking what would become of me. How would I be able to proceed now in the country of my birth, the country my father fought for in a segregated army during World War Two, and which he was proud of, although wary.
It was then, somewhere inside I think, that I began to feel that my life – if I was going to have one at all – would have to be elsewhere. Where, I didn’t know. But not in America. Yet I didn’t resort to violence, didn’t give in to the rage and despair inside of me because my father hadn’t; my mother hadn’t. They had endured.
That was and is my template. Back in those days, watching the streets of my hometown of Chicago burn, watching streets burn all over America, watching the people my age and younger confronting the police, breaking into shops, carrying off goods as if taking the American Dream by force, I found myself understanding them. Being with them, in a way.
When you’re young you’re raging all of the time. Living in a society in which your very presence is seen as a threat and an invitation to the criminal justice system is enough to break anyone. Public Enemy’s prescient title “Fear of a Black Planet” nails America’s existential crisis with black people and black men. The explanation for this can sound like a nonsense. And in a way it is. You have to live there, be there to understand.
I don’t know Ferguson, Missouri. But I do. I imagine it to be much like the South Side of Chicago, where I grew up, once full of white people, now gone – and with them the amenities, the niceties. In their place come the “chicken shacks” and barbecue joints; McDonald’s; and expensive places to buy smartphones; the small grocery shops run by marginal people, too, but they are what Americans call “Asian” – of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean descent.
To the Community, they became the White People.
To the Community, they became the receptacles of the rage and the despair and the angst.
All the while you live in this as Black Man. What that means, among other things is this: if you’re stopped by the police you put your hands on the top of the wheel and keep your mouth shut. It means that you can cause havoc by just walking into a shop, and maybe you act stupid because of that.
A black BBC correspondent friend of mine – a no-nonsense Northerner through and through – was once helping the movers get him and his wife into a Washington DC house while on assignment. His neighbour came over and said to his wife that she didn’t like all of “those black guys” congregating in front of her grass.
My friend was summoned by his wife out of the group of movers and she repeated what the woman had told her. My friend asked the neighbour to get out of his house.
He never forgot it. He never felt comfortable again there.
Sure, if you have money, or are a TV personality or a big music star, America is fine. Because the real class divide in the USA is between the “have nots”, the “haves” – and the “have yachts”. If you can get into the last two categories, you can buy your own reality. Money talks and walks. But if you’re a black man, you can still get mowed down by a householder, or Officer Friendly.
And then there’s the President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military on earth; the head of the number-one economy on the planet. Except from Day One he has been seen by many in the land of his birth as an alien, as something outside of the norm; as suspect; a plant; a Muslim Manchurian Candidate; someone set out to “undermine the American way of life”.
When President Obama said of young Trayvon Martin – gunned down by a man told by the police to not use deadly force – “Trayvon could’ve been my son” – all hell broke loose. You would imagine that the citizens of the Republic would have been touched by the President’s empathy. Instead, for them, this was yet one more example of “POTUS, the enemy within”.
To judge this presidency by any normal parameters is not possible because it has not been allowed to be possible, to be normal. Because Barack Obama is a black man. The same reason that Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. That’s the truth and I’m sorry to have to say so.
Mr de Blasio took part in Saturday’s press conference. He said the officers had been killed “execution-style” and said he had met with the officers’ family members, including Mr Ramos’s teenage son who was struggling to make sense of what had happened.
Taking questions from reporters, the mayor sought to avoid further controversy. “This is a time to think about these families, not politics. We should be thinking about how to support these families,” he said.
The Rev Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights leader who has supported the families of Mr Brown and Mr Garner, said he was outraged by the officers' killings and the suggestion they were linked to the men’s deaths.
“Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases,” he said in a statement.
Mr Bratton, the police commissioner, said there was no evidence that Brinsley was linked to any terrorist group but said officers would probe whether he was linked to any groups involved in anti-police protests.
One unconfirmed media report suggested Brinsley, who had most recently been living in Atlanta, Georgia, may have been linked to the Black Guerrilla Family, a Baltimore-based gang that had vowed to kill officers in retaliation for the death of Mr Garner,
Mr Bratton said that it was the seventh time since 1972 since two police partners had been killed in the line of duty.
The last officer killed by gunfire was Peter Figoski, who lost his life in 2011. Mr Figoski was responding to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment. He was shot in the face and killed by one of the suspects hiding in a side room when officers arrived.
Trigger Happy? (8 December 2014)
Justin Webb makes a valid point in this piece from The Times in which he argues that the bigger issue for Americans to confront is the violence problem, not the race problem.
The overall figure quoted by Justin of 410 American citizens being "justifiably killed" by their police officers, surely has a story to tell.
How many were white, black, hispanic etc and what was the ethnic background of the cops doing the shooting?
Because it strikes me that if the recent high-profile cases, such as Michael Brown's, are pursued on a narrow black/white basis then they are unlikely to attract sufficient support to achieve and real political change.
Trigger-happy US cops are guilty of overkill
By Justin Webb - The Times
Violence is bubbling – but not from the bottom. It’s coming from over-militarised police forces
Admit it: when you go on holiday to America you half expect to be shot. The place reeks — to British noses — with the sweet, sweaty odour of only half-suppressed animal aggression. When a wag in Miami tells you that their tourist slogan is: “Come again soon, we weren’t shooting at you!”, we giggle and go anyway in the hope of seeing some madman exchange fire with a bunch of cops at dusk on South Beach.
America is a scene from the movies — from the earliest westerns to Breaking Bad, the denouement is always the gunfight. That, we assume, is how Americans settle their differences.
We are half right. There is an ever- present clenched fist in American life: but it is the fist of the cop rather than the mugger. Paradoxically, in a nation where dislike of government is in the DNA, the state is allowed to rule with the crazy stare of a Hollywood serial killer. You don’t mess with American law enforcement.
At the moment the nation is grappling with racial divisions rekindled by the violent deaths of two men and a boy who did mess with the cops; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner on a Staten Island pavement, and 12-year-old Tamar Rice, shot dead by police in a Cleveland park. It is true that those three victims were black and the killers in each case were white. That is a source of perfectly legitimate debate and anguish.
But the real debate, the deeper malaise, is not the race problem but the violence problem. According to the FBI, 410 Americans were killed “justifiably” by police forces in 2012 — plenty more, of course, might have been killed “unjustifiably” but let us take that figure as a benchmark. In the UK the comparable figure was one, a single death in that whole year. Yes, Britain is smaller, but even given the population difference the chances of an individual getting shot by police in America are far higher.
Why are the forces of the American state so harsh? Is US society capable of maintaining itself only with a fist smashing into the faces of those who cause the slightest bit of trouble? A man complaining he cannot breathe? A boy in a park?
There are certainly some who see it that way. A decade ago Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies published their minor classic Why Do People Hate America? in which they argued: “In the history of America, both mythic and real, individual and communal violence created the state. Unable to provide justice and security and to be an effective instrument of the law, the state continued to legitimise the recourse to individual and group violence to ensure the self-preservation of the people.”
To them the violence perpetrated by the forces of law and order in a nation hostile to government and being governed is not a paradox at all; in fact the opposite: the two are sides of the same coin. Everyone’s trigger-happy because no one’s truly in charge.
They are wrong, I think, for two reasons. First, American society is actually very peaceful. If you really do go to Miami hoping to see a gunfight you will be sadly disappointed. And if you head out into the suburbs of most American cities, where most Americans live, you will be shocked (and bored rigid) by the civility of the place; American suburbs are remarkably free of the petty violent crime that scars British market towns. So the violence does not bubble up from the base. Even in inner-city badlands most people are minding their own business.
But the second reason they are wrong is a more worrying one: the violence certainly is bubbling, but the source seems to be a decades-long development of violent behaviour at the top, specifically by the police. This is not a part of the make-up of the US; it is a new direction. Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University, estimates that the most violent cops — the Swat teams — were sent out 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used 50,000 times a year. Among those new missions: the arrest of a man accused of organising cock-fighting.
Professor Kraska calls it militarisation. America never had Dixon of Dock Green but they did have a sense that the police combated individual crimes. Somewhere along the road the language changed and the thinking changed: now they fight wars; wars on drugs, wars on crime. Wars against bad guys rather than interactions with citizens who are both Jekyll and Hyde. Some Americans are talking about attaching cameras to their police to keep them decent. As a response it feels a little underpowered.
We used to laugh at folks who went to Idaho and barricaded themselves behind hefty stockades and waited for the Feds to come. Who’s laughing now?
Violence is bubbling – but not from the bottom. It’s coming from over-militarised police forces
Admit it: when you go on holiday to America you half expect to be shot. The place reeks — to British noses — with the sweet, sweaty odour of only half-suppressed animal aggression. When a wag in Miami tells you that their tourist slogan is: “Come again soon, we weren’t shooting at you!”, we giggle and go anyway in the hope of seeing some madman exchange fire with a bunch of cops at dusk on South Beach.
America is a scene from the movies — from the earliest westerns to Breaking Bad, the denouement is always the gunfight. That, we assume, is how Americans settle their differences.
We are half right. There is an ever- present clenched fist in American life: but it is the fist of the cop rather than the mugger. Paradoxically, in a nation where dislike of government is in the DNA, the state is allowed to rule with the crazy stare of a Hollywood serial killer. You don’t mess with American law enforcement.
At the moment the nation is grappling with racial divisions rekindled by the violent deaths of two men and a boy who did mess with the cops; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner on a Staten Island pavement, and 12-year-old Tamar Rice, shot dead by police in a Cleveland park. It is true that those three victims were black and the killers in each case were white. That is a source of perfectly legitimate debate and anguish.
But the real debate, the deeper malaise, is not the race problem but the violence problem. According to the FBI, 410 Americans were killed “justifiably” by police forces in 2012 — plenty more, of course, might have been killed “unjustifiably” but let us take that figure as a benchmark. In the UK the comparable figure was one, a single death in that whole year. Yes, Britain is smaller, but even given the population difference the chances of an individual getting shot by police in America are far higher.
Why are the forces of the American state so harsh? Is US society capable of maintaining itself only with a fist smashing into the faces of those who cause the slightest bit of trouble? A man complaining he cannot breathe? A boy in a park?
There are certainly some who see it that way. A decade ago Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies published their minor classic Why Do People Hate America? in which they argued: “In the history of America, both mythic and real, individual and communal violence created the state. Unable to provide justice and security and to be an effective instrument of the law, the state continued to legitimise the recourse to individual and group violence to ensure the self-preservation of the people.”
To them the violence perpetrated by the forces of law and order in a nation hostile to government and being governed is not a paradox at all; in fact the opposite: the two are sides of the same coin. Everyone’s trigger-happy because no one’s truly in charge.
They are wrong, I think, for two reasons. First, American society is actually very peaceful. If you really do go to Miami hoping to see a gunfight you will be sadly disappointed. And if you head out into the suburbs of most American cities, where most Americans live, you will be shocked (and bored rigid) by the civility of the place; American suburbs are remarkably free of the petty violent crime that scars British market towns. So the violence does not bubble up from the base. Even in inner-city badlands most people are minding their own business.
But the second reason they are wrong is a more worrying one: the violence certainly is bubbling, but the source seems to be a decades-long development of violent behaviour at the top, specifically by the police. This is not a part of the make-up of the US; it is a new direction. Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University, estimates that the most violent cops — the Swat teams — were sent out 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used 50,000 times a year. Among those new missions: the arrest of a man accused of organising cock-fighting.
Professor Kraska calls it militarisation. America never had Dixon of Dock Green but they did have a sense that the police combated individual crimes. Somewhere along the road the language changed and the thinking changed: now they fight wars; wars on drugs, wars on crime. Wars against bad guys rather than interactions with citizens who are both Jekyll and Hyde. Some Americans are talking about attaching cameras to their police to keep them decent. As a response it feels a little underpowered.
We used to laugh at folks who went to Idaho and barricaded themselves behind hefty stockades and waited for the Feds to come. Who’s laughing now?
Rabble Rousing (27 November 2014)
As I read this article by Bonnie Green, an American born commentator, my attention was drawn to a TV interview with the former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giulani, who was pointing out on screen that 'only' 1% of black Americans are killed by white cops and that 93% of deaths are the result of black on black killings.
Now I imagine these figures are accurate in which case strap line of the article is not just untrue, but irresponsible into the bargain.
Because as far as I can see Michael Brown was not shot as a result of the colour of his skin; rather he was being arrested after committing a violent robbery and shots were fired only after Mr Brown assaulted the police officer effecting his arrest.
So to suggest that white on black is the motive and the real problem facing African Americans seems ridiculous to me, as does the suggestion that Asian Americans have effectively become 'Uncle Toms' by replacing the white man as the Community's oppressors.
If I were an Asian American, I would feel quite insulted by such a cheap shot which smacks to me of prejudice against another ethnic minority, as I would if someone suggested that a Black Man is just acting 'stupid' while committing a violent robbery.
Now rousing a rabble is a useful thing to do sometimes, but political wisdom lies in knowing where you want to lead the rabble once roused, as opposed to playing to the gallery and making things worse.
And in Bonnie Greer's case I think she is just leading people up the garden path, from the relative safety and comfort of her adopted home in the UK, particularly as news filters through of another death during the Ferguson riots of another Black Man, DeAndre Joshua, who was shot and died in his car.
Now the circumstances surrounding this young man's killing are not clear as and although it seems likely DeAndre was murdered one thing's for sure, he wasn't shot by a white cop which means there won't be a big campaign over his sad and untimely death.
Ferguson: The sad truth is that Michael Brown was killed because he was a black man
If you’re a black man you can still get mowed down by an officer
By BONNIE GREER - The Independent
Forty-six years ago this past spring, I was on the edge of throwing a brick. On a warm spring evening in early April, just as I was about to go out and clandestinely meet my boyfriend, I heard over my transistor radio that Martin Luther King had been murdered in Memphis.
I can remember staring in the mirror and thinking what would become of me. How would I be able to proceed now in the country of my birth, the country my father fought for in a segregated army during World War Two, and which he was proud of, although wary.
It was then, somewhere inside I think, that I began to feel that my life – if I was going to have one at all – would have to be elsewhere. Where, I didn’t know. But not in America. Yet I didn’t resort to violence, didn’t give in to the rage and despair inside of me because my father hadn’t; my mother hadn’t. They had endured.
That was and is my template. Back in those days, watching the streets of my hometown of Chicago burn, watching streets burn all over America, watching the people my age and younger confronting the police, breaking into shops, carrying off goods as if taking the American Dream by force, I found myself understanding them. Being with them, in a way.
When you’re young you’re raging all of the time. Living in a society in which your very presence is seen as a threat and an invitation to the criminal justice system is enough to break anyone. Public Enemy’s prescient title “Fear of a Black Planet” nails America’s existential crisis with black people and black men. The explanation for this can sound like a nonsense. And in a way it is. You have to live there, be there to understand.
I don’t know Ferguson, Missouri. But I do. I imagine it to be much like the South Side of Chicago, where I grew up, once full of white people, now gone – and with them the amenities, the niceties. In their place come the “chicken shacks” and barbecue joints; McDonald’s; and expensive places to buy smartphones; the small grocery shops run by marginal people, too, but they are what Americans call “Asian” – of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean descent.
To the Community, they became the White People.
To the Community, they became the receptacles of the rage and the despair and the angst.
All the while you live in this as Black Man. What that means, among other things is this: if you’re stopped by the police you put your hands on the top of the wheel and keep your mouth shut. It means that you can cause havoc by just walking into a shop, and maybe you act stupid because of that.
A black BBC correspondent friend of mine – a no-nonsense Northerner through and through – was once helping the movers get him and his wife into a Washington DC house while on assignment. His neighbour came over and said to his wife that she didn’t like all of “those black guys” congregating in front of her grass.
A man is wheeled on a stretcher after being shot on Chicago’s South Side, on a bloody July 4 weekend this year (AP)
My friend was summoned by his wife out of the group of movers and she repeated what the woman had told her. My friend asked the neighbour to get out of his house.
He never forgot it. He never felt comfortable again there.
Sure, if you have money, or are a TV personality or a big music star, America is fine. Because the real class divide in the USA is between the “have nots”, the “haves” – and the “have yachts”. If you can get into the last two categories, you can buy your own reality. Money talks and walks. But if you’re a black man, you can still get mowed down by a householder, or Officer Friendly.
And then there’s the President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military on earth; the head of the number-one economy on the planet. Except from Day One he has been seen by many in the land of his birth as an alien, as something outside of the norm; as suspect; a plant; a Muslim Manchurian Candidate; someone set out to “undermine the American way of life”.
When President Obama said of young Trayvon Martin – gunned down by a man told by the police to not use deadly force – “Trayvon could’ve been my son” – all hell broke loose. You would imagine that the citizens of the Republic would have been touched by the President’s empathy. Instead, for them, this was yet one more example of “POTUS, the enemy within”.
To judge this presidency by any normal parameters is not possible because it has not been allowed to be possible, to be normal. Because Barack Obama is a black man. The same reason that Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. That’s the truth and I’m sorry to have to say so.
