The wholesale killing of unarmed Black men must stop. Enough cop killings are enough! Stop this police brutality now!
It never ceases to amaze me that a white gunman can kill a large number of people and they can be captured alive. For instance, the young white boy that killed Black Christians at their weekly prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
The cops in that case actually stopped by the local Burger King to buy him a hamburger because he was hungry after the mayhem and brief boyhunt.
What kind of sense does this make?
Give me one example where a Black man was captured for an alleged murder and taken to his favorite soul food cafe for pork chops and collard greens on the way to face a jury of his peers. A jury that could put him away for the rest of his life or end it altogether.
Pause…
Give up?
I didn’t think you could come up with one.
Equally, I am befuddled by the fact the most minor offenses by unarmed Black men end so tragically in their death, by gunshots to the head or in the back from “brave” and “courageous” cops.
This all leads me to conclude white cops believe they must communicate with Black alleged offenders more aggressively from the get go than they do to white offenders, even those who have committed atrocious acts of violence.
Why is this?
The experts are quick to point out that everything the officers do in these shootings are per protocol. In one sense they are correct. Once a situation has escalated to a danger to officer or the public, violent force is necessary to end the event.
But here’s the rub.
When white cops approach Black citizens, they are on a heightened sense of alert. It can be argued this level of engagement is based upon the cops socialization and inherent racial bias towards dishing out favor to white citizens and harsh treatment to Blacks.
Until local, state and federal law enforcement agencies come to grip with the racial component of these mass killings, they will continue to occur.
There is one other solution. Black men must realize that when a white cop approaches them they are being approached by a coward,who fears them. Armed with this knowledge, Black men must take advantage of the fear of the coward and use it to stay alive in such citizen-police confrontations.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at [email protected]