Thursday, December 4, 2014

And the Injustice Train Keeps Running

Well, I was only going to speak of sunshine and unicorns today, but I saw yet another shocking injustice that has knocked the wind out of me. I'm sure everyone has heard of Eric Garner, who was stopped by police on the suspicion of selling loose cigarettes(loose cigs, what a horrible danger to society!). and had the audacity to be a little lippy, and ended up in a chokehold by one officer, and held down by numerous others. There were easily 6 or 7 cops, over one unarmed man who may or may not have been selling loose cigarettes, but we will never know because he's dead. The video of his murder is all over the internet, as various by standers caught it. He was ay one point clearly saying he couldn't breathe, and you could hear the struggle for breath in his voice. The cops will not be facing a trial. At this point, it seems pointless to arm police with body cameras, because they can do what they want, regardless.  Eric Garner clearly had no weapon, and he was simply telling the cop that he had not been selling loose cigs, and that he was tired of being harassed, and he wasn't cussing, he wasn't being aggressive in a physical way. This is not okay that cops are getting this aggressive. I don't think we are supposed to fear police, and I certainly think we should have the right to say hey, I'm not selling loose cigarettes. And there was no reason for the chokehold to begin with, as the cops easily outnumbered him. It's always that way, they can never do anything on their own. And when I hear people on Fox News gloating over the Darren Wilson, and calling for Michael Brown's stepfather to be prosecuted for something he said when his emotions had taken over, and now this news, last week I was super pissed, this week I'm sad. When I'm out and about, and I see the holiday lights, and hear the music, it feels crass. Fox news goes on about morals, and faith, and it definitely has a Christian spin to it, and yet they are so judgmental. I wonder how any of them would react if this were their child, family, community. And as people are analyzing theses situations, I keep hearing there are good cops, and I know a good cop, and so on and so forth. And logically I know this has to be true, but where are they? I would be really pissed if I were a "good" cop right now. Where has compassion and kindness gone? I truly don't know. I feel like the generation before me, and my generation have massively failed, because this sort of thing shouldn't still be happening, it's like we've stopped evolving as humans, but hey, look how far we've come with technology!
Anyway, if you haven't seen the Eric Garner video, and are interested, I watched it on Secular TV on YouTube, it's pretty brutal to watch. I don't think anyone should ever die over allegedly selling loose cigs.

No comments:

Post a Comment