Behind the Badge

Quote an article from NewsOne from Juli 6th, 2012:

Pattern of Murders By the Numbers Since January 1, 2012

Thirty cases of state sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the first 3 months of 2012 alone have been found (due to under reporting and discriminatory methods of documentation, it is likely that there are more that our research has yet to uncover)

Of the 30 killed people, 20 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8 were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.

Of the 30 killed people:

12 were innocent of any illegal behavior or behavior that involved a threat to anyone (although the killers claimed they looked “suspicious”);

8 were emotionally disturbed and/or displaying strange behavior.

The remaining 10 were either engaged in illegal or potentially illegal activity, or there was too little info to determine circumstances of their killing.

It appears that in all but two of these cases, illegal and/or harmful behavior could have been stopped without the use of lethal force.

In most cases, where planned, investigations of the deaths have not been completed.

Note: Only seven of the 30 killed people were over 30 years old and two of the six were 31 years old. Two were women.

That is just three months worth of killings by the US police in 2012. And 2020 – eight years on – nothing much has changed, by the looks of it. It seems, racism is still a far too big issue.

Having said that, the police here in Germany is turning more and more to the far right, too. Much of this is caused by the inability of the justice system to function as it should. Thus forcing the police to catch the same criminals over and over again, just to see them out on the streets again soon after their arrest. But this is no excuse for racism or xenophobia. It is a reason to protest, but not to take justice into your own hands.

Where this leads to can be seen in America. The imbalance of their justice system is blatantly obvious, prisons overflowing with inmates of colour. The police officer suffocating a man – George Floyd – helplessly lying head down on the road is dimissed. Oh, really? Where is the murder charge?

I have no idea, how this can be in the land of the free. And how to stop it. I fear this new incidence might cause even more violence…

I have an acquaintance, who is also a customer and a facebook-friend, who made a post about the above mentioned, latest police killing of a coloured man. He accuses me (and everyone else not reacting to his post) of being indifferent. I am not. I just don’t know how to react. It is not going to help much, expressing any sympathy for his rage or hurt online. And I thought, it would be cheap to just jump this latest train of outrage about something, that is systematically outrageous in itself. But can only be changed by the American People. Not letting their executive behave in such a way. And if they do – not letting them get away with it. With what is going on politically in America right now – I don’t have much hope. Sad to say.

3 thoughts on “Behind the Badge”

  1. On the bright side, in the four days since you wrote this the four men were arrested and charged. On the less hopeful side, now starts the long slog and the holding of breath till we find out if they are convicted (or acquitted, as usual). Yes the US is an utter mess right now. But I can’t help but feel that something big is finally happening . . . I’m a sad, sad, optimist.

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