Logged onto Facebook, have not been doing that as much lately. The past week was beyond draining and heartbreaking…. So to try and ease my mind and heart I just logged off of social media. It was just too much. I had to decompress.
Watching people getting killed, hearing about all of that death over and over and over again… it just began to be way too much for me.
So I logged on and the first thing Facebook showed me was a memory. It was July 2013 during the George Zimmerman trial, I had a long post about justice and equality, etc…. It struck a nerve and I got instantly sick in my stomach again….logged right back off.
It’s been three years since Trayvon Martin was gunned down for walking down a street with a hood on and skittles in his hand and basketball on his mind. That thought alone ushered me right back into anger, rage, hurt, and pain.
If more people would have gotten upset about what happened to Trayvon, if more people did not make excuses or wait for the investigation, if more people got the mentality of enough is enough then where would we be today? Would Tamir still be alive?? I think like that a lot… if more people were outraged about the murder of Rekia Boyd would there have even been a RIP hashtag for Sandra Bland (who has been gone now for an entire year). If more people were outraged by what happened to John Crawford, would Philando still be alive?
If we would have seriously addressed why someone needed to say that black lives do in fact matter in the first place, instead of getting offended would we still have to say it? Would more people look at the data and agree, yes something needs to be done immediately.
(Rates of police killings were calculated using police killings data from January 2013 - June 2016, along with 2010 US Census population data by race and crime data from the 2014 FBI Uniform Crime Report. Police departments included in this analysis reflect the police forces of the 100 largest U.S. cities. For more information and a complete chart go to: http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/compare-police-de...).
So many people want to take action and many are tired of talking about it. Me for one. I am tired of trying to reason with people who always have a but… or a what if… or a maybe they should not have…etc…etc…etc…For all of those people please refer to my last article about conditional freedom because that is what that is. Saying your free but when you act free it is a problem.
(Insert meme about untrained citizens having more composure than trained officers).
Those people were innocent, not perfect, but innocent. Those people were also not given their constitutional rights in this country. Specifically the eighth amendment:
Amendment VIII:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
I may not know everything. I honestly do not even understand fully how to stop this. Protesting is not enough…talking is not enough….hashtags and social media conversations is not enough. I do know that enough is enough. Last week, I barely ate…stomach was in knots…I barely slept….kept seeing images over and over again. Today I was a little discouraged as I look over my timeline, I see people posting pictures of Police attacking protestors all over the country.
With so many protests, people shutting down malls… SO many politicians are eerily quiet….not many are taking a stand and really saying enough is enough…. Even democrats are sitting down in a time where they are supposed to be getting laws and bills together to spark a change and be the voice of the people…especially since this is an election year. Here is where you can see where your state representative stands with police accountability.
A friend of mine posted something on Facebook that really had my mind in deep thought. She asked her Facebook friends, what if it was her?? How would you react…. I thought about that a lot. What if it was me? What if it was my name in a hashtag?? What if they tried to assassinate my character….the media would go looking for a picture of me from when I was a teenager going to the club or something. I have a clean criminal record, so I don’t know the angel there. Guess they would try and find someone in my past who doesn’t like me and use that rhetoric to redefine my image and strip me of my humanity. I wonder would people demand justice or would I fade into the background lost, gone, and forgotten…Only to be replaced by the latest trend…this week…Pokemon.
Wonder if the killer would walk away untouched, get a paid vacation only to be reinstated free to walk the streets again to kill again or sell the gun for money and a good laugh. Wonder if my family would have to endure me being mocked or worn as a Halloween costume.
I just do not want to be another hashtag……