Social media has allowed for us to be ultra connected, up to the minute on what is happening in the world and now to be witnesses to police brutality. On Wednesday night, a Minnesota woman live streamed a video of a police officer repeatedly shooting her boyfriend. I wasn’t in the car, nor was I anywhere near the scene, but wow, did I just witness a murder?
Apparently, the traffic stop was initiated because of a broken taillight. I have been pulled over for a broken taillight before, pretty run of the mill stop. Your taillight is out, get it fixed, blah, blah, blah… life goes on, and you get it fixed. Not this time, Philando Castile’s life won't—the itchy trigger finger of a low-life cop ended his.
Castile was asked to produce his license and registration, and was cooperating with the officer. He told the officer that the documents were in his wallet, but he also informed the officer that he had a weapon and that he was licensed to carry it. I highly doubt that Castile told the officer about his weapon because he intended to use it on him. I would put money on the table that he told the officer about the weapon in order to not get shot. Worked out well, right?
By all accounts, Castile was a hard working man, an upstanding citizen who prepared lunches for teenagers at a local high school. Castile was not the criminal that he was profiled as by the officer. There in lies the problem.
This story is getting so old; the police are supposed to protect us, not kill us. It feels like groundhog day—it is pure insanity. Protecting us is not profiling based on race, the color of your skin does not make you a criminal; it does not make you a danger to society. The color of your skin is nothing but a color; it is a different shade of human. Why can’t we see that? We see Muslims as terrorists, Latinos as drug smuggling rapists, we see black people as criminals; and I am going out on limb here and say that white people should be seen as racists, bigots, and hate mongers.
Not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Latino’s are drug smuggling rapists, not all black people are criminals and not all white people are racist. So why are we going to lump everyone together and create these profiles based on race, religion, or the color of ones skin? I am a white atheist; I am not racist; I don’t care what color your skin is, the truth is, it is only skin. Your religion is your religion and it is fine by me—what someone believes has no bearing on me what so ever and it does not change the way I perceive anyone.
I just cant handle it anymore; I just can't.
