You have watched someone be murdered.
You have seen that with your own eyes.
It's not a movie. It's not a book. It's not a video game. It's not a black and white picture from the 1880's.
You have seen someone wretch the last breaths from a human being's chest. You have watched real bullets tear through real [black] flesh. You have heard the palpable fear of the last words: "I can't breathe."
And you click share. And you hashtag. And you press play again. It's a different video, taken on a different phone, in a different city. It's a different person. Another name added to the list. Another human being publicly executed, without notice, without trial, without mercy.
The one man or two men or four men that you witnessed committing the gravest crime on Earth- you will watch them go home safely with a paycheck, you will watch them stand trial, you will watch them be acquitted.
You have witnessed them break spinal chords, and hyoid bones. You have witnessed them rip open lungs and electrocute hearts.
This is not a movie. This is not a book. This is not a video game.
This is not an actor that was cut from the script. This is not a character that needed to be sacrificed. This is not an avatar that got taken out by the enemy.
This is a person, once-breathing, once-reading to his children.
I stopped watching the videos after I witnessed Eric Garner murdered- choked to death- by four policemen. I couldn't turn up the volume on another murder scene after I heard him beg for his life.
I don't know how juries can watch those videos and find the defendants "Not Guilty". I don't know why that evidence is ever dismissed. I don't know how witnesses from every corner of the world are denied the truth.
This article isn't a how-to on civil disobedience and activism. This article isn't about black versus blue.
This is for you to understand the gravity of the two-minute video you just watched, whether you are angry about police brutality or not.
We are watching human beings be slaughtered by people that are protected by our government.
