OPEN SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE?
AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I first started this essay, the most recent death of a black person by a white man was Eric Garner. Since then, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; a black teenager was killed by a white man for playing music too loud in his vehicle (I was unaware this is a capital crime), a young black woman was fatally shot in the face by a white man after she knocked on his door at night (she was drunk, had wrecked her car, and was presumable looking for help), a 12-year-old black boy was killed by police in Cleveland, and a black man carrying an unloaded gun in a Wal-Mart was fatally shot by police (he had picked up the gun at the store and someone called the police). I kept putting off updating this essay because it was getting overwhelming keeping up with all the deaths of black people at the hands (and guns) of white people. So I decided to run it as originally written, with this additional note to update readers on the continuing carnage. Below is the original essay. The situation has only gotten worse.
OPEN SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE?
With the recent choke hold death of Eric Garner, an African-American suspected of illegally selling cigarettes, the “Stand Your Ground” death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, and the odd circumstances in the death of Kendrick Johnson, I am compelled to ask, “Is it open season on black people in America?”
All of these victims were black. Eric Garner was accused of selling cigarettes illegally–cigarettes, mind you, not heroin or cocaine or even marijuana, just plain old tobacco cigarettes–and was put in a choke hold by a police officer and taken to the ground by several New York City law enforcement officers when he resisted arrest. He didn’t fight or try to hit anyone; he just pulled his arms away when they attempted to cuff him. He was a big man, towering over the other people there and outweighing them. The police were probably intimidated. But I suspect Garner was intimidated, too, with several people surrounding him. When he pulled his arms away and told the police not to touch him, one officer put him in a choke hold and the others piled on, pulling him to the ground. As his head was held down to one side, Garner said, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Though he was on his abdomen and subdued, his head wasn’t released and no one attempted to help him with his breathing problems. The man died right there on the sidewalk, with EMTs and paramedics standing by. One woman checked his pulse; no one did CPR (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-chokehold-arrest-of-eric-garner-ruled-homicide-by-medical-examiner/; http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-garner-homicide-20140801-story.html; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014).
Was Eric Garner so dangerous that he deserved the death penalty? No, he was accused of selling cigarettes, not murder. It was announced on the news on August 1 that the coroner has ruled his death a homicide. Good. This didn’t have to happen. I understand that the police are under great pressure, that they are human and make mistakes. I also understand what it’s like to be in physical confrontations. I was a mental health nurse working in locked units for years and I’ve been involved in more “take-downs” of psychiatric patients than I can remember. It’s scary, I know. Sadly, though, a lot of mistakes were made with Garner. Choke holds are prohibited by the New York City Police Department, yet an officer used one. No one paid any heed to Garner’s complaints that he couldn’t breathe. No one tried to resuscitate him (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-chokehold-arrest-of-eric-garner-ruled-homicide-by-medical-examiner/; http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-garner-homicide-20140801-story.html; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014). If any one of these mistakes weren’t made, Eric Garner might still be alive today.
It’s a tragedy that this happened. But, unfortunately, Garner is just the latest victim. Trayvon Martin was killed because George Zimmerman followed him, thinking he looked “suspicious” in his hoodie. Martin, standing his ground and likely unnerved at being followed, eventually turned and hit Zimmerman, who shot him. Zimmerman was acquitted of Trayvon Martin’s murder.
In the case of Kendrick Johnson, we don’t even know who the killer is. In fact, it appears that the (white) local authorities tried to cover up his murder with the creative, but improbable, story that 17-year-old Johnson became stuck in a rolled-up wrestling mat while trying to retrieve a fallen shoe and accidentally suffocated in January 2013. However, that doesn’t explain how his organs were removed and replaced with newspapers. Kind of hard for that to accidentally happen. A federal prosecutor investigated, and now so is the FBI (http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/justice/kendrick-johnson-schoolmates-subpoena/; http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/31/kendrick-johnson-prosecutor/3324923; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014). Johnson’s parents have sued officials at the Georgia high school where their son died and have also sued the funeral home that handled his body (http://cbsnews.com/news/wrongful-death-suit-against-school-system-in-gym-mat-death/; accessed Aug. 2, 2014).
It does seem that black people’s lives don’t matter as much as white people’s lives. Would the police or medical personnel have treated Eric Garner differently if he was white? Would George Zimmerman have been acquitted if Trayvon Martin was white? Would Kendrick Johnson still be alive or would the police have handled the case differently if he was white? Race relations have improved considerably over the past 50 years, but we obviously have a long way to go. Maybe in another 50 years these sorts of questions won’t be necessary.
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