ALL Life Maters – Shame on the African American Community

It must be clear that I am not one for tolerating abuse of power on anyone.  It does not matter if they are Black/African-American, LeTs Bi Gay, Hispanic, Asian, or even white.  No police or military organization should abuse their power any more than political leaders.  With that said, I must also say “Shame on the African American Community!”

  

While they want to protest the abuse of power by the police department, in what mind set are they saying that for a police officer to not defend themselves against people who are resisting arrest not right?  During all of the protest for reform, I have yet to hear a single protest for the 12 year old, Tamir who was shot by the police.  He is the only one who in the past 6 months has been shot by a police officer when he was NOT resisting arrest.  He is the only one who had not shown any hostility, anger or verbal abuse against an officer.  That is where abuse of power is shining the brightest.  This is the only incident that the police failed to protect the community as a whole.  And yet, where are the protest for him?

Instead, it appears the Black community has latched on to three people who were in the process of resisting arrest, one even pulling a gun on the arresting officer.  One physically fighting with an officer, and the third, while struggling to resist being arrested,

From those three people rites have erupted, and recently the death of two police officers have been committed by a person moved by the protest.  There have been businesses looted or burned down.  Physical violence against other protesters has happened.  All from the cries of the Black community leaders who demand change, but don’t guide their community to do it in a positive way.  What happened to learning from Dr. King, or Gandhi?  What happened to do peaceful protest as happened 50 years ago in Selma?  These leaders would rather continue to protest when they have been asked to show support for the fallen officers by not protesting for a short time. 

Joo-Hyun Kang, executive Director of Communities United for Police Reform, said halting the protest would be misguided.  Seriously?  When all hell breaks out and another protest destroys businesses and homes who is Joo-Hyun going to call?  Why is it misguided to show respect to the Police that are trying to protect the community? 

I had asked once before in another blog post, “Why is it ok to protest for people who were resisting arrest and not for the 12 year old boy killed in a park?”  Where are the calls from the Black community leaders to change the mindset of their community members to stop committing crime? 

Crime is not a race issue, ALL races do it!  It is up to ALL of us to teach that breaking the law is wrong, and that if you do it and are caught or even suspected of doing it, don’t resist arrest.  Don’t put yourself in that position of losing your life.  And yes, I realize there have been a lot of people who have been wrongly convicted of a crime, and thankfully, many of those people are getting their day in court and are being proven innocent.

There are many core issues in play here, and for any community leader to not acknowledge it, and to not guide protesters in a positive life affirming way to correct the issue, then they should be held accountable for their actions or lack of actions.  Two police officers were killed, is this enough blood to satisfy the community leaders, or will there be more?

I thank Mrs Garner, mother of one of the victims to have come out against the violence against the two officers.  And yes, while Mr. Sharpton was present and made a statement, his lack of guidance to the protesters from day one added to the fuel of protesters that created crime during the protesting, including the deaths of these officers.

I sincerely hope that the leaders of the Black community come out and protest wrongful deaths such as Tamir, the 12 year old shot in a park, and not for those who were in the process of resisting arrest.  Be clear that if you want changes to how abuse is seen, then select the cases that are truly abuse of power and not just the result of criminals acting out.  Until then, change will not happen!