What is the value of human life?
By TATIANA PROPHET
There is a very real hidden enemy that is thinking that the answer to that question is “zero.” Zero value to human life. As long as no one finds out about how they truly feel. And they are definitely racist, disgustingly racist. They fear and loathe anyone who is not like them.
How do they get away with it? They’re not willing to spend the money — and require the efficiency needed — to protect all law-abiding citizens, as well as some not-so-law-abiding, from execution in the streets and far too many shocking body-cam videos.
After the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., the Eric Holder DOJ (under President Obama) ruled that the evidence did not support charging Officer Darren Wilson with a federal crime. While witnesses had said that Brown did not put his hands on Wilson in the SUV, forensic evidence showed that he did reach in and punch the officer, including DNA in the vehicle. Witness accounts of Brown putting his hands up were also inconsistent with the physical evidence, according to the report, and the witnesses later admitted they didn't actually see what was going on when he would have had the chance to put his hands up.
That said, in a separate report the Obama DOJ documented how bad the relationship was between the citizens of Ferguson and the police. Ferguson is a majority black city, and the DOJ documented how budget contraints put pressure on officers to pursue young men and make arrests.
It is only Tuesday, but it feels like it’s been a week since we heard about the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by police officer Kim Potter in Brooklyn Center, Minn. The bodycam footage shows that Potter meant to use her taser, but instead brought out and fired her weapon once, killing the 20-year-old Wright after he moved away from the officers to get back in his car.
It’s mind-boggling that a 26-year veteran of law enforcement would mistake a Glock for a taser — even in a heated moment. We don’t have the training manual and we don’t know where on her body she kept each weapon; but this latest unnecessary officer-involved shooting of an American citizen might be a low point simply because of how “accidental” it was.
It makes me wonder if defunding the police in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder, was indeed the right thing to do. I surmise that it was the exact opposite of the right thing to do, and that the politicians and others in charge more often than not know this. They know what it takes to stop crime and hold perps accountable, at the same time having a good relationship with the community. But they’re not committing the money to it. Why?
Why aren’t they making sure that no matter someone’s race, name, class, rap sheet or perceived offense, the likelihood that a United States citizen would be accidentally shot in the presence of police is infinitesimal.
That is why we hear “Black Lives Matter.” While on a whole, more unarmed white people are killed by police every year, black Americans are more likely to be killed because they make up about 26 percent of those killed by police each year. That number is unacceptable because the black population is about 13 percent in the United States.
Racism is not the only reason they are more likely to be killed. In fact, there are probably 10 main reasons. If you looked at poverty, you’d probably see a disproportionate amount of poor whites and blacks who are killed by police, also. This is not always the case, as we’ve shown in previous articles with some pretty high-profile deadly flame-outs. See the Washington Post’s database of all police shootings since 2015.
So you can say “All Lives Matter,” or “Black Lives Matter,” but in this country that is not true. If they did, we would spare literally NO EXPENSE to ensure that in the “greatest country on earth,” an arrest due to a warrant for armed robbery does not result in an instant death sentence. And that includes teaching our young men and women to follow police instructions.
And while we’re at it, we should decide that our children in school deserve at least as much full-time armed protection as a jewelry store. Anything less means that their lives don’t — really — matter.
This is why the public feels helpless and hopeless when these events happen. They feel hopeless not only because of the loss of often-young life, but because they can tell they’re being manipulated. They know that in spite of all the rhetoric during the aftermath, nothing ever seems to get done.
What is it worth to you?
