Tragic in America Part two: Blue Privilege

In part one of of this two part blog, I'd discussed the verdict of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner case. I talked about how the countless other murders that were similar to these two deaths, how the murders of these people seem to always get off, and how it seems like black people have not escape the rules/terms of the three/fifths compromise. In that post, I was speaking as an angry black person that was fed up with all the injustice that has fallen upon black people. Now for this post, I will look at the other side of the coin in an effort to come to some sort of solution to this problem. There have been a lot of time about white privilege during this whole situation. A lot of people have been throwing around the race card as well. While I am not saying race is not a major factor in the world, I do believe that this is not the only factor in these crimes. Race is just one of many tools to hide the true issue, which in this case just happen to be the police.

Now since I can remember, there have seemed to be a bad relationship between blacks and the police. From what I can tell, the problem seems to be that a good amount of  black people do not trust the police, and a good amount of the police seem to think that black people are always up to no good. Now factor in those to facts and apply them to these cases. In all these cases that I mentioned in my previous blog, the killers just so happened to be the police and the victims were black. When asked why did they use such lethal force, one thing that all the police had in common is that during some point during the altercation the police feared for their lives. Keep in mind that all the victims were unarmed. Now I may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but if the person is unarmed then why use deadly force? I am sure that with all of their training and other means to subdue a person, there is no reason at all that these officers had to kill these people and likewise, there is no why the victims are not here with us today. 

Just like all black people are not thugs, gangsters, and drug dealers not all police are not bad/crooked. It just that the ones that are bad gives the perceptive that the rest are the same way and that goes for both sides. The question is why do the police always seem to get off scoot free? It because of blue privilege. You may be wondering what blue privilege is at this point. Blue privilege is special rights that only the police have. They take the oath to protect and uphold the laws of the land but it seems that some feel like they are above the law in a sense. One may say the police pick and chose which laws they chose to follow and enforce. In the cases that I mentioned, they did not give these victims their right to due progress and to be tried by a group of their peers. If we do not honor these rights, then we are no better than the counties that we fight in wars.

Now in part one of this blog series, I did say I would talk about the police view of things so I am about to play devils advocate for a quick minute. At the end of the day, when you take the uniform, badge, and car away from the police, they are still people at the end of the day.These people are somebodies son or daughter and they may have a family to come home to at the end of their shift. Being a police officer is one of the hardest/dangerous jobs out their, and it does take a toll on you. At the end of the day, we all are humans and mistakes do happen. Are they as big as killing someone? No, but until we put ourselves not only in their shoes and in these situations we cannot say what we would do in the heat of the moment.

With all that being said, with these two post about the killings of unarmed black people by officers of the law, I will ask again; What is the solution to this serious problem? Like I stated in the previous post, I don't have the answer. One the other, someone did come up with a few solutions that can actually them work. Back in November while I was listening to The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne Tha God offered some solutions to this problem. One thing he suggested was retraining cops and better training them as well. He suggested that there should be a better screening process to see who can become cops. He also suggested that cops need to hold other cops reliable for the actions that they do. The last suggestion he made would make the most change in my option. He suggested that we need more black cops. Instead of saying fuck the police, we need to encourage people to join the force. Instead of teaching our kids to be afraid of the cops and not to trust them, we should encourage them to think about being a cop when they grow up. The best way to change the system is from within.

Can this issue be solved? Yes it can. When will the change come? Eventually, but I don't see it coming anytime soon. To be honest, this issue has been around for hundreds of years, and I don't see the resolution coming in my generation. It may come, but for true change to come, we need to stop seeing people for their jobs and race, and start truly looking at folks as humans. No matter who we are, our background, or how we look, we all are humans and we all are the same on the inside. In the bigger picture, what we think divides us should actually bring us together. Well I hope this two part series have inspire someone to start the change that the world really needs. That is all for now but as always: Live, Be Great, Do Dope Shit. 

Tragically in America Part 1: The new 3/5 of a person rule?

Well ladies and germs, here we are once again. Now for the whole month of November i did not post a blog, and while I was gone some major events happened in the land of the free and home of the brave. If you haven't been living under a rock, then you should know what I am talking about. In November, two high profile cases made the same verdict in the respected cases.  In the cases of Michael Brown, the 18 year old that was shot and killed by a police  and Eric Garner, the 43 year old who died after police applied an illegal choke hold on him, both cops in the matter at hand were not indicted on charges after both cases were brought before the grand jury. Then on top of that. both decisions were announced within 8 days. Originally, I was just going to voice out my anger about this and let that be that. After some time and some thinking, I have came up with a another side to these tragic events. So for today's post, I will voice my anger, and disgust with this growing trend of black man getting killed by the police. On another post, I will put these situation into another prospective.

Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. This has been a recurring thing throughout the history of America. Before the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, you have the case of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old black teenager who was gunned down for "looking suspicious" while walking home from the neighborhood 7/11 back in 2012. you have John Crawford III, a 22 year old who was gunned down by police because they thought the bebe gun he held in his hands was a real gun. You have Oscar Grant, a 22 year old who was shot by the police while his hands were handcuffed behind his back on New Years day back in 2009. Then you have Sean Bell, a 23 year old black male who was killed when the police shot 50 bullets at his  car the night before he was supped to be married. I could go on and on naming black lives that were cut short back the police for no reason at all.

Now after reading this post thus far, you may be wondering how does this tie into the title of this post. Well in cases you didn't know, 3/5 of a person refers to how blacks were represented during the time of slavery.  As we all know, blacks were not treated well at all during slavery. They were treated and considered just property to their masters and most of America during this time. Now when it came down for taxes and counting people to determine the number of representatives for each state, the south wanted to include the slaves in this count while the north wanted to exclude the slaves from the count. After much debate, the north and the South came to a compromise that would allow the southern state to count every three slaves as one person for representation, thus beginning the Three/fifths compromise.

Okay after that brief history lesson, you are probably wondering what that has to these killings of black people by the police. Well after the verdict of the Eric Garner case, I started to think about how many people get indicted on killing black people. After doing some research, and believe I took me a while, I actually found a few times in which people were indicted and/or faced jail time for the killing of black people. While there are times where justice is served, the number of times people have got off free sadly outweighs the number of people who get off for these actions. When I did my research on the topic, I did find about 4 to 5 cases in which a person was indicted on charges of killing a person. While that is all good and stuff, that numbers doesn't even compare to the dozens of case that I saw in which nothing happened at all. To me, it seems like for every one case that gets an indicted for a wrongly killing of a black person, it is about 12 other cases in which the killer gets away with no repercussions.

With all of that being said, what is the solution to this problem? Well to be honest, I don't know. As I was growing up, my mother would tell me to keep my nose clean so I won't be placed in bad situations. Nowadays, that rule does not apply. You can be doing nothing wrong/minding your own business and still be killed by the police for no just case. After the whole Eric Garner verdict was broadcast to the masses, the President would hold a press conference about the situation and would suggest police wear body cameras. While that is a good idea in theory, what good will that do when the killing of Eric Garner was  caught on tape and nothing happened? To be honest, there is a solution to this problem somewhere but I just don't see it.

I not one to just give up because I know things will get better. If not for me, then things will be better for my baby cousins, my nephews/nieces, and my future offspring. I hope and pray that they will not experience the things and have the fears that most if not all black people face in today's times. I don't know about the rest of the world, but if it doesn't want to change then I will be the means in which positive change shall come. In closing, I will just say pray for better days, and don't let these deaths mean nothing. Let their lives be the venue in which change occurs.