The “Comedy and Tragedy” of America: U.S Metropolises Transformed to “Gotham Cities”
The sights and sounds are that of a “Gotham City.” What I am seeing are cities resembling the likes of those in comic books. Men representing the State and the Law appear like the pompous “Penguin” and “Riddler” speaking in riddles.
The Superhero, in the guise of a wealthy businessman fighting crime and corruption, is nowhere to be found. The “Cape Crusader” has been replaced by the sardonic reflection of a “Joker” whose business is to play jokes with world.
Around the world, the cries of George Floyd can still be heard, “I can’t breathe.” Revolted by the police officers’ abuse of power, the people have taken to city streets across the nation.
From Kingdoms to Houses on a Hill, the maxim of those in power has been let them eat shit or die trying. For centuries up to the more recent hunt in Georgia to now Minneapolis, the killing of Black Men and Women continues in a nation that prides itself in the farce of “all men are created equal.”
As cities across the U.S. rage in fire and protest, its president attempts to turn its peoples’ attention thousands of miles away to Hong Kong where protests are simultaneously taking place. And adding insult to injury to his own people, he hypocritically describes China as “one country with two systems.”
Sir, look past your invisible mask to your nations’ two systems: Black and White. Open your eyes as the country is on fire!
America was built on a lie contaminated with the Virus of Racism. Where’s the cure? History’s dashboard reads: Billions of cases. Millions of Deaths. No Reparations. No Justice. No Recovery.
Political figures and ruling corporations have created and promoted economic instability resulting in communities pinned neighbor against neighbor. Seeing how the corruption is now literally in their face, neighbor is uniting with neighbor, from all ages, genders, classes and colors.
The People are tired of breathing the toxicity in the air of what’s become an open prison society: Locked down, or forced to work unable to protect themselves from the dangers of disease or death, or fired from jobs and forced to line up for food, or forced out of their homes onto the streets, and from being near their loved one as they take their last breath.
Sir, the people can no longer breathe and are literally sick and tired as their leader appears to sit in silence.
The “Blue Wall of Silence”: Protecting the “Bad Apples” but Condemning the “True Blue” Officers
Seeing a law enforcement officer squeeze the life out of a human being is an extremely sickening site. Listening and seeing a man cry out that he can’t breathe until he’s silent and motionless is horrific and incensing.
These images are even more troubling for those of us whose family members, friends and colleagues work in law enforcement. No doubt, our law enforcement agencies are being put to the test. The majority of the Men and Women wear the uniform with honor. These officers respect their sworn duty to “protect and serve” the people of their community.
However, the “Blue Wall” is systematically set up to protect both the “true blue” and the “bad apples.” And like in other sectors, cowards in the force hide behind the “Blue Wall” in silence. These few “bad apples” undermine the group as a whole. It also shines a light on inferior officers who should have been discharged early in their careers or that never should have been recruited. For them, the uniform, weapon and badge give them a license to be “above the law” and a “license to kill.”
Equally culpable are the departments that have rephrased the act of killing to law book terms “excessive force” or “abuse of power.” Power, entrusted to an officer legitimately or simulated, is power nonetheless. Few understand this better than Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Faculty, Syd. Consortium at Palo Alto University. As Dr. Zimbardo points out:
“In August 1971, I lead a team of researchers at Stanford University to determine the psychological effects of being a guard or a prisoner… In the study, 24 normal college students were randomly assigned to play the role of guard or inmate for two weeks in a simulated prison located in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department building. But the guards quickly became so brutal, and I had become so caught up in my role as superintendent, that the experiment had to be shut down after only six days.”
In the real world, images of brutality from those in power are no longer being tolerated. This American experiment, by which the country was founded, with the seed of inequality needs to be shut down!
“Arm of the Law” and “Arm of the Caste”
It’s argued that abuse of power in law enforcement is attributed to the problem being cultural and systemic. Ironically, the “arm of the law” works similarly in a free society or in a prison, whether the detainee is a prisoner of the state or a prisoner of war. The culture of society like prison operates with rules, each with its own cultural makeup.
The proposition that the problem of corrupt officers is simply systemic and can easily be solved is flawed. For example, if society was not tied to the “arm of the caste” allowing for an equal playing field, it is still tied to the “arm of the law.” Ask yourself, how many affluent African Americans have been wrongly detained or been the victim of an accidental shooting?
The Los Angeles 1992 riots were the result of an unarmed Black man, Rodney King, being brutally beaten by several officers. Since then the number of Blacks being injured from excessive force or killed continues to be vastly higher than Whites. Yet, the law enforcement culture and the system in place continue to take in or hold onto its “bad apples.”
“Excessive Force” and “Abuse of Power” can be found in some law enforcement officers’ service records. Clearly, “it takes two to tango.” Until the force is permitted by its Unions to change this system, nothing will change. Why? Charging and convicting a police officer with 1st Degree Murder can set a precedent stakeholders will now allow, no matter how high the evidence stacked against them.
Who are these stakeholders? Actually, what’s important is that similar to other organizations they have bipartisan support. Their “business as usual” culture is supported if not secured by Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike.
Where are the leaders? A human being was killed on account of a twenty dollar bill? Yet, white men and women have pled guilty of offering and taking bribes in the hundreds of thousands!
Legislators’ semblance of incompetence or “overkill” on their parts is actually by design. Democratic policy modus operandi (M.O.) in addressing the problems of society is to attempt to solve them all at once. Republican’s “M.O” is to zero in on an issue and tackle it to the point that the problem worsens or another far graver is created. Their foreign policies speak for themselves.
Nature vs Nurture. Responsibility?
Power is precarious at best and advantageous to those whose natural inclination is to abuse it. Are killers nurtured or “natural born killers”? Zimbardo “believes that personality characteristics could play a role in how violent or submissive actions are manifested.” However, in his 2007 book, The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo, “says that humans cannot be defined as good or evil because we have the ability to act as both especially at the hand of the situation.” I concur on his findings.
Also, I find that while some police officers like soldiers’ actions may be simply an abuse of power, others are dangerous and deliberately done with malice against a race and/or religion. Put in a situation where one follows orders, abuse and its intent comes from the top. Case in point: “Torture at Abu Ghraib.” Seymour M. Hersh wrote an excellent article where he posed the question, “American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?”
In the abuse of power at the Abu Ghraib Detention Center, some place fault on the prison guards, but others argue the responsibility lies with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the policies of the Bush administration.
Police Officers, like Soldiers, follow orders in a chain of command. Like the Secretary of Defense, the Commissioner or Chief of Police sits at the top. But in a war, the General takes his orders from the “Commander in Chief.”
Has the “Big Chief,” like the coward cop, hidden behind the “Wall of Silence”? Has he abused his power in respect to his people, allies, and given himself a “license to kill” those he sees as the enemy? In the end, will the joke be on him? The People have spoken loud and clear.
The People Have Spoken!
The people have taken to Pennsylvania Avenue to protest the house that sits white and pristine on the hill. And in a moment of irony, forced to wear masks, the peoples’ faces are hidden from government’s surveillance.
At the frontlines in wartime young men were sent to their death. At home, the peoples’ chant was “Hey, hey, LBG, how many kids did you kill today?”
Today, at the home front, the people cry out “I Can’t Breath,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and “No Justice No Peace.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom “X” were known to “speak truth to power.” Both were killed. Twenty-eight years later, Rodney King was brutally attacked by several police officers. Almost three decades have passed since King’s attack and still countless African American Men and Women have been taken down to their last breathe.
Brother and Sisters, the time of only speaking truth has past. It is now time for ACTION to Speak.
PROTEST and VOTE like your life depends on it because it does!
