Diversity Online May 29: An Attempt to Conserve the BLACK Man, a Threatened Species. Read All Articles here
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Welcome to Diversity Online for May 28, 2020!
An Attempt to Conserve the BLACK Man, a Threatened Species – A Frankline’s Perspective.
…As a BLACK man who has had half a dozen encounters with the police in Edmonton, I will attempt to conserve the BLACK man, threatened…
RIP George Floyd.
“…I can’t breath…” were the last words from a BLACK man killed by police officers, protected by watching community members on the street of the city of Minneapolis, in the US state of Minnesota.
Yes this is not police officers in an authoritarian state, it’s in the USA – the leader of the “free” world. Bystanders pleaded with police officers to stop the murder in progress but the officers ignored them. Who’s suppose to protect the other is the question in every mind after watching the video that few can watch without breaking Dr. Hinshaw’s first law of Coronavirus protection – Thou Shall Not Touch Your Eyes!
Due to the delay in charging the officers for what everyone can see as broad day murder, in front of an audience that refused to be entertained by a murder show, captured on video, and photo, only the Minneapolis District Attorney still needs to be convinced.
This daytime murder of an unarmed BLACK man is the symptom of a bigger problem. In spite of remarkable successes of BLACK men like President Obama, BLACK celebrities, and other successes, the brand BLACK man is in dire need of repair for reasons worthy of another article. There is the problem of the BLACK man becoming a threatened species by those who called the police for sometimes just revengeful reasons, and how the police manage the situations, sadly sometimes lethal as in the cases of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and an endless list of BLACK men.
As a BLACK man who has had more than half a dozen encounters with the police in Edmonton, I will attempt to conserve the BLACK man but first let me applaud some people for taking a moral stand on this issue, before trying to get into the head of the corp who killed George Floyd and the others.
Edmonton Police Service Community Engagement Team on Instagram described the incident as, “unacceptable…not part of the job”.
Some other retired, current, and senior police officers, and commentators in US and Canada, even those who traditionally make excuses for the police in such situations like Rush Limbaugh, say it is in-defensible. Other officers say this is the work of few bad apples as the good apples either look away when the bad apples are at work, or fail to turn in the bad apples. Most people believe it is a trend in how BLACK men are treated by police as most of the time, justice is not served as officers involved in the killing of unarmed BLACK men are either not prosecuted, or if they do, they are not found guilty and they move back to their jobs or to other jobs with even greater impunity.
So why does the circle of “kill, protest, some action to calm down the community, and another killing,” persist with no end in sight?
Some say it’s as a result of few bad cops with the good one looking the other way. To the good cops, I will go further to say you are an accomplices in the crimes of the bad corps and you owe a duty to the miserable community to do the job that you took an oath to do, endowed with so much power.
Most people say this circle is as a result of racism, BLACK life does not really matter, the reason why any officer can take it away without repercussion. America has a two tier justice system, they add, which always protect the officers, mostly WHITE. They will go on to add that it has a history in slavery. Let me take this argument to another level…
This journey to early graves for BLACK men starts when the police is called. So let me try to manage it at that point. As a BLACK man, I fit the description of the common reasons given to call police on a BLACK man, a burglar, a threat, a fraud, a man in possession of a gun, and has been used on me multiple times. I’ve been called the police six times in Edmonton; the first time I was arrested but the complainer decided that the intent was to get me arrested and that was good enough and decided to tell the truth about framing me up, and I was released after 2 hours. The corp came back after couple weeks, got me up at 2 AM looking for another excuse. The second and third times, the police did’t bother to show up. The fourth time, the police showed up and walked me out of my own office as a threat to the complainer, but no arrest was made. The fourth time, the police was called that I was a burglar to my own office that I own everything inside and even have keys into the building, and they showed up but no arrest was made.
We will see what happens in the seventh and eighth time as I’m still BLACK, I might get someone mad again, and as always, they will want to use the police as their thug, and it will always depend on how the officers will use their POWER.
Oh! yes I mean if you can manage a police officer POWER you conserve the BLACK man. A police officer has a gun, pepper spray, baton, trained in physical combat, they are always in pairs, with the touch of a button, dozens of backup will show up, and most importantly, they have the protection of the state behind them, the reason why it is hard to punish them even if they are wrong. Looking at the officers, any physical battle with the officers you are more likely to not only be defeated but be killed with enough defense for the police that you were resisting arrest. For bad corps like the case of George Floyd, he was already handcuffed but the corp decided to place his kneel on his neck, with one of the corps hands in his pocket, and watch him die slowly with the excuse that he resisted arrest.
As a BLACK man, a threatened species, you don’t want to give the bad corps the excuse they need to end your life with impunity, the excuse the bad corps seeks when they are called. Since you can’t win any physical confrontation and does not want to provoke the officer, good, or bad, in my six experiences with the corps when they were called on me, I acknowledge that they are the authority on site. I get their authorization for everything I do, such that they know they are in charge. “…Officer can I say something…can I pickup my bag…”
As someone who believes in soft power, the power of word, I try to talk my way out of the situation first before anything else. If the officer is going to arrest, I make my calls at the waiting cell to plan my defense as I may be guilty in the eyes of the officer but the judge and the jury may have a different opinion knowing that the officer and the complainer will do everything they can to get me in jail. If the officer decides to diffuse the situation by letting me leave, then I can do whatever I want in the safety of my home or office, right or wrong, at that point, I can make a police complaint, I can complaint about the conduct of the officers involved, sue, or talk to a lawyer. Always I first try to get out of the police situation in one piece as my family, friends, and the world needs me alive. You my thousands of lovely audience, supporters, sponsors, advertisers, those who need their untold stories told and you who read from me everyday on multiple platforms and support me needs me too! Well, I never do anything after those police incidence besides sharing with you to learn from the experience.
From my research and countless experiences on this topic, I can dig deep into police behaviour. When a police officer is called to the scene, his or her big decision is to arrest or not to arrest based on if he can believe the complainer or not. This quick decision is based on so many factors such as but not limited to prejudice, social class, status, physical presentation, or race. If it’s a BLACK suspect, most likely, he falls into the negative stereotypes of the above list, may or may not lead to an arrest. Do your part, don’t give the officer an excuse.
If there is any resistance, it justifies the use of force, which could be lethal even when the suspect has already been over powered as in the case of George Floyd – the officer kneeling on his neck, his hands handcuffed and bystanders pleading with the officers to stop the murder in progress. I need not say protesters calling for justice for Floyd have been greeted with bullets and tear gas with one dead and some bad people too have taken advantage of the ensuing chaos to taint the protest. Armed WHITE protesters, protesting lock down measures went to the legislature building in Michigan, USA, were themselves surprised how easily they were let in with their weapons with no resistance – Faces of America’eh.
Well, it’s worthy to note that a good corp will work to diffuse the situation without any drama, while a bad corp will focus on whether the suspect can fight back if he is wrong. In most cases, if the suspect is BLACK, he is mostly poor, cannot afford a lawyer if it goes to court, he is jailed. If it goes badly, he’s killed and life goes on.
Due to the enormous power that officers have, they can kill poor people with impunity if the community can see it, they can fight back for the poor as in the case of George Floyd’s. Ask yourself what of the dozens of cases of poor people with no video or photo evidence? You can answer, it’s the reason while the jails are dark. In best case, a bad officer can snatch away the freedom of the poor, right or wrong, they may land in jail as they can’t fight back.
So many people take advantage of this weakness and invite the police for any little disagreement as the classic case in the New York park argument between a BLACK bird watcher and a WHITE lady walking her dog.
She called the police on the BLACK man and she LIED of him being a THREAT to her for no other reason but because he’s BLACK and the corp, if it’s a bad corp, will pounce on him, a move that could be lethal but she could care less.
In this case, it was a rare miracle that the police got there when they have left. You can easily guess what could have happened to the BLACK man with countless US police services having histories of shooting BLACK men before asking questions.
The question of the week is: Should people be charged when they lie in such situations?
Edmonton Police Service: “In short, these situations are approached on a case by case basis. However, generally speaking, if proven that the individual lied, a charge of mischief could be considered by the investigating officer”.
Nwabe: “It is a CRIME to lie to the police and bear false witness. Especially in Canada. A new law is being drafted in the US to make it a hate crime. May all those who file false police reports and attempt to derail innocent people’s lives face similar consequences”.
Dr. Banks: “People should not only be charge. They should be charged of attempted murder…”
Kim Doyle Thorsen Yes, she should be charged. Wasting police resources during a pandemic. Lying to a police officer
Varinder Bhullar Very sad that there are still people like this
Virgy Pardo Rojas She should be charged!
·Tripsa Daisy Of course she should be charged. The prosecutor will have to make that determination based on the evidence available
Crawford Katie I would really love to see her charged with false reporting (or whatever they call it) and endangering a human life (which is exactly what she did)… But they’d never find her guilty of the later, because then the justice system in America would have to admit they were racist.
Nelly Gatama Yes she should. But because they won’t, it’s comforting that she was fired from her job
Viola Ngbakogbe Yes she should be charged
Lisa Omobude Yes
