For Carib News 7/14/16
The French government must be relieved that the month long European Cup was completed without a terrorist incident. The tragedy is that France reached the final but lost to Portugal in overtime. In the rest of the world, terrorist acts reminded us of the dangerous world in which we live.
Western media and particularly American media place a certain premium on life but not in certain geographical areas. When the terrorist bombings occurred in Paris in November, 2015 and in San Bernardino in December, 2015, media saturated the public with wall to wall coverage. A similar coverage occurred with the bombings in Brussels.
Last week, the world witnessed a horrific bombing in Baghdad where over 300 Iraqis lost their lives. This was a terrorist act carried out by ISIL using a massive explosive packed in a truck. ISIL has its back to the wall as they have lost control of Ramadi and Falluja and the Iraqi army, with the support of the Americans, is poised to take back Mosul. In the same way that the country has never paid much attention to the civilian death toll and casualties that was the result of indiscriminate American bombing in 2003.
In November last year, the United Nations Human Rights Commission issued a report documenting the thousands of Iraqis who have been killed by terrorist escapades inside of Iraq but not too many people in the western media took note.
Some lives cannot matter more than other lives. That has been the message of the movement Black Lives Matter. It is not that white lives or the lives of police officers do not matter, but the historical tendency in the country is simply to dismiss the value of black life. The death of a black life unjustly taken by a police officer is readily dismissed as something unimportant, not necessarily deserving an outcry from the white community. Even more troubling is the failure of the criminal justice system to deal with these unprofessional taking of black lives in a just manner.
I consider the Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri to be the most egregious. This was a classical example of a white police officer losing his composure and hunting down and killing a black youth in the prime of life when other means of making an arrest was available to the officer.
What incensed the black community was the way the investigation was conducted and the compliant role of the District Attorney in St. Louis. Anyone who read the transcripts of the eyewitness interviews, it is abundantly clear that the agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who participated in the process were far from objective or professional. And the Grand Jury simply followed the dictat of the District Attorney.
The incidents of Michael Brown, Tamar Rice, Eric Garner, et al, have resulted in the black community losing faith in the Justice System. Black folks can be killed with impunity. Black lives do not matter.
The execution of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, their deaths recorded by I-phones, further illustrate the devaluing of black life. Mass demonstrations have spread not only in where the incidents occurred but in New York City, Philadelphia, Memphis, Atlanta, Tampa, etc.
The Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, has opened civil rights investigations of the two killings. But what occurred last summer and this summer indicate quite clearly that the American justice system seems to be going in circles rather than coming to grips with the serious problems of police misconduct.
The march in Dallas further demonstrates the pricklish and fickle nature of America’s social order. The march was to take place from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM and as the peaceful protest was winding down, an ex-military reservist who had served time in Afghanistan, opened fire taking the lives of five police officers, injuring nine more police officers and two civilians. The killer used an automatic assault rifle to take the lives of police officers who performed their normal duties armed with a pistol.
One sees the lunacy of American society and its worshipping of the shrine of the Second Amendment. Texas and other states have in recent years passed legislation allowing citizens to carry concealed and unconcealed weapons.
In what was supposed to be a peaceful march, 20-30 marchers came to the “dance” with AR-15 strapped to their backs, wearing bullet proof vests and gas masks. When the deranged killer began taking “pat” shots at the police, the police were confused as they did not know if those taking place in the march were involved in the shooting.
These are different times from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s Stalwarts like Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, Bayard Rustin and John Lewis were wedded to the principles of non-violence. The violence that led to the murder of civil rights workers like Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman came from terrorist organizations like the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan was not armed with military style weapons.
This is a more volatile age with thousands of combatants having returned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many of them suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Many in the society are suffering from mental issues with easy access to semi-assault rifles which create a new danger to police officers and to public safety.
The madness of Open Carry laws will make the task of a police officer far more dangerous. Five Dallas police officers have lost their lives. How many lives will be lost if legislatures continue to sanction this lunacy at a time when America’s social fabric is easily shattered? The action of the Texas legislature jeopardizes the lives of police officers. As a society, we seem hell bent on devaluing all lives.
