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There's No Justice, There's 'Just Us'

Richard Pryor once told an all-too-real joke in the early '70s that he related to people of color and their interactions with the police: "If you're {going downtown..}looking for justice, that's just what you'll find -- just us." Of course the joke is funny, but Pryor was making a valid point, one that is still valid now: the experience people of color routinely encounter with the police is vastly different from that of the average white person.

A systematic, repetitive pattern of unprovoked arrests, savage beatings, racial slurs and other negative encounters with law enforcement have given way to a society in which the many disadvantaged and impoverished citizens of America dislike and mistrust those who have been hired to police and protect them. And justifiably so, as they have been chronically abused and mistreated by those whom society deems the "finest."

Those same people in law enforcement who patrol these disadvantaged neighborhoods harbor the same racist stereotypes, convictions and misconceptions that everyone else in society becomes indoctrinated with. But more importantly, they have, by virtue of society's edicts and laws, been granted the power to act upon their beliefs, with deadly force if necessary, and it gets ruled out as justifiable. Incidents of these are numerous, and while many are not documented, just as many are. Naturally, to the conservative elements, this would be dismissed as a paranoid delusion or a gross exaggeration. But I'd like to quote another joke (comedian unknown) and remind those people that "a conservative is just a liberal who's been robbed."

With racial profiling only fueling the fire to an already explosive situation, unprovoked, bogus arrests and unprovoked shootings of people of color occur much more frequently. Given that many police officers automatically make assumptions about the people of color they encounter, they no doubt pay attention to non-white criminals even more than they did before. Racial profiling is yet another way of concealing and justifying the racism inherent in the criminal justice system, rather than addressing and dismantling it.

A recent case in point: On April 12, Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old unarmed black man, was shot and killed by a police officer in Cincinnati, Ohio, after a brief chase. Thomas' death marks the fifth killing of a black man by police in Ohio since September 2000. While in the wake of the Thomas issue, Cincinnati police decided to use that opportune moment to assault those who were protesting police brutality, yet were isolated from the mourners. This careless tactic inadvertently caused three injuries, two of which were to children, ages 7 and 11. Because police treated a peaceful protest as a riot, it became a riot.

Police turned this protest into a riot by bringing and using standard-issue riot weapons (such as the semi-lethal "bean bag," which contains pellets in a pouch), and making a bad situation even worse, rather than attempting to diffuse the situation. Cincinnati has been imposed with a curfew effective from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., sharp. Civil unrest has spread to other parts of the city, and all the police will do is make more arrests.

Now, with the inevitable explosion currently in progress, police have adopted the unwavering stance of unconcern about the latest shooting death of a black man by police. Refusing to acknowledge the racism in their department reinforces the image of police being truncheon-wielding enforcers of the status quo who protect and serve the interests of the rich, not being the helpful public servants that they are touted to be. If issues of police brutality are ever to be solved, then the police departments nationwide have to acknowledge and address the racism that makes people of color fair game. Otherwise, you can expect more incidents, with fewer intervals and greater ferocity.

By Omari Taylor
Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Messages In This Thread

Now a 'Fair' trial for Amanda Knox........ *LINK*
Re: Now a 'Fair' trial for Amanda Knox........
There's No Justice, There's 'Just Us'
They are after ini "BLOOD" *LINK*
Re: They are after ini "BLOOD"
Vast DNA Bank pits Policing Vs. Privacy *LINK*
Re: There's No Justice, There's 'Just Us'
Why My Blood at a Crimescene? Get Alibis Ready *LINK*
Re: Why My Blood at a Crimescene? Get Alibis Ready
Johnny Cochran vindicated once again *NM*
Re: Now a 'Fair' trial for Amanda Knox........


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