Too Many Already

Yesterday afternoon, a black man named Jacob Blake was shot more than half a dozen times by a white police officer in Kenosha, WI. There is, luckily, bystander video of this attempted execution. I won’t post it here for a number of reasons, chief among them that it’s nothing new. We’ve seen this footage before far too many times already. I call it an “execution” because that’s what it was. Mr. Blake was unarmed and facing away from the THREE officers on the scene. As he went to get into a vehicle, one of them opened fire, letting loose a hail of bullets at close range (maybe 2-3 feet). Rumor has it that Mr. Blake was there as a peacekeeper, trying to stop two women from fighting, but who knows. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet.

There will be those who say “Matt, you must wait for all the facts to come out. We don’t know what was really happening in that video. It’s only twenty seconds long.” And you know what? There is some truth to that. We do not know all the facts yet. We don’t know what transpired before the video began. We don’t know about Mr. Blake’s criminal record (if he has one). We don’t know about his social media posts making “gang signs” or posing with guns (as if white people don’t pose with guns). We don’t know about how many children he has and by how many mothers. We don’t know if he’s on welfare or unemployed. We don’t know if he was rude to the three white officers who showed up. We don’t know if he was on drugs or drunk. We don’t know how scared those poor officers (ALL THREE OF THEM) felt and how much they feared for their lives.

None of that matters. None of it. Not to me, anyhow. Virtually all of those concerns listed above, the unanswered questions we’re always told to wait for, serve no purpose other than to excuse the would-be killers. It’s a miracle that Mr. Blake isn’t dead. As of this writing, he is still in the hospital. It is a testament to his strength that he is still with us.

Jacob Blake might be a total piece of shit. I don’t know him and have never met him. I only know of him because a white police officer tried to kill him in broad daylight. And really, that’s all I need to know. Whether someone is a saint or a sinner, justice should be available to both equally. This isn’t my opinion. It’s a principle of American democracy.

I have eyes. I’ve watched the video. I know what I see. I know attempted murder when I see it.

There are some basic things that I think we need to agree upon if we are going to continue moving forward as a nation. For centuries, none of this was a problem because white supremacy simply silenced any black and brown voices trying to note a concern. It wasn’t even a consideration to ask them. And even though we, as a nation, still aren’t really interested in hearing about racial injustice, we are at least giving a semblance of attention to it. Progress? (shrug emoji) I’ve seen the cavalcade of people saying something along the lines of “well if he didn’t want to be shot he should have listened to the cops”. To which I say:

Police officers are not, the last time I checked, a Judge Dredd-like execution squad that roams around killing people who do not listen to them. Deadly force is SUPPOSED to be reserved for dire circumstances. Not for fake $20 bills. And definitely not for unarmed people. Any threat that those officers were allegedly facing was entirely imaginary. Was there a gun in the car? I don’t know. But neither did they. Was he getting in the car to flee or use it as a weapon? I don’t know. But neither did they. They already Tased him, allegedly.

Should Mr. Blake have listened to the officers, as so many (mostly white) people are saying? Of course. Unless their orders were illegal then listening to the officers is what the situation requires of him. I’m sure in the next few days we’ll hear more details about what happened, why Mr. Blake wasn’t “cooperative” with the police in a situation where he was not the target of their response.

That fact alone makes this whole thing suspicious. How could a man who was initially a bystander and innocent end up being shot? We have processes and policies that govern people who break the law. As a society, we get together and decide what crimes deserve what punishment. Disobeying a police officer was not punishable by death, last time I checked. It’s probably not even a felony where you live. And yet, three young children watched their father get shot over and over again by a cop. Is this the society we want to live in?

There are still a lot of legitimate questions to be answered. Were the officers wearing body cams? What were the details they knew heading into the situation? Why did they initially engage with Mr. Blake if the call was about two females fighting? What kind of training had the THREE OFFICERS received prior to their interaction with Mr. Blake? What are their disciplinary records? And of course, why use deadly force on an unarmed, innocent man?

I noticed that none of the other officers in the video fired. They all seemed to hold steady, even as one of their own emptied his clip into a car. That car, by the way, had three young children inside it when Billy the Kid opened fire. Imagine their horror? The terror of seeing a police officer shoot your father over and over again. Watching his life seem to slip away before your eyes. You don’t think these kinds of incidents have far-reaching impacts? I can’t imagine those kids ever trusting a cop again and I wouldn’t blame them.

I don’t want to live in a society where police officers determine for themselves how they will patrol our communities and how they will interact with the citizens they are sworn to protect. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that since American citizens started demanding changes with their police departments that violence and crime have risen. In NYC, police stood by and allowed a teenage girl to be beaten and robbed by a mob.

The police have always been explicit in their threats to the citizenry: try to moderate our behavior and hold us accountable and see what you get. This is far from the first time a police force has reacted to accountability with lawlessness. In Minneapolis, the home of George Floyd and his four alleged murderers, nearly 20% of the force has suddenly found the job unbearable and filed for disability. Their precious feelings were hurted by the mayor and public not defending their racist practices. What a bunch of cowardly snowflakes. Honestly, we’re better off without them. I want my police officers to crave citizen input and oversight. They seem to forget that their power comes with our consent, not the other way around.

Disobeying a police officer should never be a death sentence (or even an attempted one). For most in America, it isn’t. Hopefully, white people are beginning to wake up and see that the system they’ve worked so diligently to preserve, is brutal to our fellow citizens. Those three boys will have to grow up with the memory of their father’s attempted murder in their mind. Do you think that will be easy? Do you think that is necessary?

I don’t. And I’m sick of living in a country where people bootlick and trade fealty to cops for an illusion of safety. More cops = more crime stats. That’s it. Communities don’t change by locking up fathers, brothers, cousins, and uncles. In fact, fewer cops will make us safer. Consider that for a moment. Where do you live? How often do you see the police? How often do police in your town shoot people? So it is possible for places to have justice, safety, and a reduced police force. It’s simply a matter of investment.

If this image above looks like justice to you, if it looks like modern policing, and if you’re OK with it, then I don’t think we can be in a nation together. I don’t want the police killing anyone anymore. The only reason why we accept it is because it doesn’t happen to enough white people. If three cops tried to execute a soccer mom in her RangeRover with little Morgan, Britni, and Jayden inside, there would be outrage and committees would be formed. We’d investigate and get to the bottom of it. And yet, today, all I hear about is what Mr. Blake could have done to prevent his own shooting.

Enough. Too many have died already. Let’s have a moratorium on cop killings. No more executions until we figure out how we want to be policed and by whom. Will this lead to more crime? Maybe. Will this lead to more cops being put into dangerous situations? Well, yeah, that’s the job. If you’re afraid, maybe don’t be a cop? There are lots of malls to guard. Enough shootings, enough murders, enough cowardly cops who are more interested in protecting themselves than serving us. The kitchen gets hot. If you can’t take the heat, then beat it. And try not to shoot any waitstaff on the way out.