#iamthem

#blacklivesmatter  A quote and hashtag that we’ve heard and seen consistently since Trayvon Martin died cold blooded at the hands of George Zimmerman one Florida night. But is there any truth to it?  Do black lives really matter?  History and current events like the one mentioned has proven otherwise.  The life of a black man in the United States of America is constantly at threat.  It seems that more often than not there is another unarmed black man gunned down by police officers.  Not only are black men gunned down by police, we’re gunned down by one another as well.  

In wake of Stephon Clark’s death, the conversation has begun again.  Stephon Clark, like Trayvon Martin, has paid the ultimate price for being black at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Like Martin, Clark was racially profiled and gunned down to his death.  Police were notified of someone breaking car windows in a Sacramento, CA neighborhood.  In the officers on duty pursuit of a suspect, Stephon Clark was pursued, and the officers made the costly assumption that he was armed.  In what they called the fear for their lives, they fired twenty shots total from their firearms at Stephon.  Ten shots from each officer’s handgun.  After further investigation abc news reported that eight of those shots entered in his back. Implying that he was shot down from behind, resulting in the twenty-two-year old’s death in his own grandmother’s backyard.  Stephon was unarmed and what officers thought was a gun, was just his cell phone.  This is just another sad, unfortunate, far too common case of being a young black man in America at the wrong place at the wrong time.

    Fatal Encounters, a database conducted by The Post, reported that since 2015 twenty-five percent of those killed by police were black.  This statistic is disgustingly disproportionate since African-Americans only make up twelve percent of the nation’s population.  According to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, since 2015 seventy-three unarmed black men have been shot to death by police.  Four unarmed black women were gunned down by police in this time frame as well.

I believe the officers should be held accountable for their actions.  However, I also believe that America must take ownership for the way young black men are presently viewed and treated, as well as the way we’ve been addressed historically.  It was 1955 when Emmett Till was abducted, brutally beaten, and shot in the head for being black at the wrong place at the wrong time.  We’re in the year 2018 and black men are still murdered without sufficient reasoning.  Over sixty years later and American still has no respect for a young black man’s life. To make things worse the murderers are often acquitted just like they were in Emmett Till’s case.  The New York Times put out an article “In 15 High-Profile Cases Involving Deaths of Blacks, One Officer Faces Prison Time”.  The title alone is shockingly disturbing.  What’s even more astonishing is that in seven of those fifteen cases mentioned, the officers involved were not even charged.  Three of the cases where no charges were filed didn’t even end with a settlement for the families of the victims.  Eleven of the cases ended with a paid settlement.  Now I’m not claiming to have any expertise in this area.  However, settlement money is usually only paid out in this country when there is wrong done due to irresponsible negligence and the accused would rather pay a hefty price instead of taking the chance of losing in court.  In this instance the accused would be America’s local law enforcement.  Is it fair to say that our criminal justice system acknowledges wrong done in these cases, makes a settlement offer, and sweeps it under the rug as if nothing happened?  Or even worse, disregard it and doesn’t act at all?   Is it okay to pay the family for wrong done and turn around and not charge the perpetrator? Is there a distasteful, disrespectful price for a young black man’s life?  

I know that each individual case has different circumstances to take into account and these questions do not fully apply to each one.  But it is something that must be taken into consideration and addressed.  These shootings are as if the Civil Rights movement never happened and not a thing has changed since then.  Like it’s not a crime to kill an unarmed black man. There remains a feeling of inequality among much of the black community.  And to a certain extent it is. Black men are pulled over in disproportionate rates compared to whites.  Black men are incarcerated at higher rates per capita than whites. Black men are paid less compared to our counterparts with equivalent qualifications.  It’s really unfortunate that the thought of America without racism towards us is too far fetched to even begin to fathom.  It’s fair to say that every black man will be subject to racism whether he’s aware of it or not.  Racism is so embedded in the cloth that built this very country, it’s still possible for a young black man to be murdered at the hands of a white man and nothing be done about it in 2018.  So back to my original question.  Do black lives really matter?  Or is that something that we wish to be true one day in America?

References

Emmett Till - Legacy - Biography. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.biography.com/video/emmett-till-legacy-109203523793

In 15 High-Profile Cases Involving Deaths of Blacks, One .... Retrieved 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/17/us/black-deaths-police.html

The death of Stephon Clark: What we know about the .... Retrieved 2018, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/death-stephon-clark-police-shooting/story?id=54039443

What are the facts on police shootings?. (2018). PolitiFact California. Retrieved 1 April 2018, from http://www.politifact.com/california/article/2018/mar/29/what-are-facts-police-shootings-following-death-st/#