"When the police pull you over, do what they tell you to do--no matter what. Always move slowly. Always be respectful. When you drive, don't wear a do-rag, a baseball hat or sun glasses. Don't play your music too loud. She was preparing me to survive an encounter with the police. She was teaching me how to be respectable," Ware adds.
Well, my father and mother told me about the same thing when I was a teen. I've never had any problem, so far, with the police, in all honesty. But I see things are changing now. And although at one time I always thought that the cops were my friends, were there to protect me, and that if ever had any problems I could talk to them, I just don't know anymore. When I leave my domicile many days, I'm afraid of violence. I'm not afraid of gang members so much, or gangsters, thugs, or lowlifes. I'm fearful of a man, or men, wearing navy blue and with guns, nightsticks and handcuffs well within grasp.
I think a lot of young men in America feel about the same way. And it seems that young and middle-aged African-American men are at the top of the militarized police "hit list".
"Respectability politics are 'what happens when minority and/or marginalized groups are told (or teach themselves) that in order to receive better treatment from the group in power, they must behave better.' Instead of combating the systems that oppress us, we are taught how to navigate them; tools for survival, if you will. We are told to pull up our pants; to go to school and get an education; to get a job; to vote. The assumption is that if we do these basic things, we will be looked at as worthy of respect and treated accordingly. The only problem is, that assumption is untrue," Ware writes in The Root.
And of course, this never pans out to be what it is - American society today is very existential and bleak. A wall doesn't need to be built on the Mexican border with so many walls already in place within our society. For some, these walls are so high and ominous that most wouldn't even trouble themselves with trying to climb them. And in many communities these days, police are seen more like enemy soldiers than friends and allies. We need to go back to having police seen as our benefactors and our protectors. Things have to change or things will get much worse.
While listening to Donald Trump's speech during the Republican National Convention last night (Thursday, July 21), I heard him talk about a lot of that "Let's Make America Great Again" mumbo-jumbo, which to me equates to "Let's Make America White Again." But when he started into that diatribe of how the police are under fire and under attack, I had to shake my head. Don't the cops have any sort of play in this? After untold incidences of unarmed young men being brutally murdered by police, haven't things gone on too far already? And when and if this monster becomes President, will the police suffer any consequences at all for "accidentally" shooting someone like a behavioral therapist who's simply doing his job? It would not be too far out of Donald Trump's character if his general attitude about incidences like all these police shootings of young unarmed men to say: "If these men give you any problem, just shoot them. And shoot to kill. Even if they don't give you any problems, just do the same."
And if Hillary Clinton is elected President, nothing will change in regard to this, either. Hillary Clinton is the type of leader who has always chased expediency and a banality of evil has laid in the wake of this course of action. Under a Hillary Clinton oligarchy, there will surely be some high-ranking law and order types present and accounted for in her cabinet. Of course, included here will be some draconian Attorney General. A Hillary Clinton Presidency will be intent on keeping a forced law and order disguised as "peace" at any cost, domestically, and the militarized police state will prosper and grow. Hillary Clinton is the type of political opportunist who would use the militarized police state in the same way that a farmer uses a tractor and a plow to get a field ready for a spring planting.
I wish it would stop. Just stop. I'm sick and tired of writing stories like this about men being shot by an authority that is supposed to be there to protect and serve them. Copwatch and Copblock sites on social media have no problems finding new material to post. The most alarming, sickening, heinous acts imaginable appear on any of these sites daily. Right here, at opednews.com, I've already penned a slew of stories about men from minority groups being killed by the cops. My writer's page archives these opinions and articles. And I could probably write a half dozen or more stories a day for opednews.com about incidences like the misfortune Mr. Kinsey faced that blazing hot Monday afternoon as his eyes stared into the sun as he was laying on that hard asphalt.
Believe me, each and every one of these atrocities involving acts of police violence deserves a story or two.
Unfortunately, my fingers just can't type fast enough to keep up with it all and hacking away at stories such as this one gives me tremendous headaches and heartaches.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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