You walk down the street, your whole life ahead of you, until a police car comes up behind you. Some will claim that you continued walking, others that you attempted to draw a gun. Either way, your life ends when that officer shoots you to death.
For those of you who don’t know, Mike Brown, an African-American teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, died at the hands of a local police officer on Aug. 9. Unfortunately, racially charged incidents like this can and do happen even in Greensboro.
“A Vietnamese woman (was) shot here,” said Director of the Bonner Center for Community Service James Shields. “A lot of people think this is something new, but if you think about the … communities of color, it’s always been that way,”
According to the Center of American Progress, even though people of color represent 30 percent of Americans they make up 60 percent of our prisons.
“What do the jails in Greensboro consist of?” asked sophomore and Greensboro resident Taylor Brown. “African-Americans and other (minorities). Even on the news, you never see white men being arrested.”
Even as a teenager, Brown experienced racism through the police.
“I’ve had one interaction with the police,” said Taylor Brown. “(They) decided to profile me (because) I’m an African-American person … I was only seventeen.”
Among young adults, problems prevail.
“One girl was accused of attacking the police when they really attacked her,” said Community and Justice Studies major and junior Leah Meservey.
Instead of holding our officers accountable, we give them more guns.
“People (get) upset about the fact that the police are using military hardware,” said Chair and Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies Jeremy Rinker.
Even within the police department, racism rages, according to Tara McKey, former Greensboro police officer.
“I couldn’t wear headphones at my desk, but all the white employees (could),” said McKey. “(My colleagues’) treatment was different than mine. I got remedial work (while they) got to go on a conference.”
One only needs to look at Greensboro’s history to understand why this happens here.
“Slavery was adopted … here,” said Meservey. “Seeing the background of white and black people (makes sense).”
Not surprisingly, most of these incidents occur in lower-class neighborhoods.
“The majority of the policing happens in poorer neighborhoods,” said Shields. “I doubt very seriously if a kid in an affluent neighborhood were walking in the streets that he would be arrested.”
Among Greensboro’s homeless population, many are considered criminals just for being on the streets. “It’s a problem when people see others as a nuisance just for existing,” said senior and project coordinator for Church Under the Bridge Noelle Lane.
“When you pay more taxes, you get better treatment,” said Lane.
Increasing police accountability could lead to a solution.
“My father was a cop for 30 years,” said Shields. “One of the things that he pioneered was a police-community relations office … to have a place where you could talk to someone you could trust.”
Types of training also need to be addressed.
“Anti-racism training (would get) people to understand their privilege,” said Rinker. “That kind of training would be the first step.”
Next, we need to worry about our own capacity for caring. Just like in the Mike Brown case, middle-aged Hispanic neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman shot and killed another African-American teenager named Trayvon Martin in 2012. As outraged as the public was, that passion for justice died out all too soon.
“What I’m afraid of is, just like Trayvon Martin, at some point, the sexiness of the whole story will go away and we’ll go back to things like the ice (bucket) challenge or whatever,” said Shields. “We’ll forget about it until the next guy is shot.”
Anti-racism training and holding police accountable could put an end to race brutality by police. Police officers are human, too. They aren’t monsters, as some think, but they also aren’t invincible.
Regardless, we need to put an end to the racist stereotype plaguing the ones meant to help us.
“Currently police are seen as untouchable,” said Rinker. “That’s not structural. It’s cultural.”
Harry Lime • Sep 6, 2014 at 4:24 am
The problem has been the focus on irrelevant arguments – some of which are actually unsupported by the evidence.
1. ‘George Zimmerman (GZ) racially profiled Trayvon Martin (TM)’ There is no evidence of this.
2. ‘GZ disobeyed an order by the police’ * The civilian dispatcher, Sean Noffke, testified that he did not give GZ an order and, in fact, he, like his fellow dispatchers, are trained not make comments that sound like commands. * Noffke also testified under cross that, as a result of his asking GZ which way TM was going, GZ could have reasonably interpreted this as being asked to follow Martin. * It is also not a crime in Florida to disregard a comment made by a civilian dispatcher.
3. ‘GZ got out of his car’ Not a crime on public property and not negligent either.
4. ‘GZ followed TM’ Again, anyone can follow anyone on a public street unless the followee has obtained a restraining order against the follower and even there, the RS only places time, place, and manner restrictions on the person enjoined.
5. ‘GZ wasn’t really injured’ * Under Florida’s self-defense laws, one doesn’t have to be injured AT ALL to use deadly force * No one is required to refrain from defending himself while another is engaged in or attempting to commit a felony.
6. ‘TM is dead through no fault of his own’ * If you believe that TM assaulted GZ, then he IS dead as a result of his own actions.
7. ‘GZ could have left’ * Under Florida law, there is not a duty to withdraw rather than use deadly force * TM was straddling GZ so how the latter was supposed to leave the scene is unanswered.
8. ‘GZ was armed and TM wasn’t’ * One’s fists can be considered weapons and can result in severe bodily harm or death. * GZ was legally carrying a weapon * There is no requirement under the law that the same weapon be used by the assailant * A homeowner can kill an intruder whether or not he has been threatened * Those that attack cannot feign surprise if they are met with superior firepower.
9. ‘Stand Your Ground!’ * SYG is NOT at issue in this trial. * The defense is a classic self-defense case.
10. ‘Black men NEVER get to use SYG!’ * Wrong http://tinyurl.com/nboht35
11. ‘GZ is a man and TM was a boy!’ * As if ‘boys’ don’t commit murder, rape, and assault everyday in this country.