American police are creating instability and ill will across the country. Their actions are causing demonstrations and riots where people are hurt, property is damaged and commerce is lost. Since the LA riots of 1992 this country has had civil disturbances every five years or so. The catalyst is always police violence.
Incidents of police conduct continue to happen without penalty. The public does not get an apology or any acknowledgement of wrongdoing. There is no revision to policies and procedures. The police simply continue with their business as usual and destroy any goodwill between people groups in a multi racial society.
Not only do the police increase tension across the US they are bankrupting local governments. Police officers are rarely punished for their recklessness but cities usually pay the victims or their families a settlement. The tax payers are penalized for the losses that police officers cause.
I have to wonder if this is by design and if police officers are simply agents of chaos used to create racial tension. If it is not part of their purpose someone clearly benefits from this byproduct of their practices. Police officers seem to want to intimidate and be authoritarians to the communities they surveil.
By now the police surely could have made changes to how they conduct their business and treat people particularly Black Americans who make up the brunt of their victims. But they don’t, they simply defend their actions with no remorse. Officers in high profile police brutality cases have even been arrogant enough to write a book or be interviewed by a newspaper in which they see themselves as victims. It’s maddening.
American police are creating instability in the United States. American police are bankrupting local governments. There is no excuse for behavior that is repeated with no attempt to change. If American policing doesn’t change America is going to implode. The conflict that police cause is not conducive to a functioning country. It is not sustainable.
Visualize freedom. What does that look like to you? Freedom would allow men to walk down a street without suspicion or harassment from agents of the state. Freedom would allow a middle aged woman to be in the nude in her own apartment without armed government employees bursting through the door.
Freedom wouldn’t mistake eccentric behavior for criminal behavior and inject citizen’s with sedatives. Freedom would not tolerate armed bureaucrats breaking into a couple’s apartment and killing in the middle of the night. A free country would not allow municipal representatives to spray a nine year old girl in the face with mace.
None of this would happen or be tolerated in a free country. Yet it has been tolerated in America since the end of the Civil War. The United States of America is NOT a free country. The freedom of Black citizens is what is typically compromised by law enforcement and that is why it is allowed to happen at the officers’ discretion. However, no one is really free when police officers are given the power and grace that police officers have.
I am African American and I have never been manhandled or falsely arrested by a police officer. Most of my interactions with the police have been relatively polite. But all it takes is crossing paths with the wrong officer. If I’m pulled over by an officer I’m at their mercy and I’m expected to submit to whatever treatment they decide to dole out. They can easily create a tense situation and escalate the scene and give themselves and excuse to put me under arrest or kill me. An agent of the state such not be given such a wide margin.
Despite the wide margins police officers are given to work they aren’t very efficient in preventing or solving crime. City streets are still dangerous, people are missing and we have a drug war that’s been going on for forty years. Yet jaywalkers end up getting arrested and people end up getting killed when they are pulled over for a bad tail light.
There is absolutely no benefit in giving police officers so much space, grace and praise. They aren’t doing anything with it accept terrorizing Black citizens and feeding their egos. Police departments in America diminish our freedom.
The police officers are one part of a dysfunctional system. But they are the part that apprehends, intimidates, beats, tortures and kills. They are the foot soldiers and flunkies of the racist American justice system. American can not call itself a free country under the circumstances of the last one hundred fifty six years. America isn’t displaying bravery either.
The Amber Guyger story was a farce from the time it broke in the news until Amber Guyger was sentenced earlier this month. There was so much about this saga that didn’t make sense and like Judge Judy says, “If it doesn’t make sense it isn’t true”. Anyone that is in touch with reality and has any media savvy at all should know that Amber Guyger’s tale is pure fiction and we will never know the truth. It’s a complete scam.
Amber walked into the apartment of Botham Jean and shot and killed him while he was relaxing. Her excuse is that she was exhausted after a long day of work and she walked into the wrong apartment that just so happened to have the door cracked. First of all, I have worked many long days in my life. I’ve always been able to make my way home. And what are the chances that Amber went to the wrong apartment and she went into the one with the door cracked. I’m just not buying it.
Personally I wouldn’t walk into my home if the door was cracked. Surely a trained police officer should be able to handle such a situation. Why didn’t she call one of her buddies to come help her? I think that a cracked door would at least make me more aware of my surroundings. Turning on a light and yelling out may have helped.
Poor Amber worked her fingers to the bone until she was too incoherent to find her apartment and question why the door was open but she was able to shoot straight in the dark in order to kill a man with one shot. This girl has some skills. Her prison nick name should be Annie Oakley.
It took a few days for Amber to get arrested. I think that those days in between killing a man and being arrested were the days in which she and her law enforcement buddies came up with this excuse. Then she was encouraged to carry herself in a demure manner even though we know she’s cocky, grow her hair longer and wear conservative but form fitting clothing. I’ll give the woman credit for having a nice figure. It came in handy.
Let’s skip to the jury. In past high profile trials jurors remain out of the public eye for a long time and sometimes they never make a public statement. In this case two of the jurors made appearances shortly after the sentence was announced on TV and explained their decision to sentence Amber to only ten years.
A Black woman and a White man had the nerve to say that Botham Jean was a good forgiving man and wouldn’t be vengeful. It makes more sense to give a lengthy sentence to a murderer that killed a sweet person. But this isn’t about making sense or justice this is about affirming Whiteness and it’s supposed moral superiority.
We will never know if Botham Jean would have wanted Amber to be forgiven. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would have a grain of sympathy for someone that would treat them with such carelessness and recklessness. Amber claims to have defended herself with no regard for others. Even if you believe Amber’s story that this was an honest mistake she still isn’t the person that deserves sympathy and tears.
The family of Botham Jean played into a trope, perhaps unintentionally but I think they were threatened or bought off, which is becoming quite common in the media. The trope of the benevolent spiritual Negro that loves others (Whites) more than he or she loves themselves. It’s becoming nauseating.
I don’t understand the purpose of all these stories about a Black waitress cutting up the food of an elderly White customer, a Black boy shielding an elderly White woman that he doesn’t know with his jacket in the rain, a Black woman that allows her wedding photo shoot to be interrupted by a little White girl that thinks she is a Disney princess in her wedding dress or a Black cheerleader that jumps off her homecoming float during a parade to save a White toddler from something that his parents should have handled. I guess they are supposed to be feel good stories. But I don’t feel validated by this as a Black woman and I think White people are positioned as the superior party.
These stories are not newsworthy and the service and heroism is always a one way street. The person that is always laboring, sacrificing their comfort or their moment of glory is always a Black person. Yes, there are equally nauseating stories about White people helping poor, unfortunate, shiftless Blacks that are down on their luck. But those often end up being Go Fund me scams designed by the White savior.
The real contrast to the benevolent Negro stories are the numerous stories of reckless behavior that endangers Black lives. This recklessness is consistently defended or overlooked by the American public. Because White people and their sense of safety and comfort is paramount to all else in America. Black people are supposed to buy into this too at their own expense.
Botham Jean’s family unfairly lost a loved one in the prime of his life and they chose to defend and sympathize with his killer and not their son or brother. I believe in forgiveness but forgiveness is not for a person that has wrongs others. Wrongdoers are owed nothing and there is no need for reconciliation.
I think it’s suspicious that the hug between Amber and Botham’s younger brother is the image that was presented to the public by numerous media outlets along with a message of forgiveness. I didn’t watch the trial but I don’t recall Amber admitting that her actions were inappropriate or asking for forgiveness. I only read about her making excuses for killing an innocent man and then trying to gain sympathy from the public and mercy from the jury.
Amber is a moderately attractive White woman and the world is use to presenting people like her as virtuous. The Jeans, particularly the men seem to agree with her. The dad even said he want to be her friend. Of all the emotions and thoughts this family must have towards Botham’s tragic end I don’t understand why their thoughts about Amber are what made headlines.
We didn’t hear much about their grieving process or their relationship to their family member. Their statements were centered around Amber.Every time I’ve had to exercise forgiveness it was a private matter. The person that I felt that betrayed me wasn’t even a part of the process. My heart, spirit and quality of life were at the center of forgiving someone that mistreated me. They had nothing to do with what goes on in my heart and I have no desire to interact with them again. In my experience that how forgiveness goes. There usually isn’t a face to face reconciliation and hug. That only happens on sit coms, rom coms and TV talk shows.
Brandt Jean begged to hug Amber and said he didn’t think she deserved to go to jail. He laid it on pretty thick before the audience. The judge who I believe was coerced or simply incompetent granted permission for him to hug her. They ran and hugged like two lovers being reunited. I think this was all planned and choreographed. We’ve all seen videos of grief stricken families attacking their loved ones killer in court.
Botham Jean’s brother could have taken that opportunity to strangle Amber and the rest of the family could have cleared the bench and jumped her. I’m surprised the judge didn’t think of that. If I was a judge that wanted to maintain an orderly court room as opposed to a circus there wouldn’t be any hugging at all. But I think Tammy Kemp is a phony and a puppet. I don’t think she has any real control over her court room and I hope voters get rid of her at their first opportunity.
I don’t think a judge with integrity would hug a convicted killer and give her a gift in front of the victim’s family. I also think it’s a bit too perfect that the judge and the bailiff that comforted Ms. Guyer were both Black women. How many Black women do you think work in the Dallas justice system? I’m sure it’s a minority.
And my goodness Tammy looked homely! The woman wore gold bedazzled flip flops before when she knew she was being watched by the entire nation. But she was sure to get herself styled to go on TV and cry and make excuses for her tomfoolery.
Now let’s talk about the key witness to the case and Botham Jean’s neighbor that overheard the turmoil that fateful night Joshua Brown. He’s dead now. He was killed in a drive by shooting. Those usually take months to solve and sometimes they are never resolved. But the Dallas PD was able to make an arrest in this case remarkable fast.
Joshua Brown was supposedly killed in a drug deal gone bad. I thought he was in the Airbnb business. Did Mr. Brown have a criminal history? Usually the media uncovers those types of things right away. Amber’s defense could have used that to discredit him but I don’t think that happened.
The drug dealers that allegedly shot Joshua were from Louisiana and traveled to Dallas for this business meeting. Louisiana ran out of weed I suppose. And I guess we’re expected to believe that Mr. Brown set up a drug deal in the parking lot of his own apartment building. I’m not in the drug dealing business but I don’t think that’s how it’s done.
The entire Amber Guyger story is a farce and a scam. We will never know the truth. The way all of this played out in the media is absolutely, literally unbelievable. It was all a show from the Dallas PD PR machine to try and satisfy Black people with the bare minimum while centering itself around White feelings.
I think it’s time for the U.S. to invest in technology to make robotic police officers. In the 80s and 90s there was a movie franchise called Robocop that was very popular. At the time it seemed far fetched and a science fiction fantasy but I think that in the near future robotic law enforcement could and should become a reality.
We interact with machines so much that we take it for granted. Most of us use ATM machines and if you call a business like an insurance or credit card company you will be assisted by a machine before you encounter a human being. Many industries employ the help of robots to make themselves more efficient and cost effective.
I feel that robotic police officers would be an asset to the United States because I hear of a police misconduct or shooting every other month if not more. Citizens have protested, rioted and the Attorney General has gotten involved to make police officers more accountable for their actions but nothing has improved the situation. I do not accept that police violence and killing should be the norm for American citizens.
Police violence becomes a problem for all of us because the officers are often not prosecuted of any crime and when they are they are rarely convicted. But the victim or their family usually sues the city and wins millions. The taxpayers pay for police misconduct, not the officers or the police department themselves.
I can remember well publicized incidents of police brutality and police killing as far back as the 1980s. When I was growing up near Detroit the Malice Green murder was big news. When I was a teenager I vividly recall the Rodney King beating and the L.A. riots. While I was a young adult Amadou Diallo was murdered on the East coast. In recent years these types of stories have become common place because of cell phone technology and social media. This issue has been with me my entire life and I am sick of it.
Most of the victims of police violence that I’ve learned about are Black. But Black people are only about 13% of the United States population. It is very difficult to not suspect the police of being deeply racist when you consider the relationship that American has had with African Americans. The U.S. has always been violent and callous towards Black people. America has always felt the need to control the Africans within its borders.
The police rarely seem contrite in these situations. They didn’t even show remorse when ten year old Tamir Rice was killed for playing with a toy gun at a public park. They only justified what happened. Police departments often make themselves out to be victims when they shoot and kill citizens. If someone speaks out against them they threaten some type of work stoppage and make a statement about how officers are entitled and deserving of respect.
There is no doubt that police work is dangerous. There is no doubt that law enforcement is necessary. So why not take some of the burden from flesh and blood human beings and use nuts and bolts machines to take care of traffic violations or even city patrols? Police officers will be safer and citizens will be treated more objectively.
No one can accuse an officer of racism if the officer is a machine. It would be simple for a camera to clock cars as they speed by or check license plates for expired stickers. The person in violation of the law will receive a ticket in the mail. It’s happened to me.
If robots performed the more menial tasks such as writing tickets that would give officers more time to investigate and prevent crimes. Everyone would win. Citizens will have a more efficient police force. The police would be safer. Law enforcement would be more objective. Robotic police officers would pay for themselves because of the decrease in lawsuits to the police departments which citizens pay for with their tax dollars. The lawmakers of this country should be progressive and begin to research how they can make robot technology work for law enforcement.