I stumbled upon this Upworthy piece posted by Andrea Garcia-Vargas, which was reproduced from #LastWords.
The common thread between these ten deaths is that all the victims were black men that died from unwarranted brutality on the part of law enforcement or law enforcement wannabes. Each of these men has had his memory marred with the now predictable, racially resentful distractions and monikers of "thug", "black-on-black" crime, and blame the victim racism. Each time there is one of these injustices, it seems that a number of people almost take some amount of glee from the news of the death of another unarmed black man. Some even say " he got what he deserved". But, hey. I'm sure they are not racist. Some of their "best friends" are black, so they have the credibility to spout vitriolic rants. Maybe even their black neighbor, 5 blocks over and 3 houses down agrees with them?? The following Facebook comments say it all:
See how he whines about being labeled a racist, as he spouts racist nonsense? Next comes the glee in Michael Brown's death. This is just one of many such comments by this user and others as well.
Poor Ronnie! He was mislabeled a racist. The poor guy only took glee in Michael's execution--while calling him a racial epithet.
Here, Mike takes a sarcastic approach to "blame the victim":
Here he just unloads:
Facebook has since deleted these two accounts. I think the following quotes of the last words of black men must be contrasted with the sentiment expressed in the above Facebook posts. But, you don't have to search very long to find comments like these all over social media.
LAST WORDS OF TEN BLACK MEN:
"It's NOT real!"
~John Crawford, August 5, 2014, Age 22
"I love you too!"
~Sean Bell, November 25, 2006, Age 23
"What are you following me for?"
~Trayvon Martin, February 26, 2012, Age 17
"I don't have a gun. Stop Shooting!"
~Michael Brown, August 9, 2014, Age 18
"Mom, I'm going to college."
~Amadou Diallo, February 4, 1999, Age 23
"I can't breathe!"
~Eric Garner, July 17, 2014, Age 43
Unknown
~Jonathan Ferrell, September 14, 24, Age 24
"You shot me! You shot me!"
~Oscar Grant, January 1, 2009, Age 22
"Please don't let me die!"
~Kimani Gray, March 9, 2013, Age 16.
"Why did you shoot me?"
~Kendrec McDade, March 24, 2012, Age 19
And, now the stories behind these quotes:
John Crawford was shot dead as he held a toy gun inside a Walmart store.
Sean Bell and some friends crashed into a minivan. Four undercover cops 50 bullets at Sean and his friends. Sean's last words were to his friend Joseph.
Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman for reasons that are still unclear, despite Zimmerman receiving a not guilty verdict.
Michael Brown was unarmed and shot dead in the middle of the street by Darren Wilson.
Amadou Diallo was killed outside his apartment in a case of mistaken identity. The police fired 41 bullets, hitting Diallo 19 times.
Eric Garner was killed by a NYPD cop who placed Eric in an illegal choke hold for allegedly selling "loosey" cigarettes.
Jonathan Ferrell was in a car accident, and went to a house for help. Police later arrived, and the unarmed Ferrell held his hands out to police who, in exchange, shot him 10 times. The police NEVER identified themselves to Ferrell. As he handcuffed as he bleeding on the ground. The handcuffs remained on his dead body until arrival at the medical examiner's office.
Oscar Grant was shot on a Subway platform while another cop had Grant pinned to the ground. The officer that shot grant claimed he meant to use his Taser, despite the Taser being in the opposite holster as the gun. A Taser's weight is noticeably different than a gun, and it is also much larger. A court later ruled that there was no reason to shoot the unarmed Grant.
Kimani Gray NYPD cops claim Gray pointed a gun at them as they approached him. However, eyewitnesses state that Gray never pointed a gun, and the cops did not identify themselves as they approached Gray. The cops shot Gray at least 7 times at close range.
Kendrec McDade A man placed a bogus 911 call stating that he had been the victim of an armed robbery. The man later admitted that he lied about the guns, but not before police found McDade and shot him multiple times.
