Back on July 18, 2014 I just happened to be home from work and the video came across my newsfeed. I was so outraged that I posted a short diary - something I rarely do. I wanted the community to share my outrage.
I've lived in NYC since 1994. It certainly wasn't the beginning of an age in which cops have tortured, maimed and murdered countless minorities in this city, but it was my introduction to that widespread horror as a 22 year old.
Before we had the internet, we had to cobble together press reports with eye witness accounts. But even then, the evidence pointed to calculated police killing of minorities - particularly African American men. And it is a policy that is hundreds of years old...
I marched to city hall when Abner Louima was almost killed by cops repeatedly raping him with nightsticks and got off. I marched to city hall when Amadou Diallo was shot 41 times and his murderers were acquitted... I've marched countless times in this city protesting the abuse and murder of my fellow residents simply because their skin is not as fair as mine.
When I posted that video last summer, for me, it was yet another outrage - another body that no one would care about. Another abuse that no one would remember, despite the expected temporary reaction of empathy. I wanted more - and in the last year I've been astounded by the activism that has arisen on this issue. It has taken over social media, it has become part of the larger consciousness of this country even so far as to influence prospective platforms of candidates for President.
Yet, tonight in St. Louis we have yet another African American man cut down in cold blood by the police, and despite the amazing movement for racial justice that has sprouted in the last year, despite #BLM, countless videos of cops murdering people of color, and even gestures by our political leaders about something being done, another person is dead.
Yes, dead. No coming back. No apologies. Dead.
When will this end? When will my neighbors, friends and fellow citizens whose skin is not as fair as mine, be able to walk, talk, drive, play sport, go to work, go to school, relax at a park without the looming threat of being murdered by agents of the state?
It seems an insane question to ask. It implies a centralized eugenicism to the operation of our democratically elected public offices.
But seriously, show me. No more platitudes. No more deferrals. If our government is serious about ending this cultural practice that spans centuries, fucking do it already.
When will this end?