Do you remember being 4 years old?
I remember being 4 years old in 1965 and getting lost in my own neighborhood. My grandfather used to walk with me around the cul de sac, every morning, until he wasn't there anymore.
On this particular day, a police officer saw me, alone on the sidewalk. I wasn't particularly upset or afraid, I just didn't remember which way to go to get home. He stopped his car and took me home.
There was a time when "to protect and serve" meant something.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the Campaign against Cambodia. I was 10, my brother was 20 and in college somewhere in California. On may 4 of that year, while my mother was watching the news, I witnessed the Kent State massacre. I can tell you that the effect it had on me, was to leave me perplexed to say the least.
My brother called to tell my mother, his college was protesting too. Someone had rolled a piano off the roof of a dorm, to draw the attention of the police on his campus, so the protesters could run away, before they were shot too.
My mother started taking me with her, to protests against the war, for civil rights marches, for equal rights rallies. We marched, rallied, carried signs, all in protest of injustice.
This last week, in Ferguson Missouri, a young man died. What happened there, still has the potential to turn into something akin to Kent State. Unless the officer or officers in question, are indicted for the shooting of an unarmed, young man.
From the video footage that's been released about this incident, I get the impression, police there seem to think, all people of color look the same.
In this day and age, our President is a person of color, and the First Lady, his wife, is comparable in style, to Jackie Kennedy and is just as intelligent, if not moreso, than her husband.
Apparently there are still pockets of racists still here in America. We all wanted to believe, once we'd elected a black President, there was no more racism in America. I wanted to believe. I knew better, that didn't make me want to believe any less.
There's a woman named Marissa Alexander, who fired a warning shot at her estranged husband, claiming the #Stand Your Ground" law in Florida. She was trying to defend herself against further abuse, against a man whom she knew intimately enough, to want him out of her house. She was hoping for immunity under that law. She was denied. She may spend 60 years in jail, just for firing a warning shot. I believe she is being denied because not only is she a person of color, but also because she is a woman.
Let's not forget Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman did everything correctly, up until he killed a 17 year old, unarmed boy. The "Stand Your Ground" law in Florida, prohibits arresting or charging Zimmerman.
In 2005 the first "Stand Your Ground" law, was enacted in the state of Florida. It seems to be a pretty popular law, amongst states with Republican Governors. That and the drug testing of welfare recipients, where the owner of the lab is somehow related to the Governor of the state, or the Governor is heavily invested in the company doing the testing. There's a profit in it I guess, though the majority of people subject to this law, test negative and tax payers seem to be unaware, they are the ones paying for the tests.
John Ocegeura proposed a "Stand Your Ground" law in 2011. It was passed, with very little fanfare or attention. Here in Nevada, in my area, is a faction of people that open carry. I believe they are determined to intimidate the people around them, because they themselves, feel intimidated. I own a gun. I inherited it from my father. It's registered and stays in my nightstand, next to my bed, just in case. I'm a pretty good shot too however, that's where it stays. I've never been arrested and I have no criminal or psychiatric record.
Tax payers don't seem to be aware, they are paying for privatized prisons too. I think it was much better organized when they were all state or county or city owned. There was an instance of a privately owned prison, in Texas, having recieved a class 5 hurricane warning, followed by a media blackout, including a no fly zone. The prisoners were left unattended, locked in their cells.
In 2001 President Bush signed the Patriot Act. In 2004 the Bush Administration let the ban on assault weapons expire. In 2006, after John McCain being the final signatur, of the Military Commissions Act, President Bush signed that law too. Both the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act come with sundowner provisions. The problem with this is, in order for both to expire completely, we have to no longer be "at war".
You might wonder where I'm going with this, so I'll tell you. Ferguson Missouri deserves justice, no matter what cloth the people there are cut from. Of late, I have noticed a trend where the Rule of Law, depending on a person's finances, no longer seems to apply. The "Rule of Law" implies that every citizen is subject to the law, from the highest of the high, in society, to the lowest of the low, in income and as long as the Military Commissions Act and the Patriot Act are still in force, our police departments will be militarized. Mercenaries will be employed to enforce the law.