Five members of the St. Louis Rams came out with their hands up at a recent game to show solidarity with the community grieving over the continued attack on black men by some in law enforcement. The St. Louis Police Officers Association soon after released a statement condemning the football players. Ex-Democratic Rep. Jeff Roorda, business manager of the police association, decided to display an uncanny false sense of being aggrieved. KMOX reported it this way:
The association says the five players who stood with their hands raised before Sunday’s game should be disciplined and the NFL should publicly apologize.
Business manager of the union Jeff Roorda says he was personally offended, and soon found out he wasn’t alone.
“As soon as this happened yesterday, my phone was blowing up with calls from our members,” he says. “Yesterday evening, I was getting calls from friends in law enforcement from across the country.”
On Monday afternoon Roorda met with Rams’ management to voice his concerns.
“This ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ gesture implies that Officer Wilson gunned down a young man in cold blood who was attempting to peacefully surrender, and that’s just not…not what we know now,” Roorda explained to KMOX’s Mark Reardon.
Earlier Monday, Roorda told KMOX hosts John Hancock and Michael Kelley the Rams receivers who raised their hands at least owe his members an explanation, if not an apology for their actions.
Last Sunday, right-wing conservative
Rich Lowry went on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and said the following:
What I really object to is you can discuss all these problems, but let’s not pretend that this particular incident was something it wasn't. If you look at the most credible evidence, the lessons are really basic. Don't rob a convenience store. Don't fight a policeman when he stops you and try to take his gun. And when he yells at you to stop with his gun drawn, just stop, and none of this would’ve happened.
Rudy Giuliani appeared on several networks, including
MSNBC, with his racist attack aimed at dehumanizing Michael Brown specifically and black people in general. He used statistics about black-on-black crime that were easily dispelled by Matthew Yglesias' piece titled "
White-on-white murder in America is out of control" when full context is applied.
The narrative is rapidly changing. It went from the officer gunning down an unarmed teenager to an officer having to defend himself from a large black charging demon by killing, exterminating the threat. Not lost to those who know the truth is that the shooting and killing of black men by cops continued even as the narrative changed.
The same false narrative was applied in the case of the officer shooting Levar Jones in South Carolina as he tried to get his wallet. Same as in the case when New York City police choked Eric Garner to death. Same as the case when Ezell Ford was gunned down by police in South Los Angeles. Same as the case when John Crawford III was gunned down by cops as he spoke on the phone holding a BB gun as he shopped in a Walmart. Same as the case when 12-year-old Tamir Rice was gunned down in Cleveland in less than three seconds for playing with a pellet gun in a park just last week. Same as the cases that take place hundreds of times yearly.
We should all remember that political parties have not had the back of the aggrieved except for political gain. To many, the police serve as but a heavy arm to keep some in their places, even as they are needed for protection.
What does all of this mean? It means it is time for American political and socio-economic activists to be completely engaged. The Eric Garner and the past Rodney King non-indictments prove that cameras and videos are not enough. The cancer within the police departments are but the metastasis of the cancer within society. It is that societal cancer that must be eradicated. Anything short of that is unsustainable.
It is important that the aggrieved and their allies enforce the dream of America. It is up to activists to not let time pass that serves as a release pressure valve, lest nothing changes. It is time to stay firm and demand that police act like police and politicians serve us all by ensuring all of law enforcement treat us all equally well.
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