Friday, April 10, 2015

The boys in blue: This is what we do.

When watching the disturbingly explicit snuff film, the most incredulous sequence to me is how casual and matter-fact does this person -- with a uniform, badge and gun -- behave when he decides to execute Walter Scott by shooting him in the back -- an unarmed suspect fleeing the scene.

His demeanor suggests: "This is what I do...on a regular."

And then this person -- with a uniform, badge and gun -- just calmly saunters over his kill, handcuffs a dead body and runs with all deliberate speed to retrieve an object (stun gun?) which he plants next to the motionless body.

Once again, he does it so calmly it suggests:

"This is what I do...on a regular. Furthermore, do I have to remind you, in verdict after verdict in our country tis of thee sweet land of liberty my fellow brothers (hunters) in blue have been told by jury after jury, grand jury after grand jury, police commissioner after police commissioner, mayor after mayor that lethal force against citizens of color is not only legal it is expected."

And sadly once again, Deja vu all over again, the groundhog day of another unarmed boy, teen, young man, middle-age man of color continues to play in a seemingly loopless American made horror movie.

Am I relieved this one was recorded for the world to see? Yes, of course, but I still remember a jury watching footage of the boys in blue beating the shit out of unarmed Rodney King and still exonerating them with the tired refrain:

"This is what we do...on a regular!"




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