Racial profiling in law enforcement is a deep-rooted issue with far-reaching ramifications; voice your take on 'broken-windows' policing and controversies surrounding race and crime.
It's January 6th, 2021. The one year anniversary of getting arrested on the campus I was going to, for having my service dog with me. The day that started my terrible year of 2020. The day my civil rights were violated. The day I was humiliated to the highest degree in a place I should have been safe. The day my school let me down and then refused to protect me from the discrimination I was receiving on their campus. If I had access to all the video footage to show you what happened I would. As of this moment I'm still trying to get the footage and I have been given 3 chances to plead guilty to being mixed and disabled and having my service dog with me on the college campus I was attending like that is a crime. I refuse to have my civil rights and be told I'm a criminal for doing nothing illegal.
Dear Brandon Bernard, I am sorry the justice system failed you, I am sorry that you were given unfair treatment. I am sorry that the politics of the current world viewed you for your race and not as a man, a father. I am sorry that the justice system failed to treat your case the same way they would have had you been white.
At 6 pm, April 13th, 2019, I attended the vigil for Abraham Arellano, a Hispanic man who was killed by a Frederick County Sheriff’s deputy in what police are calling a “suicide by cop”. Much has already been written about Abraham, how he made a call from his cell phone about a home intrusion, how his girlfriend and child were in the home, how Abraham had a gun, and he wanted the cops to stop him before he murdered his loved ones, driven suicidal by the fact that he was supposedly being left by his girlfriend, who may have been able to take his child out of his custody, tied up with a neat little bow.
The BGN link can be found here: https://blackgirlnerds.com/after-the-laquan-mcdonald-verdict-what-must-change-for-justice-to-finally-be-done/
Sheriff Jenkins is a hard man. In the same vein of crooked, corrupt, and criminal “law enforcement” figures like former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, Jenkins is “tough on crime”. Or at least that is what he wants us to believe about him. The sheriff also clearly wants such a position to be viewed positively by the Frederick County citizens. But should it be?
Angry We’re fucking angry, no were oppressed as of matter of fact, we’re disgusted for more then a decade “black America “ have cried and fought with learning to move on, Anawareness that you have to be the strong , an learn what it’s like the “black in America “
I Can’t Breathe...were the last words of George Floyd. When does the INJUSTICES of our society stop?! When will people of color feel safe in their own homes, towns, countries?!
We all know the current state of the world in regards to racism and perceptions of law enforcement. The conversation has brought up some past memories of my own that I have been meaning to share but I feel like now is the perfect time to tell this story.
A man breaks up a fight between two women. Police were called to the scene. At some point while investigating the situation, the police became interested in the man. The police tased the man and tried to arrest him. The man steps around the vehicle to get in the car where his children are. Only to be grabbed by the shirt by the trained officer and shot in the back seven times in front of his children.
We had been best friends since junior year of high school. She was white and well, I wasn’t, but that never seemed to be a problem. Her family took me in as though I were their own. We made occasional black jokes from time to time, but nothing racist just simple things like “is it because you’re black” or “do you want some fried chicken?”
I have kept silent throughout all the Covid 19 epidemic, and I kept silent throughout the current Black Lives Matter movement, not because I don't support, agree or disagree with it but because I felt that the opinion of a late 40s white male was probably not needed.
The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police really got me thinking again -- as it should everyone -- about what we can do about this problem of homicide not prevented by but perpetrated by police who are supposed to protect us. It's a problem that has been erupting in America for decades, and caught on video ever since Rodney King was savagely beaten in 1991, which showed it's also a problem of assault and crimes committed by police that are less than murder. And though African-Americans are all too often murdered and brutalized by cops, Caucasians are also afflicted by life-threatening violence from police, as was the 75-year old man (Martin Gugino, a peace activist) thrown to the ground by Buffalo police, which landed him in serious condition in the hospital.