When President Obama spoke to the nation the night of the grand jury decision in the Darren Wilson case, many people of color and fellow Liberals were upset that he did not dive as deeply into race as they would of hoped. The killing of Michael Brown, along with countless other deaths of our black brothers and sisters, have sparked a lot of controversy along racial lines.
President Obama has spoken a lot about protesters in Ferguson and around the nation not being violent. So many of us agree, yet we wish that he and others would call on law enforcement to behave the same way. Just in Utah, homicide by cop is the second leading kind of homicide behind?intimate partner. This is mind-boggling. There is a serious problem of police brutality, stemming from rogue officers but also idiotic police training which perpetuates a killing mentality, and the ongoing explicit and implicit racial bias which has to be taught and combated.
The failure of leaders to take a hard stand against the police in these ways, has disheartened a lot of the American public. Yes, we know not all cops are bad. Most cops do not beat up citizens nor kill them. However, these strings of unarmed kids, teens, and adults being killed is repugnant. Then there are the “armed” people who are killed, but in my opinion, unjustly. We have the case of Kajieme Powell who did have a knife when he was shot, but was not actually a threat. If he was such a threat at the time, the police wouldn’t have blatantly lied about the circumstances involving his death. Thanks to cell phone footage of the killing, we KNOW that the police concocted a story to present Kajieme as more of a perpetrator than he actually was. These concocted stories have been happening all the time.
The police in the Tamir Rice shooting say they gave him three orders to show his hands, yet in the video we see them rolling up on him and firing, all within about three seconds. And there are of course numerous misleading and downright contradictory statements and “facts” from the St. Louis Police Department regarding the death of Michael Brown. From saying that Wilson didn’t know about the robbery when he approached Mike to him saying that he did, to them overtly lying about how far from the car Mike was killed. In many circumstances, the police lie to cover their behinds and something has to be done.
The question remains however, whether it would be appropriate for political leaders to come out and say things about law enforcement and about race and the law. I believe they should. Why would it be bad to condemn police practices and culture that lead to countless unfair and unjust killings? Are the police above the law? Above criticism? So many black and brown people and our allies, think the answer is yes. We have harbored beliefs for so long that the police are untouchable and no one can tell them anything. It is kind of like the military. Because they are seen as so courageous, we can’t condemn anything; this includes sexual violence that has been a huge problem. But we justice-seekers know that fighting for justice for the everyday person is critical and these institutions should be criticized if there are actual problems needing actual solutions.
The statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid talked about the unrest in Ferguson. He mentioned how it did not seem like an American city in 2014. He also said that the public deserved a full disclosure of the facts regarding the death of Mike Brown, which he called heartbreaking. Now this statement is not necessarily bad, but again, it does not mention race. It says nothing about what may have caused this, and how upset communities of color are due to this continued violence. He said every community deserved equal protection under the law. ?He refuses to address the differing communities and how they are perceived and treated.
Republican House Leader Nancy Pelosi also released a statement following the Grand Jury decision. Her statement discussed how violence can’t distract from peaceful protests and what we have do to in the community. She mentions that communities have been torn and divided and then she states a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. about how only love can drive out hate. She finishes by saying that we need to work together to “correct justice” and “foster hope.”
Yet again, not a bad statement, but no direct mention of race or racism that could be producing these killings every single week. The lack of specific discussions surrounding race and bias in the police force as well as our nation, should not come as a surprise. The United States of America has done a deplorable job at honestly discussing race. Our leaders have to appeal to all of their constituents, but so often we believe that black and brown people are not included. We can talk about the concerns of women and the LGBT community specifically, but saying anything abut race-based programs or prejudice seems to still be taboo.
And while Hillary Clinton is not technically a politician at the moment, she has been one in the past and obviously a huge staple in American political life. As the number one predicted Presidential Democratic Nominee in 2016, her silence on Ferguson and Mike Brown have left me personally upset. I love Hillary and would still vote for her, but what could her silence mean? Why would she not speak out? Democrats in general rely so heavily on the racial minority vote for elections, yet they do not seem to fight as hard as they could to speak about injustices that are race-based and how to fix them.
I want to know what you all think? Should our leaders be more bold and speak truth to power? Do they even know about these truth? Or should they seem more centrist as to try and appeal to the broadest group of people possible?
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