THE BRUTAL REALITY OF BRUTALITY

I haven't posted or gone into deep conversation on the two recent Police Killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. The idea of moving my consciousness to adjust to reasoning critically has hit the proverbial brick wall. It is not moving because there is no where else you can go. The reality is brutal. Much like Jessie Williams statement on the backlash and critics, "It was the same a month ago, it was the same last week and frankly, its boring getting upset over it when the result will be the same." Today a young Black woman, in the middle of a Union Square New York City rally, which proceeded into a march, yelled, "When are we going to stop marching. My feet and my back hurt from the last one." And yet her words were drowned out by the crowd with "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE". Eventually, she fell in line and took to the streets of Manhattan chanting the universal war-cry of Black Lives Matter, "WHOSE STREETS, OUR STREETS". This isn't new. This is all part of script most would say. The need and desire to move the line eventually stays stagnant for more of the same. More words. More hope and a lot more marching. What was even more of a step back from the events is the fact that along the outside, the police had full control in containing the outrage. This too, is script. Containment and Control.

At the end of the day, these two young men are dead and still others want to talk about Chicago when we know about Chicago and are working to end that but today, we are talking about Innocent and Non-Violent peoples deaths by those that were suppose to Protect them. My issue today and always has been with the GOOD COPS THAT STAY SILENT. If "guilty is the new innocent" for Politicians and corrupt business people, then "silence is the new activism" for the GOOD COP. Good Cops know they are too cowardly silent on there FRAT BOYS. And if they don't know, that is a conscious choice to pave a non-involvement journey until retirement; all on the tax payers dime regardless if they get the opportunity to shoot them or not. 

The solution isn't the burden of the People but those that know the Wild Cards, the Racist, the Mentally Unstable and Irresponsible within their ranks. When you can't and don't simply say .... we have people whom are wrong, were wrong and he/she needs to be removed for our force ... Good Cops cosign on the damage done to lives and communities from harassment to unwarranted Stops and Frisks, to Wrongful Convictions to Wrongful Incarcerations. The silence makes every Good Cop, no matter if they are in the majority, equally guilty and dangerous. It doesn't matter if you aren't from the same group or precinct ... you are the problem and the coward for standing by and watching mothers and fathers bury their child because he was selling CD's of his music or driving legally, or playing with their friend, walking down a street, waiting for their child in a mall, buy food at a restaurant, or simply sitting in a park to relax.

I will say, for the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement .... if I don't see or hear an Official Statement on the problems you experience, face, administer and know exist, don't expect my support and or backing .... because when I see advertisements for CPR, images of Police kumbaya holding hands in solidarity, murals on walls in my neighborhood and actions opposite what is portrayed live , opposite was I actually see on my streets ... you might as well rename yourselves "The 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement That Bail Cotton, Sing Songs And Hide In Shadows When Its Time To Clear Your Throats And Speak Up". So until NEXT WEEK when some officer kills another innocent Black Child .... you know what? I don't want to see you because it boring and I want to see something NEW and worthy of my humanity.

WHEN BLACK MOTHERS NEED TO LET GO OF THEIR BOYS TO BECOME MEN

Before I get in, can we take a moment to observe the mother, what she represented, the language, the dress, the attitude? OK ... now for my POV:

I love Mom and I know she meant well but her MALE CHILD'S purpose was to protect his future and as such, his MOTHER. This is what MEN do. This is what Black folk have done since chained and bound for our Trans-Atlantic kidnapping from Africa. There isn't a time or generation Black Men and Black Boys have not had to step up and represent Civil and Human Disobedience to survive in The Americas. At no time in American History has the country freely extended Human Rights to Black folk. It hasn't freely done so to Hispanics, Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples, Women or to its own White folk for what matters. That being said, I can't honestly say I know all the details and background of this mother's intent but I do know it was personal, counterproductive and selfish to her cause of; "let some other kid get hurt and die and not mine" and all the while those others are taking the hit for her not seeing the Big Picture. The MAN in her child that needed to grow, evolved and experience what needs to be done is/was being crushed. THIS IS WHY SINGLE WOMEN NEED A STRONG MALE ROLE MODEL FOR THEIR SONS. JUST FOR MOMENTS LIKE THIS.

Imagine in India, South Africa, Mexico, Syria, Libya, Russia, Pakistan, China, Korea, Palestine, Vietnam, Columbia, Argentina, Poland, Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Egypt, Burma, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Haiti and I can probably list 50 more countries had mothers telling their children ... their male sons, to stay indoors, to STOP throwing rocks at an oppressive force that uses military tools to oppress them, kill them and their families and keep them in fear? To coddled and sheltered their BOYS ... their YOUNG MEN? The attitude of "NOT MINE" doesn't work when you are fighting for justice. This is the "sheeple" way of looking at life. She has in essence tamed and neutered her child into submission maintaining that only Martin Luther King Jr. is the way and light for social justice is the only way for pushing the agenda of human rights forward.

What needed to be done was she should have been by her son's side guiding him in a way (or out of the way) that had equal impact. If she didn't know how, then a person equal to the

challenge should have been by her side or had that person guide him. Be it mentor, pastor, boyfriend or MISSING FATHER. And just like people have issues with public shaming on the Internet, I have issue with the public castration of Black Boys to Men because we are too scared to "Do the Right Thing". You all do remember that movie right? No one left the theater saying how you would have told your child not to react and get involved then. You actually applauded the actions because it was real enough to connect to. If that was true then, when did it become fantasy today? Same actions, same scenario just absent the stereo.

This mother was wrong in her methods because at the end of the day, if her child had his neck broken by the Baltimore police and got off without accountability, she'd want more than a few kids throwing rocks at their oppressors. She'd take all and every attempt to Right what was/is wrong with the System. She coddled him into submission and this his Manhood took a backseat to a mother's misguided notion that what was going on was too ignorant, dangerous and un-Manly for him to experience. A warrior to the cause taken out by an unfriendly fire, a Mother from the inside. So now I have to ask, who was more dangerous, the Baltimore police for murdering a Black Man and getting away with it or a Millennial Mother not connected to the history to how she was able to achieve her relaxed two toned hair, hoop earrings, gold necklaces and watch, makeup, nails, high heel shoes, club dressed with a Love and HipHop attitude? Her agenda was to keep her Boy a Baby and let others do the heavy lifting while her stay at home and wait for the benefits to continue to rain down as those in the 1950's, 60's 70's and still into the 2000's are doing. Her excuse was that she didn't want her child to be another Freddy Gray ..... truth be told, he already is. I get it, she is a MOTHER but like all

things that matter and affect boys, you have to allow them to be Men, make mistakes and let them go.I used the word coddling for this Mother's actions defined as a disease. Yes, respecting one's mother means coddling, in my opinion, if a mother actions keep a Boy from becoming MALE or keeps the Boy so closed off to the World that he becomes stymied by its reality and easy prey for manipulation and easy marginalized as an adult male. This situation required a MALE point of view which would have allowed this boy to make a balanced and focused decision (i.e. a Male and Female perspective). Granted there are Men who feel the same way the Mother did or does and may have told this boy not to get "involved" but the only difference is that the Male would have represented "differently". This wasn't about safety for her child, it was about NOT letting her child make an adult decision to do what he felt was the RIGHT THING."I went because in the past, a lot of my friends have been beaten, killed, abandoned, hurt by the police—so I went down there just to fight for what I stand for ..." - Michael Singleton, the Young Man who was beaten by his mother participating in Civil Disobedience in Baltimore Md.

"We should applaud our young Black (boys) for having bravery their parents' have not." - Craig Schley

MY OPINION

TO GIVE UP FREEDOM

I can't tell you how many people have tried to "brainwash" me in debate, conversation, posting and lecture into freely giving up my FREEDOM to be handcuffed by a police officer when innocent. KEYWORD: Freedom. New York Mayor De Blasio had the audacity to suggested that AMERICANS (Black and Latinos) should always adhere to an officers demands to be handcuffed (guilty until they determined you are innocent) to prevent an "altercation". An altercation for what?

In essence, the Mayor of New York, whom Black and Latinos voted for to deal with the over-policing and harassing measures of the NYPD and its legal system, he is asking for those same voters whom are at the center of legal violations to "silently and orderly give up their FREEDOM before he; THE MAYOR, has even "ATTEMPTED" to deal with these issues?  That the creation of and "altercation"; a noisy argument or disagreement, especially in public ..... is un-American and unacceptable when told and or demanded to give up their FREEDOM freely and without question? Peacefully? EXCUSE ME BUT THE LAW AND PROTOCOL is to state what the crime is (if there is one) first and when asked by the accused and not exercise some skewed act of Jurisprudence until they can figure out a charge they can use to justify their action(s).

I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. EVEN IN PLACES WHERE I WORK. I have never allowed an officer to handcuff me, My FREEDOM is given to me by GOD and it is in knowing that, a gift that I do not and will not give to anyone. This frustrates the police when a person stands their ground because intimidation is key to their protocol for arresting and or subduing people.

I am not asleep and my mind is sharp ... you can not tell me that giving up your FREEDOM to authority without question is normal. If anything it is the actions of animals led to slaughter. HELL .... even pigs fight before they are made into bacon for your BLT sandwiches.

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOHN AND GOOD COPS

John, the reality is this. "GOOD COPS" are feeling the pressure for the actions of Bad Cops, Bad policing, discriminative legal decisions and their lack of internal support to rid themselves of the infection of injustice. More so, these acts and actions are disproportionately focused on People of Color (i.e. Black People). This is not an exaggeration, the facts don't lie. The evidence (including the missing and distorted) is real and obvious. It don't matter how many "fluff" pieces that go viral, BBQ's and Block parties in the community, P.A.L. events, dog rescue stories or sympathy broadcasts made, if the infection of Bad Cops and sweeping reforms holding those cops accountable for their actions aren't made, Good Cops will be guilty by association. Guilty by cause and by default. Why? Because internally, fraternal organizations know who the "Bad Apples" are. Those on the outside do not have this luxury. For some, to be approached by a police officer is a "hope and prayer" that THIS ONE is a good one.

For an individual Cop to stand up and yell, "Not Me!", the action would be moot because EVERY Cop should be standing. And they aren't. Everyone supports good policing. What society should be demanding is that everyone should be condemning bad policing .... and based upon the statistics, the actions, the evidence and silence .... they aren't. Which could only mean one of two things, 1. People don't care or 2. they accept things as they are. This same philosophy can be said of GOOD COPS who stay silent and work side-by-side with Bad cops. The internal silence and on the side pleas of community acceptance come off weak and sorry to say .... "spineless.' to those most effected by bad policing and Bad Cops.

From Yusef Hawkins to Eric Garner 25 Years Time Locked

"Well protesting is sort of like, "Please, please, please, don't do that." But they'll do it anyway. But they just ignore you. So, protest is submissive." - Paul Watson, Environmentalist Activist


I think what Paul Watson stated has more merit today, now, than than ever before. The  problem is, people, especial Black folk, aren't ready to transition from "activism" to "interventionism". The difference between "activism" and "interventionism" is  one "talks" and the the other "does". Not by just showing up and raising voices and holding hand up in the air in a surrendering manner but transitioning from being just active to aggression; "the act of "hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another; readiness to attack or confront". Now this might sound anti-American or even what people like to label as a "race riot" but lets be honest, with all the "extra" police, helicopters, patrol boats, secret service and traditional enforcement of the Law that surrounded the "peace march", that is what the Government is most fearful of. The Powers-That-Be know that Black folk have gone from walking hand-in-hand or with tools to being chained, to laying on their backs, to crawling, to standing up, to fighting, to dancing, to walking with hands raised to laying in graves in raising numbers. They know by definition that it is coming to this. The Fight for the Right to exist. The recent law passed called Program 1033 or the official name, AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD PROTECTION PROGRAM ACT OF 2013 (https://beta.congress.gov/.../house-bill/1033/summary/98705 ) as well as the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (S. 1959) was designed to be a Pro-Action policy to prevent Interventionism in American People. You can't act against something if the road to action has been cut from the start. These laws cut off all paths via military action and resources. They also have rules for suspending the Constitution. The very fiber of justice in America. 

Its been 25 yrs since since the murder of Yusef Hawkins in Staten Island. The same place Eric Garner was placed in an illegal chokehold and also murdered. Al Sharpton's rally in the same place 25yrs to the day of the murder of Yusef Hawkins and he is back where he started with Eric Garner and the best you can offer in a fiery speech to those attending is that this time the people didn't get watermelon and chicken thrown at them? That is an activist "mentality" ... a philosophy of "Gradualism". If Black folk continue at this pace, 25ys from now the people of Staten Island will be serving wine and cheese, water with lemon and an ice cube for those who don't drink.

For those people in Staten Island who stayed indoors they did so in fear. Fear that the clock is ticking for an age of Interventionism. That fear just might be justified. If the actions of injustice isn't addressed in the Illusion that America is in a Post-Racial era, the 60's will come back and it will far worst than the Middle East.