My Thoughts on the Latest Shooting:

…an unarmed man was murdered by a police officer while trying to run away… this is not shocking; in the community I grew up in it’s common knowledge that not all black people are thugs, not all cops are honorable, and there are times, too often, where the cops are the thugs murdering innocent civilians, planting evidence, illegally detaining and beating us up under the guise of broken taillights, tinted windows, speeding violations, and fitting the description of… I myself have had five cops pull their guns on me over a “broken taillight” among other incidents… Like I said, where I grew up, it’s common knowledge that not all black people are thugs, not all cops are honorable, and the murder of an unarmed man is not new to us…

…it is shocking, even with the video evidence, that this officer has been arrested and charged with murder… but I doubt that many of us believe that he will be convicted or serve any serious time if he is… we struggle with being patient and believing in a justice system that has continuously failed us, so you have to excuse us if we don’t believe this latest incident will result in any punishment for the perpetrator of the crime against human life…

…the fact these officers continue to commit these kinds of acts, knowing that they are potentially being recorded shows that these are not isolated random incidents, but a part of their culture and that they don’t believe they will be punished for their actions. Otherwise, they would stop foolishly committing these acts on camera.

…I am thankful for the recent barrage of video footage, not because I believe there will be a conviction, but because people who aren’t from my world (there is more than one America in America), are having their beliefs challenged and being presented with evidence that disputes the long held American belief that the police are always acting honorably when they do harm to a civilian…

…the truth is, we have been telling you for years about these heinous acts committed by officials of the government, but you have never believed us… and even with the videos, you are still struggling to reconcile the idea of a crooked cop against your belief that cops by definition are good people…. Cops are just people, some honorable and good, others abusing their power and corrupting the system…

…now we wait…. ~ Sean King