"Justice is the Fundamental law of society."-Thomas Jefferson 1816
There are times when I have to wonder if I am
really living in the land of the free or the home of the brave. How can I be
free if I can’t walk the streets without fear? How can we be the home of the brave?
A brave man would never behave so despicably.
I feel compelled to speak up and say what is
true and what is right. As the father of a teenage son and a ten year-old
daughter, I cringe at the thought of having them grow up in this society. I
can’t imagine holding my peace upon learning that some squeamish cop shot my
son in the back and is now claiming self-defense, or that some bigoted redneck
who coddles his own little girl has seen fit to brutalize my baby girl by
throwing her to the ground and leveling his full weight on claiming he could
not control an 80-pound middle schooler.
Last
week, my wife and ten year-old daughter were stopped by a police officer
here in Riverside, where I’ve lived for the past two decades. It was a typical
traffic stop for a simple infraction but as the officer walked toward the car,
my young daughter began to panic.
“Is
he going to shoot us?"
Armed and Dangerous: A
Police Story
Those
are the words my daughter asked my wife, and as heart-breaking as it seems, she
had a valid question. I cringe at the thought of my teenage son finding himself
in a similar predicament.
My
wife diffused my daughter’s fear by telling the officer that she was afraid,
then by making room for the officer to ease her fears. “She thinks you are
going to shoot her,” my wife told the officer and she politely explained that
she is not going to shoot them, but that there were some driving laws broken
and my wife would get a ticket.
If
you have been watching the headlines, you already know that in the past several
weeks, two instances of police brutality have made the news and ruffled some
feathers in the eyes of a public that is already on-edge and deeply distrustful
of the police.
Most recently a teenaged boy was wrestled to
the ground by five police officers (some reports say nine) in Stockton,
California for allegedly jaywalking. This use of force comes on the heels of
the brutal (and wrongful) arrest of retired tennis pro James Blake.
In the hours following news that Freddie
Gray’s family saw some measure of justice for Gray’s murder by the police, we
have yet another high-profile case of police brutality caught on film, as
retired pro tennis player James Blake was attacked by plainclothes New York
police officer James Frascatore without warning as Blake stood outside a hotel
waiting to make a corporate appearance at the U.S.
After 34 years living in the Land of the Free,
I am overcome with feeling of mistrust for those who have taken an oath to
protect and serve.
I could be out enjoying time with my children
and some over-eager, lawless officer could arrest, or even kill me in front of
them. He would end up on desk duty while his cronies investigate the case and
my children would have to start the process of piecing their lives back
together in a new reality that doesn’t include their father.
What kind of freedom is that?
What happened to police officers first
identifying themselves? What happened to getting the opportunity to identify
yourself (in the case of the ever-popular excuse of a victim “matching the
description” of someone else - someone who also would not deserve to be
mistreated and their rights denied them).
There is no way you can convince me that
Frascatore’s attack on Blake was anything short of felonious assault. Add to
that the fact that Frascatore has a documented history of striking and
illegally arresting citizens of New York. He’s made multiple haphazard arrests
that didn’t stick, which makes his habit of bullying, cuffing and transporting
innocent victims more like kidnapping than police work.
I hope this incident is a wake-up call to all
of Black America, whether you are famous or not. Thank God Blake is alive and
that he has been vocal about what happened to him and what he thinks should
happen to James Frascatore as a result of his actions. But I wonder what Mr.
Blake’s thoughts were about the murder of 18 year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson
a year ago. Did he lend his support, his name and his influence to the Black
Lives Matter movement then? Did he think of Eric Garner’s murder at the hands
of unrelenting police or is his concern for police brutality new?
Let us never think, as black Americans that we
live in a post-racial America. There is no such thing.
James Blake rejects the opinion that his
attack had anything at all to do with his race. Let me ask you:
How do you think Officer Frascatore would have
approached Andy Roddick had he been standing outside the Grand Hyatt? Would
Frascatore have dared to manhandle a white man as freely as he did a black man?
Would NYPD have choked and refused to perform
CPR on Eric Garner if Garner had been an Italian or Jewish man with six
children and three grandchildren? God forbid!
If you are a leader in America today, and you
are familiar with and unmoved by this level of injustice, you may as well have
participated in the attacks.
The laws exist to protect the rights of every
American; they must be applied justly. Errant police behavior should be
punished without hesitation and without excuses about officers having a hard
job. The police force doesn’t draft citizens. Every cop out there became an
officer of the law of his or her own accord. So having a tough job is no excuse
for abuse and brutality.
We set our officers up for failure when we
allow them to terrorize the public and never expect the public to retaliate.
Mark my words: It is easy to assume you have upper hand and to think you can
carry on with police business as usual, but America has a long history of
vigilantism and a long-lasting love affair with individuals who are willing to
die for their freedom and their way of life. The last thing any group of people
want to do is wage war on American citizens.
We all watched the video of Hillary Clinton’s
meeting last month with three leaders from the Black Lives Matter camp. She
made a very poignant statement:
"Look, I don't believe
you change hearts... I believe you change laws, you change allocation of
resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not going to change every
heart. You're not. But at the end of the day, we could do a whole lot to change
some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people
who deserve to have them, to live up to their own God-given potential."
She is right. The mission has never been about
changing the hearts of men. We don’t have the power to do such a thing. The
mission is now, and always has been, to live in a country where we are treated
justly. And that means meting out the law of the land fairly to all citizens.
That’s what leaders do.
No more excuses. No more waiting for reports.
No more lengthy investigations and no bouncing paperwork around dusty offices
until the press goes away.
We demand justice!
Where are the black leaders? Where are the
sharp tongues and strategic minds that can organize movements to help us make
progress collectively? I’m not talking about long-winded intellectuals and
media puppets who sit in front of the camera and spread their watered-down
views but they don’t really give a damn about black and brown people.
Where are the celebrities who are more
invested in their communities than their promotional deals with liquor
companies? Shame on this generation that takes, takes, takes and never has the
courage to stand up for anything unless they think it will increase their
Twitter following.
The time has come. Don’t let another day pass
without demanding that our public officials start pressuring police departments
to equally apply the laws. No more rogue cops and silent leaders.
Every leader - black, white and brown - must
come together for what is just and what is right, sooner rather than later.
Because none of us is far from the graveyard as long as we allow criminals
masquerading as cops to walk the streets armed and dangerous.
Toyin Dawodu, is father of a teenage
son, and resident in California.
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