Judge, Jury, Executioner: Licensed To Kill?
Is not the anguish of mothers everywhere, who bear the unimaginable tragedy of their children gunned down or subjected to inhumane subjugation, and then suffer the unconscionable insult of a system that claims “insufficient evidence” as the reason for not holding perpetrators accountable, sufficient indictment of a so-called ‘Justice system?’
What does the good in people hope for, expect, require? Isn’t it only that those with authority to inflict harm also demonstrate humility and responsibility, and be held accountable for their harmful actions? In a system that prides itself on ‘checks and balances,’ how can it be that law enforcement personnel, charged with protecting and serving communities, individually assume roles of judge, jury, and executioner, and do so with impunity? What can a mother hope for, after suffering the murder of her child? And what can a society expect, if the good in people is often trampled by apathetic systems?
A brief segment from “Humbling and Humility“
But did you know, Priyavani, that the state that arrested you also arrests other residents and US citizens, guns pointed menacingly, sometimes with choke holds, quick take downs, and blows to the head and back? And that they do so with fabricated and exaggerated details of resistance by those being arrested: “Why are you resisting arrest? Why are you reaching for my gun?” Or that police officers may arbitrarily choose to use their batons, tasers, or guns, harmfully and with impunity, to procure the submission they demand?
Or, that in a state down south, you could be arrested if you were a jaywalking girl and pulled your arm away from a policeman who may grab you to detain you for his ticketing purposes? That southern state has the distinction of employing law enforcement personnel who claim it should be a relief that while a cop may commit sexual assault on duty elsewhere, as it happened in Detroit, MI, they only touch people on the arm in their locale.
Do you also know that some here, arrested or incarcerated, are subjected to body cavity searches, where they not only have to strip, but squat, naked, in front of others, and cough? All you need to do is watch a recent Hollywood dramatization of true events, Fruitvale Station, to see what I describe as common practice in arrests here.
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