Recent cases in Ferguson, Cleveland and New York have reignited the Trayvon Martin debate about law enforcement’s use of lethal force and America’s perceived “valuation” of black life. If putting a price tag on human beings seems unworkable if not immoral, consider it is done everyday by insurance actuaries, elder caregivers and those lobbying for slavery reparation. Yet in the era of social media, what distinguishes one episode from the next is not the decedent’s economic potential or social worth, but rather the availability of video evidence, or in today’s zeitgeist, the Ray Rice Factor.
Remarkably, many reasonable people impassively accept the non-indictment in Missouri. The evidence presented to the grand jury was, they argue, incongruous, fatally obscuring the true sequence of events. While details of the “hands up” narrative were as inconstant as they were inconceivable, it was, nonetheless, allowed to marginalize every other piece of testimony that failed to comport with Officer Wilson’s somewhat plausible rendition. The processing of forensic evidence, on the other hand, was just shoddy enough to raise the specter of outright collusion.
Not so in the Staten Island case in where we all viewed the murder of Eric Gardner at the hands of officer Daniel Pantaleo. The facts are incontrovertible: Even the NYPD-friendly medical examiner ruled Gardner’s death a homicide. That the grand jury failed to indict (although, ironically, charges were brought against the videographer) is so beyond comprehension that the federal government has initiated a civil rights investigation.
Prosecution of such a federal case hinges on two elements: establishing a racial component of Officer Pantaleo’s actions and proving his intention to kill Mr. Gardner. The racial aspect is easy enough to satisfy in that Danny Boy has spawned three lawsuits for false arrests and police misconduct – which possibly includes planting evidence – against African-Americans. In other words, Pantaleo’s behavior on the force is downright Fuhrmanesque. As for the intent to kill, all NYPD officers are taught that choke holds were banned outright in 1993 because they are “potentially lethal and unnecessary.” Employing such at tactic, therefore, shows a priori the objective of inflicting a mortal blow.
There’s blood in the streets, it’s up to my ankles
Blood in the streets, it’s up to my knee
Blood in the streets in the town of Chicago
Blood on the rise, it’s following me
– Jim Morrison
Some point to the untoward behavior of the protesters as justification for policing without restraint. But know this; the mob wants its pound of flesh. And the rage will not be quelled by the indictment of some cracker sheriff in Eutawville, SC or even by the prosecution of a white officer in Charlotte. No, they want to see a big city cop, a Caucasian, get the chair. (Note: The shooting of Akai Gurley by an Asian patrolman in Brooklyn last month caused barely a murmur.) So whether it’s Detroit or L.A., Chicago or New Orleans, the people need to know that gunning down an unarmed person of color will not go unpunished. They want to see for themselves that racism, not one of their own, is what has died.
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