17 Honest Thoughts From a Black Man After Watching That Walter Scott Video [View all]

[one_voice]

By Darnell L. Moore April 07, 2015

1. On Saturday, Michael T. Slager, a white police officer from North Charleston, South Carolina, fired eight shots into the back of an unarmed black man named Walter Scott. The attack was caught on video.

2. This is a good thing, people say. But another black family may forever be haunted by the last few minutes of their loved one's life cut short by none other than the "law" that was meant to protect him.

3. On Tuesday, Slager was charged with murder.

4. This is justice, people say. But legal charges and bloated prison cells can never make up for the loss of black lives. Death is not justice. Black people alive is.

5. Since late last summer, we have marched, protested and sung under the banner #BlackLivesMatter, because some in this country still don't believe they do.

6. This is progress, people say. But after all this time — and all these songs, and all these chants — we still have failed to convince everyone that while "All Lives Matter," all lives are not disproportionately ended by police violence. Black lives are, so often that it's hard to stomach all this evidence of black people being ridiculed, beaten, choked, tasered or shot by police as it surfaces, over and over again. And every time I am forced to watch another act of police abuse, I am reminded that body cams and smart phones are no match for a justice system that seems to almost always grant police impunity.

7. Tuesday, the day this latest video of a black man being killed in broad daylight by a white police officer broadly surfaced, is the same day many in Ferguson, Missouri have been on the streets encouraging neighbors to get out and vote.

*snip*

16. Now is time for change, people say. This is a 21st-century American tragedy of epic proportions. None of this should be normal.

17. And yet, it already is.

The rest is at the link: http://mic.com/articles/114888/17-honest-thoughts-from-a-black-man-after-watching-that-walter-scott-video

The video is also at the link.

My heart is broken.....again. I weep for these families; I fear for my brothers, my nephews. No words could fully convey how fucking sick of this shit I am. What's worse, is I know it's a gazillion times worse for the black community and for that I'm sorry. I wish I could do more, help more or at least take some of the pain from you.