I swore to myself that I would not write a single word about this trial until it was over, and I won't. But I just cannot hold it all in. Hell, I have society-identified Black sons -- older than Trayvon, but Black nevertheless. My soul and heart are just completely overloaded with the fear that this murderer will go free.
Why? Because it gives the "legally recognized" stamp of approval to a genocide that's been operating in plain sight, but ignored, for eons.
I won't be long here but, my oldest son said to me today, "Howis it legal, that a person,carrying a gun, with a bullet racked in the chamber, can follow you, walk up on you (a citizen in these alleged united states) -- and shootyoudead,just because??!! Why isn't the state continually hammering the plain illegality of that point?? What about Trayvon's right to defend himself??"
Sadly, all I could say to him was, "Because of the game that is the just-us system in this country, Son." Lauryn absolutely nails what's happening in the Zimmerman trial right here...
...which is why, like Sister Lauryn:
"If I have to die, oh Lord, that's how I choose to live."
Slowly but surely, I've realized there is no other alternative...
The local District Attorney's comments at the 6:20 click, made me think of a recent discussion I had with a young brother about, depending on "the courts,"as a means for us to see justice served. I told him:
"Does it work? Yes, sometimes it does -- but wa-a-ay less than it doesn't. Can it work more? Absolutely! But that depends again, on KNOWING that crooked system and using what we KNOW to fight against the injustices built into it! But trust me, there are plenty of us who are lawyers, more than willing to buy into that system for them "dollar, dollar bills," instead of, fighting its injustice (Exhibit A? The Changeling)!"
And as noted toward the end of the video -- there are probably more attempts, and successes than we can imagine. As I told my young brother in another, earlier conversation, I'm squarely in Lauryn Hill's "court" when it comes to the judicial system in this country:
I'm convinced she's onto something very important to consider, as she beautifully follows-up at the end of the above, with this:
(My young Sister, I hope you're still writing powerful words like those above -- because Lord knows, I miss you!)
UPDATE: "Feds to investigate Calif. train station killing"- First, let me say that I suspect their motives (mid-term elections ever closer, Kool-Aid at-the-ready for Black folks and such). I mean, really - NOW, they want to investigate?? And even with the video, there was no "urgency of now" coming from the Changeling, et al (apparently MLK was only talking about him & his) - they never said a mumblin' word. Guess that would've cast an interminably long shadow over all that "Obama Love"floating around - for more than a year. Pity the throngs of Black folk with no video of police killing, or otherwise abusing them. Who knows what the outcome will be, but they'll be able to wave this one around to the 'believers" saying, "At least it didn't take as long as the investigation into the murder of Emmett Till!" {smdh}
HuffPo had a clearer version of the video so I switched the one I'd originally posted because we need to see the reason white folks need niggers and injuns and spics and wetbacks and kikes and dagos and guineas and micks, and a new one I learned while volunteering in NOLA after Katrina - spicaninnies.
For cover and preservation of the - who - they really are, those "civilized," who continue (and it will continue - abetted by the not-so-surprising help of many of the non-alabaster-hued) to make the afore-mentioned groups always appear as "uncivilized" animals can then, somehow justify to their man/woman in the mirror - the animals within themselves.
“We live a life of fear and we want them to feel fear tonight” an unnamed demonstrator told KTVU at the height of the violence.
And yes, there was this: Live blog: Cops pour in to Oakland to try to stop looting. But while the headline concentrates on the looting, the photo array of the legions of riot-gear clad, gun-carrying cops from at least five different agencies it contains stands in silent, yet powerful confirmation that, as James Baldwin said:
"The country is only concerned about nonviolence, if it seems that I'm gonna get violent. It's not worried about nonviolence, if it's some Alabama sheriff."
Or a BART officer.
Lauryn Hill's - "Mystery of Iniquity" - kept playing in my head while I pecked this out, so I thought I'd share. For all the Marilyn Leviases (Seattle) and the more, sure-to-be Oscar Grants in this post-racial nation...
...because the beat goes on, until we say - ENOUGH! - and mean it.
When I volunteered in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity in 2006, I got to sit and talk with a lot of Black New Orleanians who said the shooting on the Danziger Bridge had nothing to do with self-defense. Their take? The crooked NOPD was "protecting" the people on the predominantly white,other side of the bridge, scared that the poor and predominantly Black folk were coming to take their shit.
I saved this excellent Matt Taibbi piece among the many I continue to save regarding NOLA, because it was real-time descriptive. And as I re-read my links for this post, I realized he'd referenced, what I think, was the shooting on the Danziger Bridge:
The very moment we'd arrived, news chimed in over the police radios that cops had shot and killed five looters at a bridge somewhere outside town. The news was met with a high cheer ("That's right, motherfuckers!" was one cry), and the whole crowd was buzzed, like a bar after midnight.
My Grandmama always said, "Whatever you do in the dark, WILLcome to light." I can't tell you how many times that one little sentence has kept me going. Today is certainly one of them (She ALSO said, "A guilty conscience needs no accusin'" - but I'm still a little shaky on that one always coming true - despite today's developments.)
Here are a few interesting post-Katrina videos regarding the Danziger Bridge shootings:
Posted January 1, 2007:
This video posted January 3, 2007:
CNN's Sean Callebs exclaimed in the intro:
"But the WAYthey turned themselves in really speaks volumes about the way the case is playing out here in New Orleans." (emphasis his)
"As the seven people made their way to the sheriff's office, they were greeted by cheers, applause and chants of NOPD."
It sure does speak volumes, Sean - but not in the way you implied. The December 5th video below provides a decidedly non-white and rather clear-eyed view of what all that cheering was really about. And wonder of wonders! It, and the truths it contains, were out there at least a month before your - "report." Truth be told, those "truths" were out there much longer - but nobody listened. Guess it never occurred to you there was a REASON you couldn't get a comment from an NOPD officer huh, Sean? But I gotta give it to you, Officer Billy Mims (from that other uh-uh unit) spouting the Blue Line meme was a pretty good foil though.
Oh! And that statement from attorney, Frank DeSalvo about publicity pimp extraordinaire, the Right Rev. Al Sharpton?
"Four of the officers were Black, Rev. Sharpton either can't count or he can't see."
I'll just repeat what I said in my last post on Tiger Woods - "White Americans, and those,"I've-arrived-cuz-I-think-like-them" others - REALLY need to get a grip. Just because you're Black doesn't mean you do not participate in the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy (DeSalvo, listen to some bell hooks why don't you??). The reverend, also a card-carrying member, was dead-right on this one. I just think he let go of it because he felt he couldn't get enough media play with that little"four-Black-officers-wrinkle" - not without exposing his WSCP membership, that is.
Posted December 5, 2007
This piece by Laura Maggi of The Times-Picayune ran on August 13, 2008:Charges rejected against Danziger 7. The last paragraph is particularly interesting given todays developments:
Madison said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has said his office doesn't want to take up the case. Letten on Wednesday said his staff continues to monitor the case, along with the Justice Department's civil rights division, but had declined to step into a matter being handled by the Orleans Parish district attorney's office. (emphasis mine)
And sorry Obots, no props to the Changeling or Holder on this one. However if it turns out they deserve the props, you can bet - in the interest of honesty and fair play - I will give it. But according to this August 11, 2009 piece - FBI Investigates New Orleans Police For Katrina Killings - the FBI investigation began before they even took their seats:
Last September, federal officials announced plans to investigate the officers involved in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings on the Danziger Bridge that killed two men and injured four. A state court judge has thrown out murder and attempted murder charges against seven current and former officers, but the FBI is investigating if civil rights were violated. (emphasis mine)
If my calculations are correct, that'd put the opening of the investigation somewhere around September of 2008.
Now what I will say is - there is a possibility that the "fear" of what a society-identified Black, Obama Administration might do (or find) could have hastened the FBI's decision. But so what? Until you give me some concrete, Holder-fingerprinted evidence that it was he, who actually caused this investigation to go forth - keep holding your beath.
Instead, I prefer to attribute today's developments to what REAL journalism can do. Hat's off - and my own lowly Pulitzer Prize nomination for Investigative Reporting (if I had one) goes to:
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters, Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy along with their City Editor, Gordon Russell along with ProPublica , reporter A.C. Thompson and Frontline Producer, Tom Jennings.
I saw a clip of Wolf Blitzer's upcoming interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney to air Sunday at 11 a.m. In it, Mr. Cheney spoke about how much we've progressed racially since he came to Washington in the 60s.
He said, "When I came to Washington, we'd had Kennedy assassinated, Martin Luther King assassinated and riots in the streets. Things have changed so dramatically that now, we're preparing to swear in Barack Obama as President of the United States. " (emphasis mine)
Let's be clear, I agree with him - things have changed racially in this country. But I'm not lying to myself that Obama's selection is a reflection of that. If you want to feel that way, go right ahead. But rather than showing how far we've come, I think the former Vice President's statement does more to starkly point out how far we still have to go.
The tragic irony of his statement is that, as I sit in Washington:
It seems 22 year-old, Adolph Grimes III was assassinated on January 1, 2009 - shot by police, twice from the front and 12 times from the back (a total of 48 bullets were fired according to CNN). Grimes did have a gun - with a legal permit to carry. Now you have to ask yourself, what you would do if you're sitting in your car in New Orleans right after the New Year rolled in and plainclothes policemen pulled up in unmarked vehicles and surround your car with guns drawn - and you have a weapon with a permit to carry. Details are sketchy because the NOPD's not answering a lot of questions right now. Good idea since they've given two versions of what happened.
Witnesses say police handcuffed Grant after he'd been shot, but removed the cuffs right before news reporters arrived. The officer has resigned, is at home and will speak to no one on advice of legal counsel. And there was rioting in the streets.
No, neither of these men were political or spiritual leaders, but their lives mattered - to someone.
UPDATE: I just had to say this. Sitting here watching Don Lemon on CNN as they "focus" on these shootings (and that of Bobby Tolan) in their Special Investigations series. He starts out by saying, "What is going on with all these police shootings!" (emphasis his) as if they just started happening. It took his white guest, B.J. Bernstein (she was Genarlow Wilson's defense attorney), to say, "This is not new, it happens to 1 in 4 African-American males all the time." Then he switches to the Grimes shooting and asks her if given all the crime in New Orleans after Katrina, are the police a little touchy or are the shootings warranted! I guess he realized what he said, because then he added, "not that anybody's death is warranted." Christ!!! Just because CNN just started "focusing" on young Black men being gunned down by police, doesn't mean it just started happening. It's times like these that I just have to holler Zora's words: "All my skinfolks, ain't my kinfolks!!"
