Wednesday, August 26, 2020

I Don't Know What To Say

Words fail at this point. Here are the facts as we know them, that led to this child (17) to kill two protesters - and then being welcomed by the police in Wisconsin. And let me start by being clear. He's 17. How did he learn to hate so much and to decry an entire group of humans as not worthy of life?


1. There was a call of a domestic disturbance in Kenosha Wisconsin.

2. When the Police arrived, a Black man was breaking up a fight of 2 white women. He was out of the car where his 3 children were.

3. When the Police tried to detain (and arrest) the good Samaritan that stopped the fight, he went back to his car...

      3a His Family says to check on the children.

      3b. The police say, maybe he had a gun in the car. Which would be legal, Wisconsin is now an open carry state.

4. The Police wanted the Black man to stop and either not (a) check on the children to reassure them or not (b) get a gun in front of the children.

5. So they grabbed the Black Good Samaritan by the back of his shirt. And shot him 7 times in the back, point blank range, paralyzing him.

6. Two days of protests - some with rioting and looting - followed in Kenosha.

7. The third day a facebook group of white nationalist decided to go up and "counter-protest" with Automatic rifles (which none of the protesters had used).

8. The 17 year old drove from Illinois to Wisconsin (a short trip, but still crossing state lines). He took with him his automatic rifle. With a number of armed white nationalists, he wandered into the crowd of protesters and shot multiple Black protesters.

9. After running from the now pissed off crowd, he fell and then shot another Black person who was trying to take the rifle. He shot this Black man point blank in the head, killing that one.

10. With 2 Black people dead and 1 other Black person seriously injured the White man - who was a Police Cadet, walked back to the Police line. Now in the police line the White man (who murdered 2 men in cold blood) was assisted (yes assisted, not arrested) by the police, given water by the police, issued a Thank You from the police over the loud speaker and then sent back home across the state lines.

For a moment, let's just look at the difference. A Black man stops a domestic disturbance between two White women and was shot 7 times point blank by the Police. A White man murders 2 Black men and puts a 3rd in the hospital and he is thanked and welcomed by the police.

So the first, furious, question is, if that is not systemic racism, what the fuck is?

The second, heartbreaking, question is how have we raised a 17 year old and taught him so much hate and that life is so worthless to those that don't look like him?

The final question is, how do we live like this? And if you're okay, which I get, please explain it to me. Because I do not understand.


3 comments:

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