Monday, October 26, 2015

There is a reason the student wouldn't leave the classroom. The officer has a history of violence.

There are more and more videos that show African Americans taking a direction to insure their lives. There is a problem here. African Americans, especially men, are finding it necessary to do what they can to prevent death. That is the options open to them these days. Find a way to survive an interaction with an officer or die.

A student made this video. There was more than one student to make a video of the interaction. These videos are in ANTICIPATION of wrongful threat to the student. This is also Columbia, South Carolina. The stress in that state due to the absolute destruction by Joaquin is complicating all sorts of issues. 

But, what is seriously an issue is the fact the videos exist at all. These students, there is more than one, knew something was coming. That speaks eons to the relationship this officer has with the students. 

What topics are being discussed by African American youth? Survival on a day to day basis? No other ethnicity is having that discussion on a regular basis. 

The accosting of African Americans by police is creating a deficit of safety for them. If I can refer to Sandra Bland as an example. She did nothing to bring on the very wrongful handling of her when stopped for a turn signal. The officer escalated the interaction by asking her all sorts of questions. The verbal interaction between she and the officer became punitive at his insistence. It is verbal interaction that is bringing on the assault by police officer 'in the name of the law.' There are good law abiding people that speak to an officer and end up dead.. Officers need to respect the people more than they look to find fault with words. 

There is a memory I have from years ago. I had taken a trip outside the USA for professional purposes. I was on my way home. I had some pumice rocks, volcanic rocks in my Carry On that were determined to be contraband by the TSA. I had already gone through Customs without issue. I was happy. I was on my way home. I had met peers. New peers. I had made friends. I had accomplished everything I set out do accomplish when I first embarked on this trip. I had my passport. I was doing everything right and all of a sudden I had a TSA agent in my face.

She told me the rocks were not allowed in the passenger cabin and I had to return to the check in desk to put them in my luggage. The rocks were in my Carry On because they were delicate. They were light in weight and easily crumbled with little effort. I had packed them carefully and put them in my carry on. They were important to me.

When the TSA officer told me I had to put them in my other luggage my heart sank to my feet and I tried to explain to her how it was a poor decision to put them inside luggage. I offered to provide proof of professional status. It all was completely rejected. And suddenly I was surrounded by four TSA agents over absolutely nothing.

I literally put my hands up and stated I would do as DEMANDED. I had to return to the desk, they had to find the luggage and I transferred the rocks into that piece of luggage. I returned to the security area and then boarded the jet. 

The point is this. The officer had no compassion for me. She had these rigid rules to enforce and I was not a person. I was an unlawful entity.

I hadn't realized I was judged and I was judged a terrorist at the point when I said my first word to her. I was polite, but, it didn't matter. She ORDERED me to behavior in a particular way and I didn't not immediately do so. That is ridiculous. I was not at all in the space she was in. 

I was more a threat than I should have been and I was going to get on a jet to home. I wasn't in a car carrying out everyday activities with excitement in my heart about my new job and my new start in life. I was far more a threat when it is all reasoned out then Sandra Bland was ever a threat to that officer when she didn't use a blinker to change lanes on a completely empty street.

Police officer's BEHAVIOR have become completely hideous when they are carrying out their job. The officer simply should have swallowed any words HE PERCEIVED AS DISRESPECTFUL, given her a summons and went on his way. There was no reason to escalate the circumstances. 

Dare I say the TSA officer in Boston was an African American woman and I am a Caucasian?

Whatever assessment officers are carrying out to determine when a person is inappropriate to require more intervention beyond a summons has to change. Officers are not BEHAVING correctly in carrying out their jobs. THEY are escalating the behavior and not the citizens. That SENSITIVITY needs to end. They can't continue to shoot every African American because of their own fears. 

The officers are overreacting and this is a student under the age of 18 years old. What did that classroom learn? They sure weren't centered on the subject or the next test they would face on that subject. 

When does this change?  When will African Americans be safe in their own bodies?