Looting… rioting… demonstrating… organizing… it’s all good for democracy, and the roots of our most important civil rights revolutions. Not just to snap the nation and the community to attention, but to engage in some response, albeit a jarring one, to the police’s so-called ‘efforts to subdue,’ peaceful communities; Peace, that the police themselves are responsible for disturbing by perhaps… shooting an unarmed teenager to death for allegedly shoplifting at the bodega? Was it your local police, who are responsible for choke-holding a person to death, a tactic outlawed by police because it was deemed too dangerous? Maybe you live in the city where the police shot a 12 year old, on a playground, while playing in his own neighborhood? Have you been to the town where a 22 year old was shot through the back, while handcuffed, for an alleged and non-life-threatening tussle, on BART, on New Years Eve (aka National Fueled –by-Liquor Fight Night)?

Ronald Singleton 45, of Manhattan, New York, a father and a husband, who was restrained to death, smothered by police, and whose wife and children survive him.

Oscar Grant of Oakland, California, 22, a new father, worked at a co-op organic grocery store in the community, shot in the back, while subdued on the ground, and fully handcuffed.

Trayvon Martin of Miami Gardens, Florida, 17, a high school student, wanted to be a pilot, even started taking classes in a summer aviation program. Shot near his home, by self-appointed ‘neighborhood watch’ who later turned out to be a paranoid alt-right bigot, who beat his girlfriends.

Eric Garner of New York City, 43, a horticulturist at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, father of 6 and community leader, he pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” ELEVEN times, but was still murdered in what police tried to pass off as ‘restraint’

Tamir Rice, of Cleveland, Ohio, whose age of 12 years was too young, to justify police dukes-of-hazarding-in, barely speaking, and applying deadly force, all because a ‘neighbor’ called in a noise complaint, on children playing in the park. The officer who shot the little boy was previously taken off duty for being ‘emotionally unstable.’ no charges were filed, the officer was fired MUCH later. He was rehired at another station, and subsequently quit, he said because he cares about his fellow-officers, but the paperwork says he wasn’t happy BLM protested his hiring. He equated lack of charges to lack of wrongdoing and need for accountability.

Kendrick Johnson, of Valdosta, Georgia, 17, his body was found on-campus, rolled up in a gym mat; video surveillance of the day was tampered with. Kendrick is seen entering the gym just before some classmates alleged to have problems with him. The young men in question were white, wrestling jocks, who just happen to have a father in the FBI and have ties to local police. No indictments have been made. Click to read more.

Alton Sterling, who was shot while incapacitated, on video, by one of the two officers sitting on him, at point blank range.

Philando Castille, who died in front of his 4 year old daughter and girlfriend. Police shot him, at close range, after directly demanding he produce identification; while reaching for his wallet, the officer unloaded on Castille. Also on video.

Sandra Bland, who was alleged to have hanged herself in her Texas holding cell, with a plastic bag over her head, after being pulled over for 'not signaling to turn.' The dashcam footage reveals the arresting officer using excessive force to detain Bland.

Walter Scott, South Carolina, who was shot in the back by a police officer who claimed that Scott ran while being interrogated by a police officer, the officer’s reason for interrogation, was that Scott had the incorrect lights on his bicycle.

Ahmaud Arbery, who was mobbed and gunned down on his daily jog, by 3 area white men (a father and son, and a friend), who did not know Arbery, but attempted to justify the mob murder by accusing him of theft, which was later disproven. One of the suspects, the father in this trio, was an ex-police officer. The local police refused to arrest the suspects. The local district attorney refused to bring any charges against the suspects. The murder was captured on the cell phone camera of one of the suspects, it managed to spark public outrage, at the callousness of the homicide, until finally, all 3 suspects were arrested. I believe the district attorneys, chief of police, and sheriff should be held accountable for their attempts to cover up the murder, fired, and tried for conspiracy.

George Floyd, Minneapolis, multiple officers stood on top of Floyd’s body, while he was restrained on the ground, after he was accused of loitering by a store owner. Bystanders were recording and begging the officer who was kneeling on Floyd’s neck, to ease off, as Floyd himself repeatedly cried, “I can’t breathe.” The same words gasped by Eric Garner in New York before he too, died. It is AN OFFICER’S DUTY to render aid to those who need it. And the other officers who were standing there watching the whole thing happen… Bystanders continuously tried to point out to police that Floyd was asking for help, that he was becoming unresponsive, then that he had passed out, then that they could see blood had begun to come from his nose, the officers simply ignored their calls to attention, their caution, and their pleas. Floyd died under the weight of two grown police officers, who had the entirety of their adult weight concentrated on the front and side of Floyd’s throat. Justice must be served. They have been fired; They MUST go to prison.

[I hate this list, but I hope to honor those who have been killed unjustly, by bringing some light to the persistence of this problem. My list does not include every victim, nor the many left to survive them, forever grieving without them. Many of these cases only gained traction because they were caught on camera.

I believe the ‘all lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ movements are inherently bigoted knee-jerk defense mechanism, headed by the last-gasp racists with power, and upheld by the everyday bigot, in the face of being held accountable in any way. These organizations are known to be bankrolled and inflamed by white supremacist interest groups and the alt-right, yet designed to seem fringe enough to excite the interests and gain the following of conspiracy theorists, bored and unfulfilled karens and chets around the world (especially the US, Canada, Europe, India and the Philippines where alt-right movements have taken root and flourished by manipulating local religious, socio-economic, and cultural tensions, sometimes inciting violence, to gain support), and jv racists just dying to be on varsity. I don’t believe the FBI CIA and DOD have done enough to highlight the threat of white terrorism, alt-right terrorism, or the threat of white supremacist, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant propaganda and organizing. Anti-Peace gatherings, terror demonstrations, wherein white civilians are unnecessarily armed, overtly aggressive, and under-policed. I don’t believe the police have done enough to prevent these murders, let alone admit they are a chronic issue, or acknowledge the inherency of racism in American society. I write about it, even now in 2020, 6 years later, because it hasn’t stopped.

I don’t care for the entire fallacious concept of a police force of good ‘ol boys. If policing works at all (H.E.A.V.Y. eye-roll), it only works when no one makes any assumptions, furthermore requires actively working against validating common assumptions, whether their own or someone else’s. I feel like everyone imagines Law & Order detectives when they defend these cops, these were traffic and beat cops stopping victims for violations as benign as bike lights and untimely engaged turn signals.

Police MUST be trained against their frivolous and irrational preconceptions, especially when they often use those preconceptions to apply deadly force. Police who refuse to acknowledge the inherent racism we all deal with, should be fired, and regarded as lacking the empathetic intelligence, objectivity, self-awareness and self-control to wield as service arm. Cops who have histories of abusing their power, mismanaging routine situations, lacking self-control, unjustifiable uses of force or firearms, are allowed to continue their careers, and justify their actions.

A human being was killed. A human life snuffed out. Murder is murder, try them, throw them in prison, let them face the reality of taking a life frivolously. A human being’s life should matter enough for your second, and third thought before pulling a trigger. Where is the accountability?]