Sometime
last week I experienced my own fair share of police brutality…and no there was
no use of excessive force, as the officer tried to douse me with a lot of
verbal and psychological intimidation.
At this time, the race of the officer does not
matter as I am not putting it in a racial envelope. This particular day, i
would be located somewhere in downtown Houston, Tx with a couple of friends.
After I must have driven the perimeter around 2 or 3 blocks for about 15mins,
searching in vain for a parking spot, i would still come back to get a spot
adjacent to our intended hangout spot. Just like that.. See the elaboration!
Ha-ha
Yes, just like that.
Barely five minutes later, I would be accosted
by an irate officer who would dash towards me because I wouldn’t walk on the
sidewalk. My reason and probably the reason of 67.5 other people around me at
the time would be that there was obviously water flowing out from a broken pipe
somewhere creating puddles every half a step one would try to take.
By now we were chest to chest; with him
yelling swear words at me every time he remembered he had an open hole on his
face that could make him audible. He accused me of being intoxicated, pulled
out his handcuffs whilst holding my wrist asking repeatedly “do you want to go
home or go to jail”, all this in a space of five to seven minutes.
Was I supposed to be scared at the mention of
jail, or because of the shiny metallic loops in his possession when I clearly
did nothing to provoke or warrant jail time? I was calmer than Pope John Paul
the 2nd after his assassination attempt back in ’81. I didn’t
answer any of his not so smart rhetorical questions. I somehow chose to feign
dumbness. After trying to explain and he had clearly violated my “man space”,
my urge to explode would be wrapped up in some systematic layer of silence.
Hopefully it would save my life and keep me from jail.
My silence angered him more, by now there were
a few people watching his public display of stupidity. His last words would
eventually be “go home”
Another grown man akin to me with a bit of
over thirty yrs of experience on Earth would have..
1. Talked back 2. Pushed back when the officer bumped chest to chest 3. Became overly defensive and combative e.t.c
He clearly was there to provoke, aggravate,
infuriate, exasperate, you name it. Officer was on a mission that night. The
devil in him did a bad job hiding his horns. I saw them, shiny black little things with
silvery metal ends. Did he know that he would have an encounter like that as he
left his home earlier in the morning? I don’t know but i doubt it.
Sometimes we forget that as humans we have the
ability to focus on ourselves in the sense of self re-evaluation and/or
operating as spiritual beings in a manner that God created us to be. We can
detach our emotions and watch from a distance, rather than choose an emotional
reaction, which could end up fatal. This was simply one of those times I was
not going to give birth to my defensive angst against an Officer. Having this
mindset, I closed my world to him so as not to go too deep or be pressured
to judge by what humanity deems right.
Police brutality is not subject to one race,
color, region or country.Infact the brutality in China at some point in the 80s
gained more popular attention than complaints from other regions. Russia, Egypt
and my Country of birth, Nigeria cannot but be mentioned.
In America, where I live presently, the
birth of the civil rights movement and war against drugs has led to recurrent
incidents of brutality especially amongst black males which is now a National
issue today. I am not going to elaborate on an already existing and
non-wavering issue in the wake of accusations today. I therefore refuse to go
in-depth into statistics and surveys. My bone of contention today is how the
black male in America can increase his chances of survival around this problem.
It is here to stay as it is a sub division of racism and/or supremacy.
Sometimes, we have to educate to live out of the norm of living to educate. I
ask for calmness in the wake of all these recent happenings to reason and
answer. We do know these matters arising didn’t just start nor escalate all of
a sudden right? Technology just quadrupled the exposure of these crimes
against civilian population. Would you believe me, if I told you there is
more to come.
We were taught whilst growing
up to fight for what we want, what we believe in. If you believe in
uncertainity, you have to fight for it to persevere to become certainty. But could
this be one of those instances where we don’t need to fight for answers, maybe
take the route of calmness in the midst of adversity? We’ve employed the tactic of fighting for our
beliefs for so long. Maybe it’s time we tried another tactic.
Hopefully someday whilst you and I are
standing shoulder to shoulder in what seems to be a protest of some sort after
a case of police brutality, and you whisper in my ear “the violent protests
from last week seem to be leading us nowhere”.
Hopefully I wouldn’t whisper in response “I
told you this years ago”
☆Jubril Blaize☆
July 2016
Insanity: Doing the same thing
over and over again expecting a different result. ~ Albert Einstein
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