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(FinalCall.com) – The recent verdict in the Sean Bell shooting case in New York would be shocking, if American history wasn’t drenched in the blood of murdered innocents and legal verdicts that sanctioned such killings.
A young man is dead, killed in a hail of 50 bullets on the day he was to marry. Left behind are a grieving fiancée and children, heartbroken parents and loved ones and two friends who survived the incident, but bare the scars of bullet wounds.
Once again, it appears that there is no justice in America for the Black man. Justice Arthur J. Cooperman ruled the three detectives, two Black and one White, were not guilty of any crimes when 50 shots were fired. The lone White detective, Michael Oliver, fired 31 shots and had to reload during an incident in which no one returned fire on men dressed in plainclothes, outside a New York club in the wee hours of the morning.
“The trial provided some answers on why the police officers fired: They mistakenly believed there was a gun in Mr. Bell’s car. But the case did not explain how anyone could have expected him to know that he was being approached by a police officer at 4 a.m., and indeed, the judge, Arthur F. Cooperman, said that did not matter under the law. ‘It was necessary to consider the mindset of each defendant at the time and place of occurrence,’ the judge said, ‘and not the mindset of the victims,’ ” noted a New York Times report.
Did the judge acquire the ability to read minds? Did he ask the right questions, like how can it be possible that deadly force can be exerted on suspicion that someone might have a weapon? Isn’t deadly force to be used in those cases where there is a clear and present danger of loss of life or serious harm, which necessitates the taking one life to preserve another?
What has the mindset of America been when it comes to the Black man and Black people? The Black man, in particular, has always been seen as a problem, from the time shackles were placed around his neck and feet and he was dragged abroad a slave ship. He has been seen as a menace to society. Time after time, incident after incident, lost life after lost life, an unarmed Black man ends up dead. An officer cries, “I feared for my life.” A judge upholds that claim and another mother buries another son.
Police officers break into a home and shoot a grandmother to death in Atlanta, an elderly woman is shot to death on the street in New York and it doesn’t matter if we live in the New South or up North, Black lives simply don’t count for very much.
The plea is to always look at this from the officer’s point of view. Police officers have dangerous jobs and must make quick decision to save lives, consider their point of view, the system says. But how often are Whites the victims of fatal shootings or encounters during routine traffic stops? How often do we find White perpetrators mown down in a hail of bullets?
Randy Weaver, a White separatist, had a run-in with U.S. authorities in 1992. The government wanted to prosecute him for a gun crime and eventually federal agents moved into the area near his home in Ruby Ridge, Iowa. There was a clash with the agents, Mr. Weaver and his family. It resulted in the death of an agent and the deaths of Mr. Weaver’s son and wife. There was a massive investigation and huge outcry about the heavy handedness of government.
“Weaver was charged with multiple crimes relating to the Ruby Ridge incident, including the original firearms charges and murder. Attorney Gerry Spence handled Weaver’s defense, and argued successfully that Weaver’s actions were justifiable as self-defense. The jury acquitted Weaver of all charges except that of failure to appear, for which Weaver was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was credited with time served plus an additional three months, and was then released. Subsequently, the government paid $308,000 to Kevin Harris (who was acquitted of all criminal charges), $100,000 to Randall Weaver, and $1 million to each of the surviving Weaver children to settle their lawsuits against the government,” according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
The lives of Whites, even when they express anti-government views, mean something. Someone must pay a price whenever the lives of Whites are taken.
“Since we have been in America, we have been under the domination of a power that during slavery did not have to justify the murder of our fathers. They didn’t have any group of people to look at the facts. The slave master had the power of life and death on every Black person outside of the principle of justice, with no regard for the life of the Black male or female that was being put to death,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, speaking last November from Mosque Maryam. His message was titled, “Justifiable Homicide, Black Youth in Peril, Part 1.”
“Therefore, every killing of a Black man or woman; every lynching of a Black man or woman was excusable. No matter what was done by White people to set Black people at naught was excusable, because anything that was done to us to maintain White supremacy was in fact an unwritten law. The killing of every Black human being during the 300 years of chattel slavery and even now, 150 years up from slavery, at the hands of White people is generally considered ‘excusable,’” Min. Farrakhan noted.
If Black life has always been expendable and there has never been any consequence for the taking of Black life, what is the mindset of police officers, judges and prosecutors? Do they see the lives of Blacks as equal with the lives of Whites? America’s history shows obviously Black lives are not equal–in the sight of Whites. If Black lives are not equal to Whites, then the American mindset can never give justice.
