Another day another death and soon it will be more of the same

As an educator, I find this kind of situation puzzling, because it is difficult to teach a positive message from this tragedy.

I sit here contemplating the latest police killings of civilian; keep in mind this is just the killings that have been reported, not the extra ones that get swept under the rug. According to “The Counted” (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database), they are up to 566 killed by police this year of 2016. It will be more by the time I finish writing this.

I sound cynical don’t I? It is hard not to me with what is going on with this country’s law enforcement.

I took out any reference to race and the names of the victims out. Now I want you to imagine if this was your loved one:

“A second video showing the shooting death of, a man shot several times while being held on the ground by police outside a Louisiana convenience store was posted online”.

“As the man’s head slumps backward while he lies dying next to her, the fiancé looks into the camera and explains a Minnesota police officer just shot her fiancé four times”.

Oh, and as usual, the authorities are urging people to be calm and peaceful about this.

Remain calm eh? Why should we?

“Responsibilities of a police officer are varied, and may differ greatly from within one political context to another. Typical duties relate to keeping the peace, law enforcement, protection of people and property and the investigation of crimes”.

People in this country are innocent until proven guilty, and not to mention the fact that it is obvious that the people who have been killed recently, for the most part, were killed under panic by the cops.

Execution is reserved for the most heinous of crimes, after the person has been tried and convicted; we have been watching illegal executions of civilians thanks to to cell phone technology. How do we teach our kids what justice is if we see bad examples daily?

Oh, and before anyone starts on the “black on black crime” nonsense, please stop and realize you are talking with an educated man who can shut down your tirade cold without breaking a sweat. That topic is irrelevant to this discussion.

Yes cops you have a right to get home safe to your families: but guess what? Civilians have that same right, and your job is to help make sure they get home safe to their families.

So tell me: why should the population remain calm about another dead civilian, killed by the hands who swore to protect them?

“No one is an unjust villain in his own mind. Even - perhaps even especially - those who are the worst of us. Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices that they would call 'hard but necessary steps' for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story.” 

There are neighborhoods in this country that feel terrorized by the police, they are terrified by the police, and when the stats actually come out (such as Ferguson), you realize they have every right to feel that way because they are being terrorized!

Why is this not considered a state of emergency? Why is there no action on this issue that has killed more people in the U.S than: Zika, bird flu, Ebola swine flu, killer bees, transgendered toilets, gay marriage, combined?

Your people are being killed by those who are supposed to protect them, your people are being killed and there is no accountability, your people are being killed and the people doing the killing often try to blame the person who was killed as if they asked for it!

As teachers, we would have all been fired for doing such a terrible job, and we often are vilified for doing are best to do our job despite often long odds. Law enforcement, you are failing!

So why should we stay silent, but what can we do is the question we need to be able to articulate to our kids?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam