“…Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the preacher
…Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration
Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to my nation
… Fear in the air, tension everywhere…”
-The Temptations-
When it comes to police killing Blacks, the realization of justice demands that we not be victims of gaslighting, i.e., “…a form of psychological abuse where a person or group makes someone question their sanity, perception of reality, or memories…” (Jennifer Huizen, July 14, 2020). For example, gaslighting would have succeeded if police murdered a Black person(s) and, subsequently, Blacks and others accepted the excuse that the police officer(s) were confused when they committed their heinous crimes. Consider the following “balls of confusion.”
• In 1999, Bronx resident Amadou Diallo was unarmed but plainclothes police officers were allegedly confused when they fired 41 bullets into Diallo. This so-called confusion took place as Diallo, age 22, stood in a well-lighted area.
• In 2014, a Cleveland police officer, Timothy Loehmann, arrived on the scene and, within minutes, shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice because Loehmann claimed he confused Rice’s toy gun for a real gun.
• In 2018, Dallas police officer Amber Guyger murdered Botham Jean while he was in his apartment eating ice cream, after she supposedly confused his apartment for hers.
• In 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old woman was guilty of no crime when confused Louisville police officers Brett Hankison and Jonathan Mattingly and Officers Myles Cosgrove executed a “no knock” warrant at the wrong home; broke down her front door; awakened Ms. Taylor from her sleep; and murdered her with eight shots.
• In March 2021, a Chicago police officer Eric Stillman was supposed to be confused when he shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, after Toledo had raised his hands without a gun in his hand. Gaslighting the public, Stillman was said to be confused as he made a “split-second” decision, notwithstanding the fact that the gun in question was on the ground a few feet from Toledo.
• In April, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 19-year-old, was killed by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Officer Potter Wright said she confused her Taser with her Glock. Coming to her defense, former Brooklyn Center Police Chief, Tim Gannon, attempting to gaslight the public by telling reporters, “This appears to me, from what I viewed in the officer's reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright."
It would take a tome to tell the extent of allegedly confused cops killing Blacks and, therefore, we can only take momentary solace in the guilty verdict for the vicious cop who murdered George Floyd.
One convicted cop does not aggrieve centuries of police killing innocent Blacks. Woke folks must remain in control of their faculties by remembering “…Black people in America are constantly at risk of state-sponsored violence and death. Police still exist to uphold White supremacy and have been empowered by laws and the courts to inject themselves into Black life for any reason, no matter how minor – even expired registrations. And as long as police continue to act as this occupying force and mechanism for social control in Black communities – horrific acts of police violence will be commonplace…” (Paige Fernandez, Policing Policy Advisor, National Political Advocacy Department, ACLU).
We must never forget the fact that today’s police abuse of Blacks is rooted in the South where “Slave Patrols” were created to “(1) to chase down, apprehend, and return to their owners, runaway slaves; (2) to provide a form of organized terror to deter slave revolts; and, (3) to maintain a form of discipline for slave-workers who were subject to summary justice, outside of the law, if they violated any plantation rules. Following the Civil War, these vigilante-style organizations evolved in modern Southern police departments primarily as a means of controlling freed slaves who were now laborers working in an agricultural caste system, and enforcing "Jim Crow" segregation laws, designed to deny freed slaves equal rights and access to the political system…” (Gary Potter, 2013).
Regarding contemporary Minnesota and alleged police confusion related to deadly choke holds, note that W. Lehren and Andrew Blankstein indicated that as of June 1, 2020, Minnesota police had used “neck restraints” 237 times and that three-fifths of the victims rendered unconscious were Black. One victim was “…a 17-year-old fleeing from a shoplifting incident. Another involved a traffic stop where the suspect was deemed "verbally non-compliant." Historically, lest we forget, “neck restraint” is a euphemistic term for the extreme tactic previously known as “lynching.”
No amount of “diversity and inclusion” rhetoric/workshops/sensitivity sessions/virtual meetings, etc. will change the forgoing systemic pathology. A million public pronouncements full of pathos post the finding of guilt regarding the murder of George Floyd will abate the modern modes of murder of Blacks by police. What is needed with all deliberate speed is a complete reimagining of what it means to serve as a police officer. Hopefully, many more convictions of confused cops will serve as a catalyst for this endeavor. If this does not occur, then the May and June 2021 nightly news will be filled with efforts to gaslight ongoing killings of Blacks and, once again, we are likely to experience a long, hot summer.
“If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”
-Claude McKay-
Jack L. Daniel
Co-founder, Freed Panther Society
Contributor, Pittsburgh Urban Media
Author, Negotiating a Historically White University While Black
April 27, 2021