It
is true. I am not the biggest fan of law enforcement.
No, it is not because I�ve been arrested several times
during my lifetime. No, it is not because people who wear
like clothing constitute �gangs� and they scare me. It
is because law enforcement - and those who pride themselves
as law enforcers - too often neglect to come clean in
their misdeeds and unequal dispensation of justice.
I
never want to see anyone go to jail. Jail - and prison
- are �life-takers.� But as with law enforcement, jails
and prisons are necessary in an �order-modeled� society.
My problem comes when the mechanisms to send the guilty
to prison - especially when those deserving of prison
are law enforcement - is retarded.
What
disturbs me greatly is law enforcers who don�t �do their
jobs� by allowing the guilty to roam about this USA, destroying the American dreams of others.
The credibility of law enforcement is greatly diminished
when that happens. Even the Bible quotes a wise man saying,
�When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.� Hey, I
didn�t say it!
A
recent case in Trinidad,
Texas continues to unfold; police
are allowing a wanted fugitive to live at-large on a 50-acre,
wooded compound since jumping bail more than a decade
ago. John Joe Gray, an American who claims his �sovereignty,�
refuses to be taken alive. His anti-government stand might
have some validity (depending on your view of government),
but it�s antithetical to the principle of �law and order.�
The county�s District Attorney (DA), Doug Lowe, who first
sought to prosecute Gray for an assault in 1999, said
that he doesn�t want to risk confrontation.
What?!
How
many Americans do you know can get away with that?
�The
risk of loss of life on both ends is far too great,� said
the DA. I am in disbelief! I watched law enforcement go
after David Koresh in 1993 with force and authority though
that episode could have been deemed a botched one. Government
always believes they have a right to �get their man.�
They go after people in my community all the time! I�ll
begin on the �low impact� end of a continuum with car
speed chases through densely populated neighborhoods and
end with this: I can�t remind people enough of how law
enforcement went after the Black separatist group, MOVE,
in Philadelphia
in 1985. MOVE created its own compound on a city block
in the Powelton Village area and police did what many feared the authorities might
do: acted with overkill.
After
reigning 10,000 bullets on the compound within ninety
minutes, city officials on the command of its then-Mayor,
W. Wilson Goode (a Black man), dropped a bomb on MOVE
holdouts - only the second time America has bombed its
own people from the air. (The first time was on Blacks
in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. That
site was Black Wall Street where 36 city blocks
were destroyed, along with more than 600 Black-owned businesses,
and 300 Black people were killed. Perhaps not so coincidentally,
Tulsa was the recent scene of random shootings;
white men randomly targeted and assassinated three men
and injured two.) Smoke and flames rose in Powelton Village, incinerating an entire city block. More than 250 people were
left homeless, 60 homes were destroyed and 11 MOVE members
- including 5 children - were killed.
The
militancy of Tulsa
in 1921 and MOVE in 1985 parallels the current stand with
Gray and his followers. My question to you: Why is not
�Lady Justice� being served like a whoop-ass on this law
breaker? No, I�m not a proponent of over-zealous police
actions, but if �Lady Justice� looks like MOVE or David
Koresh�s Branch Davidians, then let the good times roll!
�Lady Justice,� like Lady Liberty, is supposed to be blind,
yet it appears that white Americans are getting a pass
- and guns punch the pass for entry!
In
my soon-to-be-published book, �As a Condition of Your
Freedom,� I note that guns are the equalizer. I am not
against guns, only for the reason as stated in the US
Constitution: �the right of the people to keep and bear
arms, shall not be infringed��as it relates to �a well
regulated militia.� What Gray and millions of other �law-abiding�
Americans are doing in the name of the second amendment
is illegal. There�s nothing �well regulated� about Gray�s
resistance and defiance of federal authorities.
The
only logical reason that law enforcement hasn�t forced
its way in to �get their man� Gray is because of the color
of his skin. I can�t think of a single incidence of a
Black man who dared stand-off law enforcement - for a
day, much less, a decade! - and lived to tell about it.
Fear
on the part of law enforcement is an insane proposition.
Their fear of a violent confrontation only sullies and
belies the myths of their bravery and the integrity
of their profession. Law enforcement is quick to shoot
unarmed Black men throughout this nation�s past - and
in more recent history: Shawn Bell in Queens, New York,
Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati,
Ohio, Oscar Grant in Oakland, Amadou Diallo
in New York City, Archie Elliot III in Prince George�s
County (a Washington, DC suburb) and Arthur McDuffie near
Miami. Just a few of the Black men made martyrs by �the
brave men and women of law enforcement� that we are conditioned
to respect, slight [sight] unseen.
Yes,
I am angry about the excuses made regarding this unequal
dispensation of �Lady Justice.� With the assassination
of Trayvon Martin, our nation�s dirty legacy has been
re-awakened; its reputation once again sullied on the
world stage; and more painfully piercing: Our nation�s
people are cheated when justice is not served.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, Perry
Redd, is the former Executive Director of
the workers rights advocacy, Sincere Seven, and author
of the on-line commentary, �The
Other Side of the Tracks.� He is the host of the internet-based
talk radio show, Socially Speaking in
Washington,
DC.
Click
here to contact Mr.
Redd.
