When Justice is Not Served

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.