http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/march-1991-rodney-king-videotape-9758031
Before everyone had a camera on their cell phone, most Americans could not even conceive of the idea of America’s police force having the capacity to perpetuate the merciless savagery against men because of the color of their skin. On March 3, 1991, it was by chance that a citizen video recorded a barrage of boots, batons, tasers, and fists raining down on an unarmed Black male motorist. Rage and anger about racism and police brutality thunderstormed throughout America and the Black community when a portion of the video showing several LAPD officers tasing, kicking, stomping and beating an unarmed and non aggressive Rodney King with police batons appeared on television screens around the country. Unlike so many other Black men before and after him, King lived through the broken bones, bruises, lacerations, and the psychological terror only to witness three of his attackers get charged, and those three, LAPD officers Koon, Powell, Briseno, and Wind he sadly watched as a jury acquitted them in their role in his attempted murder.
The acquittal of three of the officers spawned that earlier raging thunderstorm into a raging typhoon of black revolt. The revolts were unorganized pockets of rage that evolved into riots and store looting in several major cities across the nation; the biggest one being in Los Angeles. For a few moments in time Blacks raged against the system that raged against them by mass disruptions of law and order referred to as looting.
As technology steady marched forward the advent of the camera cell phone and mini-cams made it easier for concerned citizens to record the unjust police beatings and murders of our Black men, women and children on camera. While in the past it was simply the word of a visibly beaten, abused and sometimes dead black person against the word of a police officer. As a result of people using their cameras to record the savage injustices perpetuated by law enforcement the playing field has been somewhat leveled and there has been a sharp rise of excessive force, murder, and police brutality investigations. But even moreso, Black people and others around the world can see America naked and in the raw without the cloak of false egalitarianism and democracy that she wears like a badge of honor while policing other nations. The shame of a nation that refuses to protect its sons and daughters from tyranny at home has been somewhat documented in this timeline. Reflect on this great and mighty nation as you watch and listen to the brutal and barbaric Gestapo like treatment of men of color in the 1990’s.
Malice Wayne Green was pulled over by two white Detroit Police officers on November 5, 1992 where he was fatally beaten in the head to death with baton like police issue flashlights. Five more officers pulled up to the scene where Green was being beaten and one other office joined in the beating while the ranking Black officer on the scene just stood by and did nothing while his subordinates beat green to death.
On February 4, 1999, between 12:30 AM and 1 AM Four White plain clothes police officers pulled up to Amadou Diallo’s residence in an unmarked Ford Taurus,. At the time Diallo was proceeding to enter the apartment building where he lived, when the officers jumped out of the car. While Diallo turned around and attempted to pull his wallet out the officers fired 41 times, 19 of the 41 bullets striking the 22 year old West African immigrant. It was alleged that the 22 year old devout Muslim and street vendor matched the identification of a serial rapist. Despite irrefutable evidence proving that these officers killed this man in cold blood they were all exonerated by Americas system of so called justice. Although we did not have an actual video of the officers in the act, above is a re-enactment of the moments that led up to this heinous unjust tragedy that ended in the lose of life to another one of Africa’s distant sons.
The rules of the children’s Cops & Robbers game Tuesday night on September 29, 1994 at the Gowanus Housing projects in Brooklyn were these: there would be two teams, one cops, the other robbers; each team member would have three lives; get shot by one of the plastic guns everyone carried and “bang” you’re dead.
Shortly after 7 P.M., Nicholas Heyward Jr. stood on the roof of 423 Baltic Street with three other team members, all 12 to 14 years old. Several of the children had been called to their apartments by their mothers, Nicholas wanting to be the first down the stairway pushed one of his friends out of the way and ran down the stairwell with his 18 inch toy rifle at his ear. Upon descending to the bottom of the stairwell Brian George a 23 year old white police officer responding to a complaint of hearing a loud “boom” like noise pulled his real revolver and shot the newly turned 13 year old child.
Over twenty years after being murdered by law enforcement, Nicholas Heyward Sr., and his family are still seeking justice and in a democratic country of laws, you would think that by now justice would have been served. In retrospect some might even say that if someone would have had a camera phone handy recording Nicholas Heyward Junior’s killer in the murderous act that justice would have not only been served then, but it probably would have lead to the creation of laws to prevented future murders and the unjust brutality of Black children, women, and men. The shocking videos below prove the latter theory inaccurate.
Although America is a nation of laws, it is not a nation where every culture receives justice when crimes are committed against them. Please devour every moment of these videos below with your heart, mind, eyes and soul. Imagine yourself as the victim in these videos. Imagine yourself being Nicholas’s father. Six months after Brian George killed his son, Nicholas Sr. had to look at this man as he was assigned back to the same neighborhood where he killed an innocent child – Nicholas Heyward Sr.’s black manchild. One day, you could be on the other end of a cops gun or his flashlight, or his fists, or his boots, or worst you could one day be Nicholas Heyward Sr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdAYPQd1H1A
Meet 12 year old Tamir Rice. On November 22, 2014, the sparkle in this Black child’s eyes and the smile on his shining face was forever extinguished and will only live in the memories of those who loved and new him. Tamir Rice was just another victim of America’s unwillingness to protect her children.
The above video shows two Cleveland police officers pull up to a park gazebo where they jump out of the car and one police officer in training shoots and kills this 12 year old child who was carrying a toy BB gun. Twenty years after 13 year old Nicholas Heyward Jr.’s death at the hands of law enforcement, another black child is shot down and killed by police, this time the murder was recorded and this time, just like in Nicholas Heywards case, the officers involved were exonerated by the very system that trained and or mis-trained them.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and if that is so than I say that a video is worth a million words. On July 17, 2014 43 year old Eric Garner was murdered, choked to death on the streets of New York in front of everyone. The entire grissly unjust murder was caught on camera. Almost five months after officer Daniel Panteleo choked Eric Garner to death, a grand jury came to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to indict the murdering officer for any wrong doing, but they did indict and jail Ramsey Orta for recording the New York police officer murdering an unarmed black man.
On June 7, 2015 a Dallas-Fort Worth White police officer is shown wrestling a bikini clad 14 year old teenage girl to the ground before pulling a gun on this child. Is this justice? You be the judge.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/cop-punches-woman-los-angeles_n_5556928.html
On July 4, 2014 a California Highway patrolman is caught on camera savagely hitting a Black great grandmother in the face and head on the side of the highway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ_JmsRhoJY
A California police officer is seen punching and slamming Natasha Lancour’s head against the hood of a car in January 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvE-1qAs1W4
On August 9, 2014 18 year old unarmed teenager Michael Brown was murdered by Ferguson Missouri white police office Darren Wilson. Civil unrest began shortly after the shooting, but it exacerbated once the video of the shooting was released – a video that caught the entire incident on camera. Despite the video and medical evidence that proved that the video recording of the shooting was unjust. An American grand jury refused to indict the teenage young mans killer.
In todays times where America spends billions annually to allegedly protect its citizens from the tyranny of terrorists and terroristic regime abroad seems to be a farce because it is Americas institutions that facilitate and protect the agents of these institutions after they terrorize, beat and kill its citizens and use the shield of American justice to validate its reason for the terroristic acts against its citizens of color.
Over twenty years ago, Rodney King asked the question, “Can we all just get along?” Whether we accept it or not, I think we have our answer. The real question is do we wait for police brutality to reach our doorstep or do we act now to prevent it and how do we prevent the police from killing our Black sons and daughters without any recompense.
Jihad S. Uhuru
