Protestors of all racial and ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, across age demographics, and varied sexual orientations and religions have taken to the streets voicing their outrage against the recent acts of injustice. From New York City to Chicago to Berkeley, California, people have made their disgust known. The recent failure of two grand juries to indict police officers Daniel Wilson and Daniel Pantelino for the horrific deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner has moved many. To paraphrase the late, great literary icon, James Baldwin, it has indeed become “the fire this time.”
The protests in Ferguson and throughout the nation have aroused the long complacent spirit that has been an integral part of American history. Who among us does not recoil in horror at hearing Garner being latched down on the pavement in a choke hold as he repeatedly says “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” as his life was rapidly being snuffed out of him. The indifference of police officers to his cries represented a chilling degree of callousness and indifference. It was incomprehensible.
For many people of African descent, particularly lower-income Black Americans, such blatantly brutal behavior at the hands of law enforcement (White men in general) is nothing new. The cold, hard reality is that police brutality and mistreatment at the hands of police officers is one of a long list of many historical indignities that have been afflicted upon the Black community. Lynchings, rape, mass incarceration, racial profiling, economic discrimination, lack of equal access to quality education and other injustices have been the norm.
In addition to Brown and Garner, some of the more notable examples of Black Americans who have died at the hands of police are:
1. Amadou Diallo (1999) ― Unarmed 23-year-old shot 19 times by four police officers
2. Patrick Dorismond (2000) ― Security guard shot fatally in the chest by an undercover officer
3. Ousmane Zongo (2008) ― Unarmed, shot four times by NYPD police
