Guest Post by Wanetta Doty

Hearing the police officer in the helicopter through his limited social filter say about Mr. Crutcher: “…he looks like one real, bad dude,” struck a chord in me. I can’t sit back and watch these atrocities occur over and over again and remain silent. It’s UN-AMERICAN.

It’s not just because my only child is a 6 feet 6 inches tall young man, or that I’m also Black, but it’s that these physical characteristics in one race could be attributable to criminal behavior worthy of immediate death sentences by police officers? Doesn’t that bother you?

Remove the race of the victim, and ask yourself: “what if this were my father, or brother, uncle, nephew, son, friend, coworker, neighbor?” What then? Is it still okay to remain silent?

Racial profiling is real. You heard it from “the horse’s mouth” hovering above the scene.

This needs to be protested but without all the PARASITIC vandalism and looting disrupting much needed positive dialogue between the police and black and ALL communities across this nation. It has to stop. It’s counterproductive.

How illegal guns and drugs filter into poor black communities like water should be addressed, just like heroin and opioid abuses are currently being addressed (rather than criminalized) in middle and upper middle income White communities, wouldn’t you agree? Poor black communities have no economic base to manufacture either one. Where are they coming from and why hasn’t the flow ebbed?

The segregated, overly-crowded neighborhoods, schools, and police state in which black and brown communities are forced to endure, and the ongoing “kill now; ask later” unwritten police dictum are total FAILURES. Change through reform is imminent.

If you remove the social construct of race, you’ll see Terrance Cutcher was a fellow American who was racially profiled then gunned down for it by the very person who swore to protect him.

Question? Do you harbor the “not my race so not my problem syndrome” or “not in my backyard syndrome” so its not your problem, and you’re okay with it; or, do you realize irrespective to your distance from it, it is indeed in your backyard, as it’s occurring time and again on AMERICAN SOIL?

National Police Reform that STICKS is imminent. Wouldn’t you agree?

Comments

  1. Christabel Choi says

    Thank you, Wanetta. This needs to be said, read, and shared. May I share on social media?

    -Christa

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