"How Black People In The USA Must Feel" From the Irish Times

[marym625]

In the Irish Times, author, Una Mullally, writes:

I can’t imagine what it must feel like right now to be a black person in the United States. It must feel like being hunted.

That sentence is what seems to be happening here. There's no chance for these victims of police brutality (the vast majority being young men of color) and there's no justice for their families.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-killing-of-tamir-rice-another-black-and-white-issue-1.2021370

According to some statistics, every 28 hours in this country a person of color is shot by law enforcement. There is no way to know the exact number, though some have been trying desperately to find out. The reason it is so difficult is no agency keeps statistics on justified police involved shootings. And to use "unjustified" would exclude so many that are deemed "justified." So many of these would seem to anyone but law enforcement and DAs, they are anything but justified. John Crawford III falls into the "justified" category.

Mother Jones has a great article with the best statistics available. We find out:

black people were about four times as likely to die in custody or while being arrested than whites

Between 1968 and 2011, black people were between two to eight times more likely to die at the hands of law enforcement than whites. Annually, over those 40 years, a black person was on average 4.2 times as likely to get shot and killed by a cop than a white person. 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/police-shootings-ferguson-race-data

Unbelievable as it may seem, there are still people in this country, educated, young adults, that don't have a clue what is happening. They have never heard of John Crawford, Sean Bell or Tamir Rice.

One way to help decrease these numbers of "justified homicide" by cop is to stop allowing prosecutors, that have to rely on police officers, to decide if charges should be brought or to stand in charge of a Grand Jury. We need to address our State Representatives and push for a bill that would do just that. Perhaps a selected panel of civilians in the community along with both a defense attorney and prosecutor from another district. I'm open to ideas so, please, if you have one, maybe we can come up with something to present to our States.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. K&R

A simple but powerful ending:

Black Americans, like all oppressed people, are constantly asked to “rise above” their oppressors, to meet violence with poetry, poverty with wit, racism with tolerance, assault with understanding, imprisonment with dignity, subjugation with strength. Black Americans are asked to reflect on what would Martin Luther King do.

Well, we don’t know what King would do. Because a white guy killed him too.

[marym625]

2. Very powerful

Thank you for putting that up. I am going to have to keep an eye on this journalist. She tells it like it is with some powerful, almost poetic words.

[malaise]

3. Profound

An excellent article

[marym625]

4. I went back and forth about what to use for the heading

Of this post. Decided that, unless I wanted a bunch of trolls that seem to be jumping into DU, the best thing would be to just use the title of the article. But there are some really great quotes in it.

[adirondacker]

5. Excellent article! I'm fairly certain "Flight or Fight" syndrome can be directly attributed

to how people of color and many poor are treated in this country.

"Inequality has a habit of catching on, though. The 2011 census found that half of Americans were low income or poorer. That’s 97.3 million people in the “low income” category and 49.1 million below the poverty line. Extreme poverty in the US (living on less than $2 a day) has doubled since 1996."

[marym625]

6. I agree.

And truly, I think that those figures are skewed. For instance, I am self employed. If you look at my gross it looks at least ok. But once you take all the taxes out, I hit close to the poverty line. I would actually be better off if I made less.

I am intrigued by the author of that article. Going to try to find more from her.

Thanks for the reply. I thought this was a pretty good post and expected a better showing. But I think I messed up by both the heading and including too much stuff in it. Should have been two separate posts.

[adirondacker]

7. Glad you posted it. I don't see any problem with the headline, probably more to do with the audience

Most have been HAD (Hillary Attention Disorder)

[marym625]

8. hee hee

I think that is slowly dwindling. (Wish there was a fingers crossed emoticon)

[marym625]

9. and thank you

Sorry, your joke made me forget to thank you

[adirondacker]

10. You're quite welcome. Your OP should have HUNDREDS of Recs IMHO.

GD is a fickle place though. You may want to cross post in Good Reads to attract a more curious (albeit smaller) crowd.

[marym625]

11. Thanks!

Thank you very much. I will try that later

[20score]

12. Great article. Wish more people understood this reality.

Ideology does its best to make the smart, stupid and the sane, crazy.

[marym625]

13. Well said. .

Glad you liked it. I want to find more from the author as soon as I have the time