Police And Murder , Two Things That Go Hand In Hand In America

Someone asked me a few days ago what I thought about the sit­u­a­tion in Iran. I told him hon­est­ly I had no opin­ion on what was hap­pen­ing there because I do not trust west­ern media enti­ties to be objec­tive in their reporting.
My com­ment was in no way an endorse­ment of the Iranian theoc­ra­cy, far from it. My response was gen­uine­ly based on the fact that, but for the Aljazeera net­work, all of the report­ing would pre­dictably be anti ‑Iranian.
Even though they claim to have the inter­est of the peo­ple at heart.
The Islamic State, too, did not trust west­ern media report­ing, Reuters reported.

• British ambas­sador sum­moned over cov­er­age by London-based media.
• Norwegian envoy called in over ‘inter­ven­tion­ist’ speak.
• Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also crit­i­cized U.S. sup­port for “riot­ers.”

Iran sum­moned the British and Norwegian ambas­sadors over what it called inter­fer­ence and hos­tile media cov­er­age of the nation­wide unrest trig­gered by the death of a woman detained by the moral­i­ty police.
Those who both­er to read what I have to say may be won­der­ing where I am going with this.
The sad real­i­ty is that protests erupt­ed in Iran because of one Government agency that has been the cen­tral agency of oppres­sion all across the globe.
The Police!!!

It was the Iranian police that arrest­ed a young woman. A 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini, who lat­er died in deten­tion after being arrest­ed by police enforc­ing the Islamic Republic’s strict restric­tions on wom­en’s dress, has turned into the biggest protests in years, Reuters reported.
Okay, the idea that there would be a moral­i­ty police defies log­ic, and I am sure many peo­ple did not even know that there was such a thing in the Islamic Republic.

And so it must shock the con­science of peo­ple in west­ern nations like Great Britain, the United States, Canada, etc., that in a coun­try far away on the con­ti­nent of Asia, there is such a thing as a ‘moral­i­ty police. And that the moral­i­ty police could actu­al­ly detain a cit­i­zen lead­ing to her even­tu­al death.
Oh God, how shocking.
The sad real­i­ty is right here in the United States, a Texas cop stopped a young woman, 28-year-old Sandra Bland, because, accord­ing to him, she failed to ini­ti­ate her turn sig­nal before turn­ing. At the very worst, a minor infrac­tion that should result in a cita­tion result­ed in Ms. Bland, a black woman, being arrest­ed by a moron­ic white cop. He first berat­ed and man­han­dled her, esca­lat­ed the stop, then arrest­ed Ms.Bland.
She would be found dead in a jail cell days lat­er. Are you still shocked at what’s hap­pen­ing in Iran?
What is hap­pen­ing in Iran is a direct indi­ca­tor of the val­ue the Iranian peo­ple place on the lives of their fel­low cit­i­zens. Respect is a com­mod­i­ty most police offi­cers do not have for the black com­mu­ni­ty in the United States.

Eric Garner was choked to death by a mur­der­ous NYPD thug Daniel Pantaleo; his crime sell­ing loose cig­a­rettes. A cop mur­dered Philando Castille while he sat in his car strapped in with his seat­belt with his girl­friend and their minor female child. Mister Castile, a reg­is­tered gun own­er, com­mit­ted no crime and did noth­ing wrong.
Breonna Taylor was mur­dered in her home by police who invad­ed her home and shot her to death; she com­mit­ted no crime.
Elijah McClain was mur­dered by Colorado police while walk­ing down the street; mis­ter Mccalain com­mit­ted no crime.
In Minneapolis, Daniel Wright was stopped by police on a war­rant. Mister Wright was shot by a cop Kim Potter who told inves­ti­ga­tors she thought she was taz­ing him.
Andre Hill was mur­dered in Columbus, Ohio, by police as he emerged from the garage of a friend’s house hold­ing a cell phone in his hand. Police shot miser Hill and did not ren­der aid to him as he lay dying and bled out for five(5) min­utes and eleven (11) seconds.

In Tacoma, Washington, state police slammed a patrol vehi­cle into 33-year-old Manuel Ellis and then beat him mer­ci­less­ly until he died. Mister Ellis com­mit­ted no crime and was walk­ing home from the store.
In Atlanta, Georgia, Rashaad Brookes was mur­dered by police, shot in the back after he was accost­ed at a fast food estab­lish­ment, and accused of hav­ing too much to drink.
In Rochester, New York, Daniel Prude was mur­dered by police. Prude, who was naked at the time he was killed, was expe­ri­enc­ing an emo­tion­al break­down. Police arrived and, in attempt­ing to restrain him, slammed his head into the pave­ment and then asphyx­i­at­ed him, accord­ing to the med­ical examiner.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, George Floyd was mur­dered by police, his crime alleged­ly pass­ing a fake twen­ty-dol­lar bill in a con­ve­nience store. Floyd’s mur­der would result in the largest social jus­tice upheaval in the coun­try in generations.
Atatiana Jefferson was mur­dered by police who shot through her win­dow, killing her in her own home in the pres­ence of her 8‑year-old nephew.

Police mur­dered Aura Rosser in her own home; she com­mit­ted no crime. Stephon Clark was mur­dered by police who lied that they thought he was hold­ing a gun after fir­ing more the 20 bul­lets into his body. The 22-year-old was hold­ing a cell phone.
Police mur­dered twen­ty-six-year-old Botham Jean as he sat in his apart­ment eat­ing ice cream. He com­mit­ted no crime.
Police mur­dered thir­ty-sev­en-year-old Alton Sterling in Louisiana as he sold CDs. A cop, Blane Salamoni, threat­ened to kill him, and he then tased and fired six bul­lets into his body. After killing mis­ter Sterling, the cop con­tin­ued to berate him, call­ing him a stu­pid moth­er fucker.
In Charlotte, North Carolina police mur­dered Fonisha Fonville after they were called to her home by her part­ner; instead of help­ing, police shot her to death, then claimed she had a knife.
Police mur­dered 50-year-old Michelle Casseaux after they were called to her home because she had a men­tal episode; instead of help­ing, they shot and killed her.
In New York, police mur­dered Akai Gurley as he walked down the stair­ways in his girl­friend’s build­ing; he had com­mit­ted no crime. 

Gabriella Nevarez, a 22-year-old, was mur­dered by police in Sacramento, California, who shot her after they pulled her over and her car ran into one of their squad cars.
In Cleveland, Ohio, police mur­dered 12-year-old Tamir Rice while the 12-year-old boy played with a toy gun in a park. After they admin­is­tered the fatal shot to the 12-year ‑old Tamir Rice, they wres­tled his 14-year-old sis­ter to the ground, cuffed her, and placed her into the back of the squad car. They offered no first aid to the dying child.
I could go on all day, and I would not even begin to scratch the sur­face of the num­ber of mur­der police com­mit against black peo­ple in this country.
John Crawford mur­dered by police.
Malcolm Lawson. Patrick Dorismond. George Bibbins. Prince Jones. Anthony Lee. Roger Owensby jr. Timothy Thomas. Orlando Barlow. Michael Pleasance. Albert Spruill. Ousmane Zongo. Nathaniel Jones. Timothy Stansbury. Jashon Bryant. Henry Glover. James Brissette. Ronald Madison. Vincent Smith. Sean Bell. David Antjuan Ware. Brandon Washington. Anthony Smashum. DeAunta Farrow. Shawn Watson. Khiel Coppin. Tarika Watson. Edward Lamont Hunt. Frederick Devon McAllister.….….….…names too numer­ous to document.
This is Genocide!!!!

The sin­gu­lar theme that runs through this essay is mur­der by police. All across the United States, these mur­ders are exe­cut­ed, and yet in many cas­es, the per­pe­tra­tors of the vio­lent mur­ders face no con­se­quence. Not at the state lev­el, not at the Federal level.
The Washington Post start­ed keep­ing records of police killings in recent years due to nation­al out­cry and because the Federal gov­ern­ment can­not be both­ered with doc­u­ment­ing police killings. The Post report­ed that near­ly 250 women have been
fatal­ly shot by police since 2015.

The wan­ton mur­der of men and women of col­or in the United States is a seri­ous cri­sis that requires urgent reme­di­al action. Any oth­er race expe­ri­enc­ing that lev­el of state aggres­sion would cast this cri­sis in geno­ci­dal terms. The sad real­i­ty is that because Blacks and American blacks lack the cohe­sion and sense of togeth­er­ness required to put a stop to it, this sec­ond geno­cide con­tin­ues unabated.
To some degree, many American Blacks would rather side with their ene­mies against their own peo­ple or vil­i­fy the peo­ple who are stand­ing side by side with them because they are jealous.
According to the data col­lect­ed by the Post, 89 of the women shot by police were killed in their own homes, not on the pub­lic streets. This data direct­ly speaks to the fact that even in the inner sanc­tum of their own homes, our women are not safe from the maraud­ing thugs who roam around on our dime with the full pow­er of the states, killing and maim­ing whom they choose.
According to the Post, more than 5,600 peo­ple have been killed over­all by police since it began keep­ing records.
Though this num­ber is aston­ish­ing, it is not a com­pre­hen­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the actu­al death toll exact­ed by police on com­mu­ni­ties of col­or in the name of law enforce­ment.https://​www​.wash​ing​ton​post​.com/​g​r​a​p​h​i​c​s​/​2​0​2​0​/​i​n​v​e​s​t​i​g​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​s​h​o​o​t​i​n​g​s​-​w​o​m​en/

For rea­sons unknown to this writer, this pan­dem­ic of police killings has not caught the atten­tion of the Human Rights Agencies that have a lot to say about police killings in small­er vio­lent nations, even though most of them are based right here in the United States.
So no, my friend, I am not pay­ing atten­tion to the sin­gle death in Iran; there is far more here for me to con­cen­trate on.

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.