for whom the bell tolls

(the late Sean Bell, pictured with family, was unarmed when shot 50 times by three NYPD cops, yet those three officers were acquitted of the shooting)

"O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!" - william shakespeare

They've always done it. They did it at Jackson State. They did it to Deandre Brunston. They did it to Amidou Diallo. They did it to people whose names we will never know. And now they have done it to Sean Bell. THEY SHOT HIM. PUT ON ANOTHER BULLSHIT TRIAL. AND ACQUITTED ANOTHER GROUP OF OVER EARNEST POLICE OFFICERS. (Let's not even talk about those who call themselves prosecutors) This story is so familiar and so repetitive, it's damn near ordinary. The names even run together after awhile. Sean Bell? Don't you mean Ron Pettaway III? Oh, you mean Patrick M. Dorismond? It's deja vu to the ultimate extreme. The NYPD and the court system have failed us yet again. Yet, I'll be damned if it doesn't garner the same response from me each time. Hurt, frustration, infuriation.

What did Sean Bell really do that was so wrong? He went out the night before he was to be married. He went club and bar hopping. He got drunk. He started talking sh*t to some other drunk guy. And he left. That's an American birth right. Don't believe me? Go to any bar anywhere in the country tonight and you'll find thousands of Sean Bells. Matter of fact, go to any sporting event, any concert, any place where tons of people gather and you'll find a Sean Bell. Sean Bell, by his actions the night of his death, measured against American norms, was being ordinary. So why does this ordinary American's story end tragically at the hands of police, when so many others like him don't?

The crime element of these United States has been reduced to but one face, the face of the black male. My face. My father's face. My uncles'/cousins'/best friends' face. Put that face in a rural setting, or suburban setting and he MAY fall through the cracks. But put that face in an urban center, and he becomes the focus of police attention. Over zealous cops, some scared, some racist, some both, continue to shoot unarmed black men in this country at an extremely alarming rate. Not just that, but they are getting away with it in the name of James Crow Jr.'s so called preventative crime tactics. It doesn't take being play cousins with a rocket scientist to realize the plight at hand. But it might to understand why we aren't doing anything about it.

Nationally, black men aged 15-29 die at a higher rate than any other age group except men 85 years of age and older. Yet there is no outcry. No preventative measures are being taken by the government to decrease this staggering mortality rate. Sadder still, our own people don't even seem to care. Unfortunately, this is not one of those issues where you can just worry about raising your kids. You better be worrying about who is or isn't raising the next man's kids as well. Raising your young black son well is not good enough. Do that and he might almost grow up to be someone. Almost. It's not good enough to hope he'll learn to navigate his neighborhood well enough to become a man. It's not good enough to hope he'll find a good women to marry. Because even if he does all that, you still have to worry. You still have to worry that the night before he's to be married, the very men paid to protect him, won't be the one's gunning him down.

"we accept the reality of the world with which we're presented" - (from the movie The Truman Show)

I believe in the power of the written word and the spoken word. I also believe in the power of the fist, the rock, the match, and the gun. All their power is derived from us. Our bravery or lack there of, determines what can or can't be considered a weapon. Well collectively we may as well be weaponless, because we aren't fighting back. Hell, we ain't even making any noise. Voices ain't screaming. Pens ain't yelling. Rocks and fist ain't being thrown. And as many guns as we have plaguing our community, not one has been fired to bring attention to the situation at hand. Not only are we not bringing attention to the problems, we seem to have passively determined there is no solution. Maybe you've been too desensitized to care if black men die anymore. Maybe police unlawfully shooting people and getting away with it in court doesn't even ruffle your feathers anymore. Maybe you'd just rather live in your own quiet passive little word. Cool. Just remember, the stats don't lie. According to the stats, it's only a matter of time before a young black man in the prime of his life is killed in your family; at the hands of another black man, or police. And when it happens, and you're ready to scream, and you're ready to get angry, and you're ready for other people to stand up and be angry with you, I'll have but one response. What did you do when they killed Sean Bell and got away with it? One luv.