Body Count
“Have we, individually and collectively as a
nation, become so immune to the frequency of violence in our neighborhoods and
cities that we no longer pay any heed?” explained Colleen Tobiason (Gazette,
guest columnist, Jul 20, 2016). The overall statistics answer has undoubtedly
always been—YES.
Let me explain, a hanging pair of shoes on a telephone wire was the
first thing I noticed visiting a friend. To other people, it’s laughable (I
know). Although, growing up through 1980s it’s a sign of a death of a local
kid, whether gang related or not. There have been neighborhoods around the
corner from where I lived with strung up pairs of shoes. Furthermore, there was
not a single report or investigation made to the public about any shootings throughout
the neighborhood. That was the norm. Fast-forward to today, you hear flowing
reports of deaths and sadly it is no surprise to me that shootings happen
around the country on a consistent basis. And now I have proof that my hunch
was right on target.
“Our best estimate,
about a thousand (1000) times a year, a police officer somewhere in the United
States shoots and kills somebody and so far this year we’re right on track on
that number.” Explained Phil Stinson (Criminologist at Boeing State University in
Ohio)(NPR: Around the Nation: “Videos Make Everyone A Witness To Police
Shootings”). “It might seem like there are a lot more cases of people getting
shot and killed by police but by Joseph Shapiro’s reports, it’s just because
we’re paying more attention… People that live in urban communities have always
known this goes on fairly regularly. The problem is nobody else is paying
attention till the last few years. And I think we reach a tipping point right
around the time where Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. And since
then everybody is paying attention. I don’t think anybody would pay attention
(…to anything else…) but for the videos. And you know a dead man can’t talk. It
use to be the police owned the narrative, and now we’ve got another side to the
story quite often through the videos.” Stinson explains.
I, for one, salute
our uniformed brothers & sisters of arms who strive to uphold peace, but
don’t think for a second that chaos, mistakes, and corruption does not exist in
those worlds! I do know this first hand from when I was in the US Army—in
deployment and stateside it never mattered. There are people, who went in for a
paycheck and there are people who went in for a cause—as well as, there’s
plenty of room for a vast chasm of grey areas. But once again, the human
equation never left our minds when we are in the kill zone.
And there’s a problem of biased media
who are out for ratings and intrigue. All media plays a big part of the
deception! “I think part of what they do is that they actually misdirect
us from looking at much deeper issues,” the media studies professor said.
“Racism is a problem, homophobia is a problem, violence against immigrants is a
problem… so we end up passing laws and saying… ‘look at this, we’re actually
doing something’ …essentially come down to feel-good laws.” Michael
Bronski (co-author of ‘Considering Hate’; NPR: The Two Way: “In
Louisiana, It’s Now A Hate Crime To Target Police Officers”).
What we got
here is a failure to communicate! It takes exposure, community involvement,
empathy—not apathy, nor cynical rhetoric and accusations of one another. Don’t
think we don’t need law enforcement—cause we do, they are the living embodiment
of a symbol for peace; we lose them and we have failed as a country! Did you
ever think of what that would look like—as an individual in a vast community?
“Lots of
conversation in how we sort our friends in social media about sources and where
we get our information from. But it’s not just where we get our information
from, it’s whom we talk to outside of social media… there was a study by Public
Religion Research Institute in 2013 about identifying people who have important
conversations in the last six months. Their findings found that in social
networks 91% of white people have entirely white friend groups… three quarters
(75%) of white people have entirely white friend groups; they were not talking
to people of color at all! When you see poll numbers about the vast space
between where people of color feel about policing and various issues of
equality and where white people stand on those issues, it can be explained in
part by the fact that we’re not having the same conversations. One of the
themes is the needle of these issues can’t move unless white people are engaged
in them and you’re seeing people to importune (press on a subject/topic) their
white friends or the white people they know, who are friends of friends, to be
involved in these conversations which are often really, really awkwardly
difficult to have but there is a sense that these issues cannot resolve
themselves on their own without white people actually sitting down at the table
having these discussions because people of color have these conversations all
the time.” Gene Demby (NPR: Weekend Edition Saturday: 7/9/2016; “ How Social
Media Impacts The Conversation On Racial Violence”). I try not to think of the body count whenever I hear unfortunate
news (think 9/11)—IT’S ALL MORBID! I would place myself in a little dark corner
in my mind-thinking, can I be a solution of another problem among society.
Then, I remember this, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you
can do for your country.” JFK. So I beg the question, what can you do?
