Monday, December 15, 2014

Can Any Of Us Breathe Right Now?

Trayvon Martin.  Eric Garner.  Michael Brown.  Tamir Rice.

And those are just the best-known cases.

Consider the case of Cedric Bartee, shot to death by a police officer even after Bartee put his hands up and begged the officer not to shoot.

Or Rumain Brisbon, shot to death while delivering fast food, because a police officer allegedly mistook a pill bottle for a gun.  Let's take a minute to reflect on that one.  Now ask yourself:  Have you ever seen a pill bottle that even looked like any type of firearm?  Me neither.

Or Howard Morgan, a decorated former Chicago police officer who was shot 28 times by members of his old department--and then convicted of attempted murder because some of the arresting officers were shot, even though there was evidence that their wounds were self-inflicted.

Or Brandon McKean, who was stopped on a cold day by a police officer because he was allegedly making people nervous by walking down the street with his hands in his pockets.  (Note to parents of African-American children:  Buy your kids gloves.  Now.)

To borrow a phrase from Tom Friedman:  Do you get it now?  I hope so.  Even conservatives seem to be getting it.  The Garner case is such an egregious example that even the right-wing chattering classes were bothered by it.  I guess there's something about the words "I can't breathe" that actually manages to get past the layers of filters conservative commentators set up in their brains to block out the truth.

Frankly, I'm forced to wonder if any of us can breathe now.

I'm not going to blink at the obvious.  This is all about white violence against African-American men, backed up by the power of the state.  This is fundamentally about racism, the original sin of American that continues to corrupt our civic and individual lives.

But the empowerment of the military reflected in all of these tragedies has no reason to stop at the line of race.  Make no mistake.  The same government that can stop a black youth for keeping his hands in his pockets can just as arbitrarily stop you one day and ask you to empty your pockets.  Or take a "friendly" peek at the contents of your smart phone.  It'll be in your "national interest," of course.  Or "community safety."  But what it will be ultimately all about is about power--conservative power, expanding the one aspect of government they're madly in love with, the one that shoots bullets.  And bullets are made to be shot.  Today, it's Howard Morgan.  Tomorrow, it could be any of us, whether or not we're black.

This is why some of us were opposed to the PATRIOT Act, and other equally ill-advised measures enacted after the 9/11 attacks.  We understood that freedom can't be defended if it's thrown away.  And that getting it back once it's been thrown away is damned hard.  That's why we had a revolution in the first place.

I agree with Charles Blow in The New York Times.  This is the moment for a new generation of civil rights leaders to step forward and make a difference.  But it should also be the moment when everyone who cares about making a better world comes together with them.  Whether the issues is racism in our neighborhoods or the safety of the entire planet, progressives should be on the march together.  We are the new silent majority.  And we should be silent no longer.  Otherwise, Eric Garner will not be the only one who can't breathe, because the life will have been squeezed out of our country.

One more think:  a little unsolicited advice to the police.  Stop thinking that your problems are your critics, whether in office or on the streets.  They're your bosses.  It's not the other way around.  And just because we're grateful for your sacrifices, that doesn't mean you can't listen and learn from us.  That's not "disrespect" we're giving you.  That's civilization.

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