We Call Them Peace Officers

We call them peace officers, but it doesn't seem like we train them in peace.

We justify their actions when they cause chaos, war, or violence (I am not sure which is the true opposite of peace) because we say that their job is challenging. But didn't they choose that job? Didn't they know that it would mean putting their lives on the line? Didn't it necessarily mean that their job would be to bring peace to chaos?

There are any number of issues here -- not the least of which is that only people of color seem to see the problem with an unarmed man being killed by a police officer when said unarmed man is already restrained. Say what you will about what you see on the video -- he was on his stomach with his hands behind his back and with another officer's knees on his head. There was no way that this man was a threat to any of those armed officers.

I will never understand why having a badge means that your life is worth more than the life of another -- especially if that other is not white. I don't understand why cops feel this way and I truly don't understand why others feel this way. At what point do any of those who feel they are not affected by the stripping of human and civil rights actually see the act for what it is?

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller 1946

That same night that Oscar Grant was being killed in Oakland, I was reminding my sister's boyfriend to drive exactly within the speed limit and make complete stops and note lane changes because driving in Oxnard necessarily means driving while brown -- even though he is white.

It is sad to feel this way about police officers, but to date, they have never done anything to make me feel differently.

On the other side of this, I am truly disappointed that in all the blogs I regularly read, only one other even mentioned Oscar Grant, his manner of death or its greater meaning to our society.

"No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were:
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls;
it tolls for thee."
John Donne, 1624 from a meditation

I am glad that this post did not see the light of day before the district attorney saw fit to charge the officer. I truly hope that the murder charge was not a political ploy meant to help said officer to get out of all culpability.

We need more justice and less just us. It's time for change, I am hoping that it will extend to all of us.