74 seconds. 2 seconds, 1.78 seconds Time Keeps on Slippin’
Numbers ringing in my head, 74 seconds, the time it took a cop to leave his car and shoot and kill Philando Castile. 74 seconds. Castile did everything they tell Black people to do when confronted by police because after all he had been stopped 49 times in the past 14 years. He knew the drill and he was a security guard licensed to carry a gun. A brother officer, if you will.
Comply, comply, hang your head, don’t look em in the eye and comply. Didn’t work. Still got him killed on camera. We watched him die on Facebook with the officer still holding the gun through the window on a baby in the back seat and Castile’s girlfriend who calmly live streamed the whole thing. It’s a wonder she didn’t die that day as well. Usually, any Black holding something in their hands be it a gun or a phone, well you know. Got the cop even saying live, that he didn’t know why he shot him. Comply, comply, comply, be a good little darkie. Sit still so you won’t freak out the white/black/Latino boy in blue with the gun, who is shitting in his pants as he talks to you. Fuck your family in the car with you, your baby strapped correctly in her booster seat.
The cop got arrested, charged and put through a trial. The jury found him not guilty. No surprise here white juries don’t convict cops regardless of the circumstances. We learned that when Rodney King got his ass beat on video back in the day. Video and now live stream, won’t save your ass. Just gives you a bigger audience.
2 seconds, the time it took two Cleveland cops to roll up on 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a park and kill him. 2 seconds. They thought he was a grown ass man with a gun in a park menacing people, except there were no people around and the one that was, dropped the dime to 911, to call the cops and said that it was a kid playing with a gun. 12 years old and we lost him in 2 seconds.
1. 78 seconds, the amount of time that lapsed between the time Ray Tensing shot Sam Dubose in the neck, severing his spinal cord, killing him instantly. He was already dead when his foot hit the accelerator and Officer Tensing claimed he tried to drive away, dragging him. 1.78 seconds.
Measured by a forensics expert for the prosecution in Ray Tensing’s retrial for murder. Two other police experts testified that Tensing violated procedure when he reached into the car and tried to take Dubose’s keys out of the ignition. The first trial ended in a hung jury and this one might as well. It’s not over yet. Closing arguments set for this week.
Think we might get a conviction this time? I doubt it. The prosecution is already hedging its bets and asked the judge to charge the jury on a lesser charge of negligent homicide on the outside chance the jury can’t bring itself to buy murder.
Tells me someone is not confident in their case. They know just like us, white juries, which is the only kind of jury that you get in the US justice system, do not convict cops for any reason, period. We never get a jury of our peers as long as there is redlining, gerrymandering, voter suppression and on and on. No matter how we play this game it is rigged against us.
And now we know, thanks to the FB live stream of Castile, compliance, being a good little negro, won’t protect you either.
Castile got stopped and killed because his nose was too broad. Number 49 unlucky.
Tamir Rice was playing outside with a toy gun. His first and only time, unlucky.
Sam Dubose got stopped and was killed for not having a front license plate on his car. Sam’s had many run-ins too. Mostly for incidental bullshit involving cars and license plates. This time he was unlucky too.
74 seconds. 2 seconds, 1.78 seconds…
Time keeps on slippin’.