THE NAMES ARE FAMILIAR

MIKE BROWN

I mean Mike Brown was jaywalking and possibly involved in a strong arm robbery in a convenience store (which was never proven by the way).  The denizens of what is respectable deemed him as an undesirable thug so in their collective borg mind anything that happened to him was somehow his own fault.

JOHN CRAWFORD

Just like John Crawford, he had to know that a black man walking around with anything resembling a firearm real or not would invoke images of Nat Turner and the Black Panther Movement. His death at the hands of law enforcement was merely an unfortunate occurrence according to the spin.

TAMIR RICE

Of course Tamir Rice should have known or better yet his mother should have taught him never to play with a toy gun outside in a playground because of course that would be misconstrued as opposed to teens that go onto school premises with guns in an attempt to massacre students, clearly playing with a toy gun on a play ground is much more of a serious emergency and way more threatening.

MIRIAM CAREY

And of course a woman with a baby in her car who makes a wrong turn and winds up at a White House Checkpoint is the equivalent of a suicide bomber or could be – so of course law enforcement has no other options with regards to defusing that situation than to shoot the car with the baby in it full of holes. Heck for all they knew she could have been carrying rocket launchers in the trunk. Can’t take chances.

DARRIEN HUNT

It absolutely was way beyond acceptability for a black man to have an imagination that took him to carrying a play sword outside without bothering anyone or menacing anyone because my goodness the very idea of a black person with anything in their hands other than a broom or a dustpan is very scary stuff.

JONATHAN FERRELL

Hey let’s not forget that Scary black men who have just been involved in a car accident are even scarier and more deadly so we definitely don’t want to leave it to chance that he might use his laser eye beams to somehow stun or God forbid injure an officer called to the scene by an upstanding resident in fear of her life from said black man.

VICTOR WHITE

Of course one also cannot forget that black people are magical. So much so that we have the ability to conceal weapons even after two pat downs and that we can even when in handcuffs, seated in the backseat of a police car, pull out a gun and shoot ourselves in the CHEST – like Victor White III did. He was just one of those magical Negroes we keep hearing about.

The majority however are just society throwaways – those that the powers that be have decided are not of any value, like Walter Scott, or Eric Garner, or any number of blacks who have had any dealings with the justice system. Which of course automatically makes your life invalid and worth less than a plug nickel.

Those same powers that be that will define a productive member of society and will refuse to accept or realize that the current definition is not reflective of the entirety of the population and never has been. That a life is valuable and that people can make mistakes and still turn their lives around. Society especially in its current incarnation has no place determining whose life is worth more or worth less.

The same society and system that caused Kalief Browder to be incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit. Which included the guards that beat and tortured him while he sat, incarcerated for three years. During  which time, he was subjected to beatings by the guards, the inmates and was placed in solitary confinement – mind you he was 16 years old at the time. However clearly according to that upstanding upright mindset demographic if he was in jail he clearly needed to be there because he obviously did something wrong.

Actually not.  He did not a damn thing wrong. He suffered more than most of our minds can begin to comprehend. His suffering was documented and his battle with mental illness that can and will be argued onset by the cruelty and conditions he was forced to endure for THREE YEARS.

But what’s the big deal I mean it was just a mistake….indeed one that cost this young man his life. One that cost all these people their lives. Mistakes that are causing loss of life all across this country every day and not all are fortunate enough to make the national headlines. That does not mean its not happening.

Those of us in these cities and neighborhoods know this because we have seen it personally first hand in one form or another. We who have witnessed the continued injustice visited upon us by a broken system are beyond tired and beyond fed up.

The fuss – is that you cannot continue to uphold a system that seeks to give unfair advantage to one group of people over another. You cannot ostensibly continue to blindly support a system that inherently makes it  almost impossible for there to be equal footing.

A system that is built on standards exemplified by a certain demographic of people which does not allow for the myriad differences in people’s heritage, background lifestyle and choices is a system that cannot and will not last.

Those who continue to fight and seek justice for all will see all those ignorant and bigoted minds stripped bare of their racism and intolerance.

By the time they figure out what has folks mad and fed up change will already have taken place in spite of them.

Because change real change cannot be denied only delayed.

And the people are really and truly fed up.

The post Kalief Browder: When The Wheels of Injustice Keep Turning appeared first on Madness & Reality.

However, it’s my belief that there is a definite need for better relationships between the police department and communities of color. And, it is to that point the very reason we highlight stories like the following. If a 16-year-old kid can be arrested and incarcerated for three years without as much as a trial, for a crime he never committed, how then can we trust the very people tasked with the job of protecting our lives daily? Case in point, check out the following story of Kalief Browder.

This from WABC-TV 7 New York:

NEW YORK (WABC) — 20-year-old Kalief Browder may be physically free, but mentally he is still trapped behind bars on Rikers, where every day was a battle to survive.

“It’s very hard when you are dealing with dudes that are big and have weapons and shanks and there are gangs,” says Browder, “you know if you don’t give your phone call up, or you don’t give them what they want you know they are going to jump you. And it’s very scary.”

In May of 2010, Browder was a 16-year-old tenth grader, walking home on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx after a party. “This guy comes out of nowhere and says I robbed him. And the next thing I know they are putting cuffs on me. I don’t know this dude. And I do over three years for something I didn’t do.”

Browder’s family couldn’t make the $10,000 bail on the robbery charges, and he had a legal aid attorney. Browder is now represented by a civil rights law firm.

“Someone who did not know Kalief Browder, and simply told the police officer, ‘Officer I was robbed two weeks ago and that kid did it’, that’s where it ended. That was the identification,” said Browder’s attorney, Paul Prestia. Browder said that at the time, the stress was overwhelming, and at some point he tried to commit suicide.

“I mean like every time I go to court, I think I’m, going home, and I go to court, and absolutely nothing happens,” adds Browder, “I was feeling so much pain, and it was all balling in my head, and I just had to grab my head and I can’t take it.”

He missed his sister’s wedding, the birth of his nephew, and so many family events. In January, Browder says he was offered a plea deal after 33 Months in jail, which he refused.

“The judge was trying to give me time served, and she is telling me if I am not taking it and I lose at trial I can get 15 years,” notes Browder.

Browder went back to jail, and in June, he was freed with no explanation.

“They just dismissed the case and they think it’s all right. No apology, no nothing,” he says, “they just say ‘case dismissed, don’t worry about nothing’. What do you mean, don’t worry about nothing? You just took 3 years of my life.”

Browder is now trying to make up for those three years of high school that he lost by taking courses to get his GED. “I didn’t get to go to prom or graduation. Nothing,” Browder says, “those are the main years. They are the main years. And I am never going to get those years back. Never. Never.”

You can watch the video below. Hopefully after watching the interview with Kalief Browder, you’ll give some thought to the fact that this is no accident; and, that wrongful arrests and convictions happen everyday all across this country. Most importantly, however, you’ll understand that disproportionately affected by such abuses are in fact people of color. What happened to Browder is just another example of how many people of color become forever disadvantaged once tagged with a criminal record. This Thursday night on Madness & Reality Radio at 9 p.m. EST, I’ll be interviewing a similar case involving a 17-year-old young man who lives in Detroit, Michigan who is dealing with a very similar situation. Oh, who also has a fractured spine after being beaten by a cop.

Last week, newly elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio decided to settle the lawsuit filed by the Central Park Five. The $250-million lawsuit was filed back in 2003 by the five wrongly convicted black and Latino men. If you’re not familiar with the case, do yourself a favor and read here to learn about them. To make a long story short, they are 5 men wrongfully convicted as teens for the rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park, on April 19th, 1989. As with the case involving Browder above, there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. After being exonerated in 2002 there was a lawsuit filed; and to date (even all these years later) there has been no redress. Let’s hope that Browder doesn’t have to suffer a similar fate. Why? Aside from the obvious, holding police officers accountable is what is needed. We have to send the message: racism isn’t cheap.

The post Lawsuit: Bronx Man Wrongfully Arrested at 16 Has Charges Dropped After Spending 3-Years at Rikers Without Trial appeared first on Madness & Reality.