The Old Adage says that “A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words” but Not in the Case of White Police Torture and Murder By Ruby Sales, Director of the SpiritHouse Project Because representatives of the state have stolen our minds, we believe and speak the official story of police as guardians of Black lives and our constitutional rights. We the world through their self-promoting narratives rather than recall and utilize the thousands of public historical images of rampant police terrorism. We blot out images of where we see police using dogs, cattle prods, water hoses and charging horses against freedom fighters during the Civil Rights Movement. The police, in this typical documentation on youtube below of police torture during the Civil Rights Movement, are caught on camera torturing a Black person. Archives throughout America are full of these images. Clearly they were acting to protect White supremacy rather than the rights of freedom fighters. Many of us over sixty five witnessed and saw these images on TV nightly on the national and local news. Others have seen these images in movies and documentaries. The movie, Selma, is the latest example. Yet, we fail to use this history to objectively refute the counter narrative of police who manipulate us and steal our minds with diversionary public discourse of good cop/bad cop. When we do contest their behavior, we mire our critique in a discourse that places us on the defensive where the burden of proof of police brutality rests on us. It should be the opposite. Given the irrefutable acts of police torture documented on camera, they are the ones who must prove that Darren Wilson and his sister and brother police have shaken the weight of their history rather than carrying out their business as usual practices. When Darren Wilson was caught on camera clearly murdering unarmed Michael Brown, many Americans reacted with shock and horror that despite the obvious visual documentation of Brown lying dead in the street from Wilson’s multiple gun shots, he got away with it. Not only did he get away with it, many White Americans defended this blatant murder by dehumanizing and criminalizing Michael Brown. So was the case with Eric Garner as we witnessed on camera police officer Daniel Pantaleo torturing and murdering him. I was stunned when we let the police highjack the narrative without our making a connection between today and the Civil Rights Movement when police were caught on TV cameras brutally torturing demonstrators. As a matter of fact, our historical amnesia dangerously gave them the public advantage when we had at our disposal thousands of pictures where police are caught on TV cameras torturing dissenters or ordinary Black people. Added to this historical record is the refusal of prosecutors to indict them. As a matter of fact records during the Civil Rights Movement prove that prosecutors often sided with police and worked hand in hand with them to protect and defend White supremacy. In short, prosecutors such as McCulloch cannot be dismissed simply as one bad prosecutor who fought for the White defendant rather than the Black plaintiff whom he was by law obligated to represent. Instead, he is part of a long system of prosecutorial White supremacy and hand in hand support of police torture and murder of Black people. Unless we incorporate hindsight, insight, and foresight in our work we will constantly be on the defensive and on the run from police who murder and get away with it in the media and in other areas of the public square.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:37:54 +0000
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