THE REALITY AND IMPLICATIONS OF "BLACK LIVES MATTER" by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie [ On the Epidemic of Killings of Black People by US Police]

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

I use 'epidemic' in the sub-title  in elastic terms  to suggest a rapid escalation of deaths, often emerging in what look like circumstances unrelated to the context in which this escalation takes place, Black  people being killed on a practically monthly basis by police even when they are clearly non-threatening or even when incapacitated.

Ogbechie's essay was  posted in July before the latest shooting , in Charlotte

                                             THE REALITY AND IMPLICATIONS OF "BLACK LIVES MATTER"

Give Peace a Chance

When I became naturalized as an American citizen, I expected to inherit the casual arrogance  inherent in the country’s position as the global hegemon. I did not. Instead I inherited an identity as an African American, along with the daily humiliation at the hand of law enforcement authorities that comes with it. I became too aware of police killing black people and getting away with it, and began to understand why the American black population were given to conspiracy theories. Joseph Heller once said, “Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”. Black people, especially black men, understand quite clearly that the nation’s law enforcement officers are out to get them. This has been the case since the days of slavery. The current spate of shooting and killing black men for no rational reason reminds African Americans of the brutal policing that accompanied segregation. These police killings are meant to secure the unquestioning acquiescence of African Americans and it denies us our rights under the constitution. 

 

In a recent post, I characterized the persistent shooting/killing of black people (men and women) by police in the USA as acts of domestic terrorism. Since the country is currently focused on thwarting ongoing international terrorism, I decided to see how the government itself defines “terrorism”. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s website, “domestic terrorism”:

Involves acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state laws; [and] Appear intended

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; and

(ii) Occurs primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

It is a fact that white people (and I want to give my white American countrymen and women the benefit of the doubt here), don’t quite understand what the consequences of the frequent police killing of African American men means for those of us who so far have avoided death at the hand of law enforcement officers. I will try to describe what it means for black Americans below.

My mother-in-law is celebrating her birthday in Cleveland and I have decided to drive up there to be present at the occasion. As a black man, here is how the process unfolds for me. When I first mentioned the drive to a friend, he suggested it might be better to fly, given how often law enforcement officers stop black drivers (for Driving while Black) and how frequently such stops end in police shooting black drivers to death and subsequently avoiding prosecution of any kind. I still decided to drive, and now that I think of it, I am writing this as a testimony in case something should happen to me. That right there is what I am talking about, with regard to police shooting as terrorism: it subjects me to intimidation and coercion that now influences my activities in myriad of ways.

Having decided to make the drive, I rented a sedan from Enterprise (their fleet is made up of fairly new cars, so no broken tail-lights or such; note that run-down vehicles make this a class issue, but even blacks in high-end vehicles are still killed). I prepared for the trip as follows: I will be wearing a suit and freshly laundered shirt with no tie. I will be driving close to the speed limit. If I get pulled over, I will have my hands raised in clear view and wait until the police officer says it is ok before reaching for anything. To avoid actually reaching for anything that involves lowering my hands below the officer’s view and providing the police a justification for shooting me, I will have my license and registration visible on the dashboard of my car. I do not own or carry a gun so hoefully that won't be an issue. 

Note that even with all these precautions, I would still have to lower my hand once to activate my driver’s side mirror in order to hand over my documents to the officer. This constitutes a tense situation so I will move my hand very slowly to do so if needed. On the other hand, I could simply tape my license and registration to my driver’s side mirror, so it is visible if the officer asks for it. This will make it unnecessary to lower my hands.

If nothing happens (note the expectation that a routine traffic stop will escalate into something fatal), I will drive away slowly and drive the speed limit for ten minutes in case the office decides to trail me (this is not uncommon). Hopefully, I arrive at my destination after a long but uneventful drive.

Now the description above is a clear definition of a population intimidated to the extent that their constitutional rights are irrelevant and their sole chance of escaping encounters with police officers is to express complete docility, and even this doesn’t help in some instances. After each police killing of a black man (or police assassination as recently shown in the case of Alton Sterling’s death in Louisiana) you keep hearing commentators say the black man should have obeyed police orders. Well, Alton Sterling was already well subdued and pinned to the ground BEFORE the white police officers involved shot him in the chest and killed him. How much more "obedience" could he have demonstrated?

In a country where slavery has supposedly ended (and where a slave owner could kill his/slave for being “uppity”, i.e. not showing enough deference), black people are still expected by the white public to be overly submissive to white law enforcement officers. The problem however is that some white police officers are still quick to see ANY actions by black men and women as being an affront to their authority (Note I am not claiming here that all white police officers are racist or incompetent). This kind of response on the part of the officers resembles what you have in authoritarian police states and for me as a naturalized American originally from Africa, it reminds me of Jim-Crow America and the police of apartheid South Africa.

The coercive and brutal law enforcement that sees black lives as expendable is what Black Lives Matter fights against. They fight for the rights of African Americans to be respected as much as those of white people. The counterattack that "All Lives Matter" is asinine: if white lives were subjected to a fraction of what black Americans have to deal with on a daily basis, they would also be on the streets demanding change.

Make no mistake about it: the ongoing campaign by certain political figures who pine for an America of “law and order” are making a racist argument for the return of white supremacy of the Jim Crow era, when blacks knew that their place was under the jackboot of brutal law enforcement and whites were comfortable perched atop their positions of privilege where all their needs are served by blacks.

You can see this order of things returning in earnest in Washington DC where I live. I returned to this city after two decades to find that gentrification has driven most of its black residents out of town. Gigantic new apartment complexes have been filled with young white renters (or condo owners) even in core black neighborhoods such as the U-Street corridor. Coffee shops and upscale shopping places abound where blacks work as service personnel. I have yet to see a white person behind the counter in all the places I have entered to buy something. I watched, in a CVS shop, as the white manager searched the bag of a young black man. Someone had accused him of shoplifting. I myself walk warily when I am in any store, and often am aggressively questioned about what I was doing there.

So, it seems black Americans are back in the Jim Crow era again. So much for progress…

Posted 15th July by S. Okwunodu Ogbechie