Thursday, May 28, 2020

Enough is Enough

I'm seventy-six years of age... born and raised in Louisiana and Mississippi! I have, in my lifetime, seen some horrible things done to my race... a naked Black woman lying face down in the Jordan Ave canal in 1963 is indelible! I knew her... knew her family... and I knew who killed her!

I watched the video. I saw the look of indifference on the face of the cop pressing his knee against the carotid artery of George Floyd; the cop stared at the camera of the person videoing the murder of George Floyd, and at that moment, I knew instinctively that this cop had no intentions of taking his knee from the neck of George Floyd! Were I the person recording this murder, I'm absolutely sure I would have died preventing the death of this person I never knew.

After the death-by-cop of Michael Brown, I spoke over Facebook Messenger with Darren Wilson. I told him that I understood his actions were out of anger, but why? I asked Wilson if he felt any remorse. After speaking with him over Messenger, I deleted our conversation. I was more interested in understanding the nature of the beast, than condemning Wilson. Facebook and Wilson's lawyers know that I talked to him. 

To the cop standing there allowing the murder of an unarmed handcuffed man, you deserve no mercy on the day you go before God, if there is a God! To be honest, I cannot in good faith say that there is a God anymore!

Like every other Black man, I'm angry! Angry because this murderous act is repeated daily by a race that believes it has a right to murder unarmed Black men; by a profession sworn to protect and serve the public, but known to exercise the kind of unmercifulness I would attribute to Hitler's Gestapo! I'm sick of the notion that murdering me is acceptable, a right some deem a privilege! Let me assure you of one thing, those days are coming to an end! I, like a lot of other Black men, am not going to be silent any longer! I have just as much right to freedom, justice, and equality as any of you.

Stop murdering unarmed Black men!

I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, a Vietnam veteran, a citizen of the United States, and I will be vocal in every sense of the word! My grands will not have to live in fear!