It seems like an archaic idea. Why would a race of people in America have to consider arming themselves against a group that is paid by citizens to protect and serve? Yes, it’s 2014 and not 1954. But the one thing that we have learned in 2014 is that Black lives can be in jeopardy when confronted by white police officers.
Apparently, there is an extreme disconnect when many white officers confront unarmed Black men. They are quick to kill Black men when it appears as if situations can be deescalated without ending violently. Along with the killings of Eric Garner and Mike Brown, John Crawford was killed by police while holding a toy gun in Walmart. In Utah, Dillon Taylor was killed by police while walking near a convenience store. And a few days ago, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by police in Cleveland while holding a toy gun.
The question is not if these Black men did anything right or wrong, but did the Black men who died put anyone’s life in danger prior to being killed? Regardless of the crime, every citizen has the right to due process. That’s the law of the land in America. There isn’t a police officer who should be allowed to be the prosecutor, judge and jury if their life or lives of others aren’t in danger.
But when police officers don’t abide by the law and the law fails to indict, charge or prosecute an officer who kills an unarmed person, it reveals that the justice system has an overall willingness to serve injustice to Blacks in America.
So what should Black men do? There is clearly a state of emergency and every Black man in America is in danger. It may become imperative for Black men to arm themselves for protection against the police. It sounds extreme, but it has occurred before.
In the spring of 2014, a group of White right-wing men with automatic rifles and handguns had a stand-off against police in Nevada. The men were called to action by Cliven Bundy who failed to remove his cattle from land owned by the U.S. government. When the police began to remove cattle from the land, Bundy and his militia stood face-to-face with federal agents who also carried high-powered military weapons.
But while hundreds of armed White men stood up against federal agents and appeared to provoke violence, no one in the militia was shot, killed or even arrested. In fact, the federal agents backed off to ensure that violence wouldn’t occur.
If the White right-wing militia group was replaced by an all-Black militant group, it’s a good chance that the standoff would have ended differently. But something must be done because the ongoing violence against Black men and the failure of prosecutors to pursue charges is troubling.
This is not a call for Black men to carry guns and shoot at police when officers violate their rights. But it’s more of a wake up call for good officers to protect their reputations by making sure that bad officers aren’t mistreating unarmed citizens.
It’s also a call for the justice system to begin to hold White police officers accountable for killing unarmed Black men. If a change doesn’t occur in police tactics and the justice system, a change will occur in the people that could be the opposite of peaceful.
