“I Wish I Hadn’t” …. This I have to share …. “POWERFUL …. “!!

~~July 7, 2016~~ 

THE FIRST OF TWO

Alton Sterling Killed by Baton Rouge Police

I haven’t been able to blog today.

As I said before, I have no words.

I can’t forget two Negro men who were killed in the light of day, with witnesses around, with the police cameras and civilian cell phones.

Social media is exploding with information about these events which occurred back to back in different cities.

The perfect words.

They are not mine.

I need to share.

HortyRex©

~~GRAPHIC SOURCE~~ 

LAB Pro Lib

https://www.facebook.com/LABPROLIB/?fref=ts

Occupy Democrats

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/

Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was standing in the parking lot selling CDs as he had for years when two white cops arrived on Tuesday night, July 6.

By Wednesday morning he was dead and protesters were in the city’s streets.

Calls erupted from Congress and the NAACP for an independent investigation into the shooting, which the Justice Department announced within hours.

~ALTON STERLING~

POWERFUL STATEMENT

By Ricardo Neftali Arroyo

I watched the Alton Sterling execution video.

I wish I hadn’t.

Not because I didn’t want to bear witness. The way Emmett Till’s mother wanted an open casket, “so all the world can see what they did to my boy.”

I’ve borne witness before.

I saw the final moments of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald, Samuel DuBoise, and so many others. I’ve felt my heart break as Black men, women and children are gunned down for existing.

Not because it was triggering.

Police brutality is always triggering.

Triggering in that I too have seen the other end of a police officers gun, I too have felt the violation of being searched, of “fitting the description“, of being well aware that your body, at that moment is not your own, that even in the heat of my greatest discomfort my well being depended on having that officer feel as comfortable as I could.

Comfortable in my violation. Comfortable in my pain. Comfortable with my existence. All while knowing that even though I must give as many reasons for my continued existence as possible.This officer wouldn’t need to provide any to be my executioner. I am not alone in having that experience. That experience, like police brutality, is not isolated. Not even in the direct example of my life.

Not because I was already sick and tired thousands of deaths ago.
As a public defender in our criminal injustice system sick and tired is a state of existence. When on the best of days I can achieve a result for a person that resembles justice. But far more often I am simply fighting, as hard as I can, against the worst of several unjust outcomes so that I can minimize the level of injustice they must endure.

You learn, as a person of color in America, at a very early age, how to push on through the weariness of injustice.

No.

I wish I hadn’t seen that video because I have grown uncomfortable with the fetishization of black death and more importantly of its desensitization. Of those who do not lift a finger in the interest of racial justice. Or against police brutality. But are content to gawk at the trauma and injustice without engaging in the struggle against it. Those that only contribute by bearing witness.

I am uncomfortable with those who have grown comfortable with the idea that we must present our dead in order to be believed. In order for there to be action. How many more must we lay before you in order for you to do more than passively engage? If not us then who? If not now then when?

I’ll leave you with this.

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time; but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

#IWishIHadnt #LABProLib #RicardoNeftaliArroyo #AltonSterling #AltonSterlingKilled #BatonRougePolice #StopShootingUs #StateSanctionedViolence #BlackBodies #Oppression #HeavyHeart #Love #BlacknessAndBrownness #BlackLivesMatter #PowerfulStatement #OccupyDemocrats

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #HortyRex #hrexach

We ALL are ONE!!

Something to think about …. “Can anyone tell me why?

~~December 30, 2015~~ 

I DON’T UNDERSTAND … MY MIND CAN’T GRASP THIS

Ethan Anthony Couch (born April 11, 1997) is an American who made national headlines at age 16 when he was prosecuted as a juvenile and convicted of four counts of intoxication manslaughter for recklessly driving drunk on June 15, 2013 in Burleson, Texas where he was speeding, lost control of his vehicle, plowed into a gathering of pedestrians and struck a parked car. Four people were killed and nine others injured, two suffering serious bodily injury as a result of the collision.

In December 2013, Judge Jean Hudson Boyd sentenced Couch to 10 years of probation and subsequently ordered him to therapy at a long-term, in-patient facility, after his attorneys successfully argued that the teen suffered from “affluenza” and needed rehabilitation instead of prison. Boyd then retired as judge the following December. Couch’s sentence set off what the New York Times called “an emotional, angry debate that has stretched far beyond the North Texas suburbs”.

Couch became the subject of a manhunt and was listed in the National Fugitive Database on December 11, 2015, after his probation officer was unable to contact him. On December 28, 2015, authorities detained Couch and his mother in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta.

“As it appears in …. full read/full credit”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy (June 25, 2002 – November 23, 2014), was shot on November 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio.  Two police officers, 26-year-old Timothy Loehmann and 46-year-old Frank Garmback, responded after receiving a police dispatch call “of a male black sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people” in a city park. A caller reported that a male was pointing “a pistol” at random people in the Cudell Recreation Center.

At the beginning of the call and again in the middle he says of the pistol “it’s probably fake.” Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller stated “he is probably a juvenile.” However, this information was not relayed to Loehmann or Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival, Rice reached towards a gun in his waistband. Within two seconds of arriving on the scene, Loehmann fired two shots before the zone car had come to a halt, hitting Rice once in the torso. Neither officer administered any first aid to Rice after the shooting. He died on the following day.

Rice’s gun was later found to be an Airsoft replica that lacked the orange safety feature marking it as a replica and not a true firearm. A surveillance video of the shooting was released by police four days later, on November 26. On June 3, the County Sheriff’s Office released a statement in which they declared their investigation to be completed and that they had turned their findings over to the county prosecutor.

The prosecution presented evidence to a grand jury, which declined to indict.

“As it appears in … full read/full credit”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Tamir_Rice

~~GRAPHIC SOURCE~~

Facebook Timeline

#SomethingToThinkAbout #Graphic #AnyoneTellmeWhy #EthanAnthonyCouch #AffluenzaKid #TamirRice #Burleson #Texas #Cleveland #Ohio #FourCountsIntoxication #Manslaughter #RecklesslyDrivingDrunk  #TimothyLoehmann #FrankGarmback #PlayingToyGun #CudellRecreationCenter #GrandJury #DeclinedIndictment

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #HortyRex #hrexachwordpress

We ALL are ONE!! 

IOTD …. Images of the day, #413 …. “Tamir Rice: No Words Are Needed”!!

~~December 29, 2015~~ 

TAMIR RICE 

Cleveland Officer Will Not Face Charges in Tamir Rice Shooting Death

Prosecutors say the police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice outside a Cleveland recreation center last year won’t face criminal charges. Neither will the other officer who was with him.

“As it appears in … full read/full credit”

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/us/tamir-rice-shooting/

~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~ 

Google Images 

Facebook Timeline

LAB Pro Lib

https://www.facebook.com/LABPROLIB/?fref=ts

Occupy Democrats

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/?fref=ts

~~GALLERY~~ 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A dear blogger friend taught me this concept.

You can find Michelle here: http://mchelsmusings.wordpress.com/

~IN HER OWN WORDS~

“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”

THIS IS VERY SERIOUS TO ME

#IOTD #ImagesOfTheDay #413 #DearBloggerFriend #HerOwnWords #Serious #Silly #JustBeautiful #MiniMentalVacay #VerySerious #TamirRice #PoliceShooting #PoliceBrutality #Breathe #Play #Shop #love #Live #WhileBlack #Quote #TarianaVeronicaLittle #LABProLib #OccupyDemocrats

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #HortyRex #hrexachwordpress

COLORBLIND …. a benefit for whites only!

~~December 6, 2014~~ 

This information/statement has been in its entirety posted here from Lady Grey‘s source. No credit is taken by “It Is What It Is“.

“As it appears in … “

https://www.facebook.com/LadyMEGrey?fref=photo

Like a good white, middle-class American woman, I used to pride myself on trying to be “colorblind,” on saying to my friends of different ethnicities, “I don’t think of you as Black or White, as Hispanic or Asian. Heck, I don’t even *see* the color of your skin.”

Until the day my friend Isobel brought me up short. “What you are saying when you say that,” she said, “is that you don’t even see who I am. You are saying that you are choosing not to see a huge part of my identity, because who I am — the experiences I have had, the prevailing culture I grew up in — has been profoundly shaped by the color of my skin.” (Or words to that effect; I am taking some editorial license here.)

It was a slap across the face that opened my eyes and changed me. Because the harsh truth, once I admitted it, is that when I was saying, “I don’t see you as Black or Asian,” I was really saying, “I am pretending that you are just like me white.” The harsh truth is that I was projecting my own life experiences and expectations onto them. The harsh truth is that my nonwhite friends have been subjected to prejudices and humiliations and fears that I will never, ever experience. And those experiences are part of who they are as human beings.

Yes, we must treat all people the same, regardless of the color of their skin, but we — especially we white Americans — have to stop pretending that we don’t see the differences, have to stop pretending that we all have the same “American experience.” We must be willing to say that our society is NOT colorblind, that our society does not treat all people the same.

We must stand up and say, “This is wrong.”

~~Lady Grey~~

The quote in this meme is from Isobel’s blog. Read more here: http://isobeldebrujah.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/tuesday-how-to-piss-people-off-by-telling-them-the-hard-truths/

You can follow Isobel here on Facebook: What a Witch.

It’s worth noting that she wrote this in 2012, two years before the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, two years before he was blamed for his own death because his toy gun didn’t have a bright orange plastic piece at the end.

Officer Who Shot Tamir Rice Had ‘Dismal’ Handgun Performance

The Cleveland police officer who shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun last month had been judged not up to the job of police work two years earlier when he worked for a different force, according to internal memos published by Cleveland.com on Thursday.

On November 22, Officer Timothy Loehmann of the Cleveland Division of Police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice within seconds after arriving at a Cleveland park where Rice was playing with the gun.

“As it appears in …. full read”

http://www.newsweek.com/officer-who-shot-tamir-rice-had-dismal-handgun-performance-289316

~~GALLERY~~

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

#Colorblind #BenefitWhitesOnly #LadyGrey #IsobelDeBrujah #ProfoundlyShaped #SkinColor #AmericanExperience #MiddleClassAmericanWoman #StandUp #ThisIsWrong #BlackLivesMatter #WalkingWhileBlack #CrimingWhileWhite #TamirRice #ToyGun #OfficerTimothyLoehmann #ClevelandDivisionOfPolice #Unfit #DismalHandgunPerformance #HorriblyInsensitiveFacebookPost

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #hrexachwordpress

St Louis PD Posts Horribly Insensitive Tamir Rice Facebook Post

Published on Dec 4, 2014

“The St. Louis County Police department in Fenton decided to weigh in on the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

The status message, entitled “Kids will be Kids?” was posted to the Fenton police department’s Facebook page.

We ALL are ONE!!