'“Florida Airman Killed in Florida Police Shooting”. Hurt but Not Shocked
It’s a never ending story that is told with different names behind a hashtag. Police kill. . . Insert another innocent black mans name here.
Free Palestine Protesters in Amsterdam
On May 3, 2024 Police went to the house of Roger Fortson. He was on facetime with his girlfriend as he answered the door with his legally registered weapon by his side. He wasn’t expecting anyone, and as is his to bear arms, he armed himself for protection keeping the gun in a safe position. As he opened the door, the police man shot him dead. Roger Fortson was a 23-yer-old active duty Senior Airman. The police, once again, had the wrong house.
So, now what? Another police man on paid administrative leave? Another “I was afraid for my life and reacted in self defense”? Another story in the long list of stories with no justice? Every time a story like this comes out, the black community cries out for justice. Justice for the murder victim, justice for the family, and justice for the black community. But we never get it. We get more stories of police brutality, we get more hashtags, more videos of black men being murdered at the hands of those supposed to protect them, but we never get justice. As a mother of two black boys myself it always traumatizes me when another hashtag appears. I imagine my child's name at the end of that hashtag, I imagine the pain, the AGONIZING pain that that mother must feel. No amount of hashtags will bring her son back. No amount of Instagram or Facebook posts will relieve her suffering. That mother has to spend the rest of her days with only the memory of her child, with the memory that her 23 year old, law abiding son was taken from her as a result of police stupidity, incompetence, and systemic racism.
Unfortunately, we are going to continue to see The murders of black people at the hands of police. We're going to continue to see it because changes aren't being made. People see the videos, the proof of cold blooded murder, and they heart the video or they share it to their stories and their life moves on. They wait for the next murder to be outraged all over again while taking no action in the meantime. No one is holding the justice system accountable. No one is screaming for systemic reform of the justice system. We simply watch and wait for the next tragic story to say “ Again? How does this keep happening? That's so sad. #NewNameNewFace”. And then we sit, and we wait and we hope that our child’s name is not behind the next hashtag.
Change has to come. It needs to come swiftly and harshly. Police need to be fired and held accountable for the lives that they're taking unjustly. The system that allows this police brutality to continue to occur needs to be held to account. The entire system as it stands now needs to be dismantled, torn apart, and rebuilt with the sole purpose of protecting innocent lives. No justice no peace! We the people.
Deb Anyaibe
