EDITOR’S NOTE: Nebraska’s legislature voted yesterday to override Governor Ricketts veto and abolish the death penalty. Sen. Ernie Chambers, who sponsored the abolition bill, said, “We are talking about human dignity.” As an acknowledgment of the dignity of all people–including those condemned to death–today’s post is from a death row inmate in a state that has not yet renounced capital punishment.
News item: thousands of angry, black youth are engaged in combat with police forces who are dressed in military gear, armed with specialized military-style weaponry. How does the headline read (over and over again): “thugs” are “rioting.” No need to read further. No need to ask why these young people are fed up with police brutality and harassment. No need to ask what it feels like to watch the police murder your unarmed brethren.
You can dismiss this story before you’ve heard it.
Contrast coverage of the Black Lives Matter uprisings with this news item: one hundred and seventy plus, mostly white, outlaw bikers get into a fight at a public restaurant for an annual meeting that law enforcement had foreknowledge of—a fight that included five different gangs and resulted in nine deaths. I can’t remember the count of the injured from this melee.
One hundred and seventy bikers arrested.
One hundred and seventy million dollars worth of bail bonds.
Their chaos is termed “organized” crime.
The media reported on this Outlaw biker “gang” fight which consisted of “five different” “gangs” for two days. Meanwhile, they reported on the peace truce of Baltimore city “Black youth gangs” where they all united with their flags tied together in a rope, vowing to hold peace and work together to change their community—five seconds.
Black youth who are angry because police are killing them are “thugs.”
White men who can’t come to peace on their own, but fight and kill themselves are called “organized.”
White gang war gets two days of coverage.
Black gang peace gets five seconds of coverage.
Do you think Black Lives Matter?