In the soot
I found my footing.
The black eye given
where a white knee
killed a black man.
The man wounded
not the knee.
Twenty bucks
alleged counterfeit,
‘thorough policing’
put a death sentence
on George Floyd
for a false bill.
That’s how hoodlums
find out
where mr. Floyd
got the banknote.
And no, they don’t,
cause George died.
I’m abhorred still
by the images,
but also by the stupidity,
apparent rage
and prejudice
with which
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these four officers
operate.
That’s in plain sight
what they learned
in police school.
That’s where the
racial profiling
needs to end.
That’s where force
needs to be exchanged
for investigative empathy.
The scale on which
law enforcement coerces
has for long been
out of balance.
Their duty is to protect
and serve,
my answer;
start doing so.
Born in a pink skin I’m considered white, therefore I have no illusions I can fully comprehend or imagine what our sisters and brothers with different complexion have gone through and still undergo.
Being married to Camille, as her husband and friend I am and have been a witness in the sometimes veiled, other times blatant and systemic prejudice, with which people seem to need to surround themselves. They might even be the ones from whom I least expected such attitudes. Attitudes based on fear of other human beings because they look different!?
Indeed exclamation and question marks are in place there…
The question is, when do we ever learn? There is one human race, our genetic differences are much less significant than all the hate mongers together ever thought possible. Their (the them who spread hate) theories of eugenic supremacy all debunked to the last letter.
Can we now please come to the point of Love? Even in policing?
Can we now finally cross the border to that land where all are considered equal? Even in policing?
Can we now finally come to a police in which responsibility is a true motto? Responsibility instead of brute force. Are we finally able to see investigative empathy at work? Maybe it will even increase the solved case rate.
So these words are for all those names who suffered a penalty before ever being convicted, and to those who have been convicted falsely.
I hope you will consider my words sincere.
