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Blinder
Justice
How Columbus Georgia Can
Lead the Way for America in the Matter of Racial Profiling
with Officers of the
Law and Their Tricky Trigger Fingers
By
S Renee Greene December 2003. Yet another unarmed black man
is shot by a sheriff’s deputy with a ‘tricky trigger
finger’ excuse and the debate rages on about whether or not
the gun would have been in the officer’s hand at all “had it
been a car full of young white men.”
Ever since the incident of that pre-Christmas
night, the supporters of Officer David Glisson have been calling
for “healing” and “peace” in the small west Georgia
community. Healing and peace in times like these can be trying,
even after all the information and facts are released. What
happened before the facts were released is a matter for America
to take a long hard look at and ask what is the binding lesson
that the entire nation can learn about racial profiling and how
it affects the greater common good.
Several conclusions were foregone before all
the facts of this one unnecessary killing were in place:
1) Racial
profiling is a sad fact in the United States of America.
2) There are
far too many incidences of this nature that seem to be peculiar
to minorities, particularly young Black men.
3) Police
officers and deputies are consistently viewed as the
“victims” in these circumstances and are allowed to walk
away as if the life of the beaten and/or deceased victim was of
non-significance.
4) It is the
open-ended opinion of many whites that “black males are the
root cause of the vast majority of crimes in America,”
therefore, the other three foregone conclusions are
nationalistically justified.
Living as a spiritually believing Afrimerican
leaves room for even deeper questions, such as “How do I as a
citizen, and as a believer in the righteousness of God react or
respond when things like this happen?” and “How can this
kind of killing by officers sworn to uphold the law and who
consistently break it help shine a light on a clouded road
toward healing and reconciliation in an
already-racially-polarized America?”
The answer lies in the life, times, and death
of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus had committed no crime worthy of
death, yet He was killed, murdered like a common criminal on a
cross, for being who He was simply because his accusers didn’t
believe it when He told them who He was and why He was there.
Enraged for what they believed to be crimes against the king and
the sensibilities of reigning leadership, He was labeled a
“suspect” and given a bogus trial date and time at off-hours
because “the crowd,” (the public) for the most part, had
already decided what was to become of Him.
Maybe the Lord Jehovah God is finally sick
and tired of the events and the complacency of the American
justice system in these matters, and has set forth the exemplary
life of one Kenneth B Walker – indicted, tried, convicted, and
sentenced to death by the fell shot of one police officer – to
lead the way to justice across the nation. Kenneth B Walker’s
voice cries to us from the dust of the ground to which he
returned after living one socially responsible life and having
it taken away from him in a moment of conclusion-jumping that
should never have happened. His murderer remains ‘at-large’
with the legal permission of the county of Muscogee in the west
center of the state of Georgia. The work cannot be left undone.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel,
your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my
brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The
voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the
ground” (Genesis 4:9-10). In an encouragement of faith and a
call to action, it can be noted that the deepening chasm of
racial polarization in America can be resolved only one way:
Through true justice, God’s way; especially once it becomes
clear that the “law of the land,” man’s way, does not
always work as it should.
posted 29 December 2005 |
