IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 109

crushed. Once again, another Black male
dead at the hands of police officers.
No one took heed to the protest in
Ferguson, or New York, or other large
cities around the nation. The phrase
Black Lives Matter did not matter. No
one listened when Oscar Grant III,
Rumain Brisbon, Tamir Rice, Kajieme
Powell, Ezel Ford, Akai Gurley, Dante
Parker, Michael Brown, John Crawford
III, Tyree Woodson, Eric Garner, Victor
White III were unarmed and killed by
police officers. These are not even a fifth
of the names on the list of Black men
that
have
died
under
similar
circumstances. No one listened when 33year-old Walter L. Scott was shot in the
back while running away from the police
officer, which then planted his police
Taser beside Scott’s dead body. He
would have gotten away with murder if
someone nearby had not videotaped it.
The police officer, Michael T.
Slager, was arrested and charged with
murder (the real test is- will he be
convicted). As I watched this video of a
man shot in the back, I shook my head
and cried. As I react to any news of
Black men being killed. It never gets
old, it never becomes the norm, it’s not
normal for humans to live and treat each
other this way. Finally the world began
to listen on April 18th when hundreds of
people gathered in front of the Baltimore
Police Department in protest. Television
newscast showed hundreds of people of
all generations standing in protest, while
the police stood nearby. Every day the
number of protesters increased. You
could tell by their faces they were
frustrated and their voices became
louder, demanding to be heard. The
community, which has had a long
history of a difficult relationship with the
police force, has had enough. They are
tired of being hunted down and killed

because of the color of their skin. They
have grown tired of the police getting
away with murder. They demand that the
police are held accountable for Gray’s
death. I sat down every day to watch the
news and Baltimore was the headline,
people still marching in the streets
demanding justice. The crowd was
becoming larger and louder. On April
25th the usual ‘peaceful’ protest, turned
violent. Rocks were thrown at police and
fires were set. After Gray’s funeral the
protest continued and confrontation
between police and citizens got ugly.
Some protesters started fires, burning
local businesses, police cars; while some
rioters took part in looting. I watched the
fires and the running, and the police in
riot gear and thought, “this is my home,
this is America”. I have as much right to
live as anyone else. So why do Blacks
have to keep fighting for the right to
live? Why do the police keep killing us,
not only Black males, but many Black
females have also been victims of police
brutality. Such as Venus Green (“Bitch,
you ain’t no better than any of the other
old black bitches I have locked up,” the
police officer said to her), and Starr
Brown. (“They slammed me down on
my face,” Brown added, her voice
cracking. “The skin was gone on my
face."). Unfortunately there was no plea
for peace on their behalf. With these
stories why is it hard for America to
understand how we feel when we are
treated as if we were less than a human
being? White people (and some Blacks)
do not get it, why Blacks were setting
stores in their own community on fire
and looting. They do not live our
frustration. The media showed the
burning buildings, the burning police
cars and the streets filled with litter.
Baltimore’s Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake, a Black woman, called in 2,000

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