Like so many others I sat in front of my tv at 7:00pm EST tonight to watch the videos released by the Memphis Police Department. Earlier I watched an interview with Tyre Nichols’ mom. I had watched in horror as she cried about not being able to be there for him as he cried out for her.
I knew the video would be graphic. I thought I was prepared. I was wrong. I was not prepared to watch a man get repeatedly punched, kicked, hit with a baton. I was not prepared to watch police officers stand around for over 20 minutes without rendering aid. I was not prepared to watch one officer complaining about the leg he injured as he was kicking an unarmed man. I was not prepared. I was not prepared.
So now I sit with tears trying to understand. I am a mom to 2 amazing and beautiful black children. I have so many other black and brown children in my life – relatives, kids of people I love, kids I love as if they are my own. How do we not live in fear for what can happen to them – at the hands of the very people who have sworn to protect them?
It is exhausting! I know I speak for many black and brown parents in the US to say we are so tired. Tired of having to teach our children to fear the police – regardless of the race of the cops. Tired of crying watching these videos while silently breathing a sigh of relief that our own kids are safe. Tired of fearing when the next video will emerge. Tired of all the people who will say “Well if he has listened this wouldn’t have happened”. Tired.
Police are not supposed to be judge, jury, and executioner. They are supposed to be trained professionals but yet a traffic stop ends in the brutal death of an unarmed man. When did we stop seeing other people as humans? How many more videos? How many more crying moms? How many more hashtags? How many more before we finally address the systemic brutality that is so freely meted out by police officers on black and brown people – especially boys and men?
A traffic stop. This was a traffic stop.
