One of these days, we are gonna shoot back

Walter Wallace. Gunned down by police in West Philly, broad daylight, in front of his family. No regard.

Bystanders recorded this interaction. I presume they saw the situation unfolding and as a means of standing in solidarity to protect Walter, they decided to record the incident. Thinking in the event they needed to later prove the wrong doing of the police, they would have it documented. Walter was experiencing a mental health crisis.

When the police fired multiple fatal shots into Walter, you hear the cries from his mother. You hear the reactions of disgust and anger from those nearby who just witnessed this man lose his life right before their eyes. Shock. Most of the reactions were disoriented movements and sounds.

But what those police officers never calculate, is that in some neighborhoods there is an over abundance of gun carrying men and women. I would argue that many of those men and women are likely tired of seeing police take the lives of Black men and women and go unpunished. I would venture to guess, that one day, retribution and the issuance of the justice this unjust system won’t give us will be granted at the hands of some men and women who will shoot back.

And perhaps mysteriously, the multiple shooters, would not be captured on anyone’s footage. The crowd surrounding the event would be too many to discern where these shots came from, similar to the way they couldn’t determine whose bullets killed Breonna Taylor while she slept in her bed.

Do you realize that there are entire organizations set up, and well funded, that run commercials on our tv channels and on YouTube streaming stations to raise money for homeless and abused dogs? There are people who are so distraught by the thought of a dog on the street with no home, or a dog hurt, that they created entire entities that focus on rescuing and protecting dogs. But nothing like that for Black bodies that are slain in broad daylight by white men with badges who are paid by our tax dollars and given free reign to murder us.

We pay their paychecks.

We pay their pensions, that guarantee them and their spouse income until they die.

We pay the legal fees for all of the misconduct cases.

And we pay all of the settlement fees from cases that prove guilt and wrong doing by these officers, who continue working, getting paid, and will get their pension.

I know it is wrong to paint everyone with a broad brush and say all police are bad. But they know this is wrong too. Why aren’t these so-called “good police” loudly standing up against these so-called “bad apples” giving the entire agency a bad name? Because they will be shunned by the same people wearing badges just like them. It would require them literally putting their lives at risk, because they’d no longer have anyone to watch their back. That is a cancerous system. The only way to get rid of cancer is to cut it out.

I am tired of seeing Black mothers cry. I am more tired of seeing these videos of our Black men being gunned down while CROWDS…watch.

Even Martin got to the place where he recognized non-violence against a violent oppressor would not win. Malcolm’s movement of liberation by any means necessary, was interrupted. And any momentum that is prematurely interrupted may appear as though it has ceased. But in reality it has merely gone beneath the surface. That energy merely shifted course and beneath the suppressed surface has only been building momentum greater than what it had before the interruption. And at some point, somebody, is going to shoot back.