|
| |
 Acquitted
Acquitted!! Waking from my dream only to enter a living
nightmare I attempted to fully understand the voices on the radio. Vaguely
I made out that the commentator was discussing the fate of the three officers
involved in the torture and sodomy of Abner Louima. The fullness of the
moment did not materialize until my phone rang and a familiar voice filled the
room with a conciliatory tone. "I am sorry son. You boys worked
so hard." Too immobilize to pick up the phone, I let the answer
machine continue to play and mother’s voice stated "Dry your eyes my
child you can only give it your best." It was not until I heard those
words that I realized that my inability to see clearly had nothing to do with
the last vestiges of sleep wearing off. The tears that are associated with
tasting a bitter reality had temporally clouded my sight. Acquittals!
No matter who and what we become our mothers know all of the
demons that haunt our character. They emotionally hold their stomachs
whenever an event takes place that will impact on their childs' psychic.
It is clear to them that the acquittal of two of the officers
involved in the torture of Abner Louima has far reaching implications for
African-American men. The trial outcome cannot be viewed in a vacuum.
It is the most recent example of a long list of cases that re-enforces the
belief that America's criminal justice system is reluctant to prosecute those in
law enforcement that abuse Black men. Far too often our mothers have
watched men in Black robes creatively navigate the criminal justice system to
set these men free. The names and faces may change, but the results are the
same, acquittals. To make matters worse many governmental/judicial
officials want our community to believe that we should accept the outcome
without any form of protest.
Their desired form of hopelessness has become pervasive in our community. The
worst thing I heard after the verdict was a young man state, "well what did
we expect?". His question is an indication of how severe the moment
is. Without realizing it we have allowed our young to adjust to being
mistreated. It is our duty to instill in them a maladjusted personality
that will not allow them to ever adjust to being wrongly treated. They
must never conform to the belief that normality equates to someone abusing them
with impunity. This can only be done by making it clear to this city and
nation that it is not okay to shoot black men in the doorways of their homes and
then allow the shooters to continue being police officers. Additionally we
must raise our voices to be heard that it is not acceptable for black boys to be
shot while holding the ubiquitous non-threatening shiny objects in their hands
as in the recent case of Whitfield in Carnarsie Brooklyn and the historical case
of Clifford Glover in South Jamaica, Queens.
The challenge that remains in front of us is straightening out the question mark
at the end of the sentence, "What did we expect" and to reshape the
minds of our young people to say "We expect!" Our expectation
must be high and forthright. We expect elected officials not to use tax
payers resources to hold fund-raisers for convicted felons as Staten Island
Borough president Guy Molanari did for Charles Schwartz. Our expectation
should also include that prosecutors do their jobs and not abandon their
responsibility such as District Attorney Morgantheau did in the Patrick
Dorismond case when he failed to obtain an indictment. We should demand
that the daily tabloids correctly report the news and not distort the facts as
many did during the outcome of the 70th precinct trial.
And lastly it is our responsibility to expect each other to seek out truth.
A cursory examination of the facts in the Abner Louima torture case will
bring one to realize that the judges’ decision was a travesty of justice.
Despite what some New Yorkers want you to believe, these men are not the
poster boys for the wrongly accused. They are in fact symbols for all that
is wrong with our criminal justice system. Black mothers know this all to
well.
3/28/02
To post your comments
on the discussion board click on the notepad. 
TOP
OF PAGE
|
