by J. Pharoah Doss
For New Pittsburgh Courier
On August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, a Black teenager, was fatally shot by a White police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and riots erupted for a week. On August 15 Michael Brown’s family expressed they didn’t want any violence, but the following day, due to looting the night before, a state of emergency was declared.
That November the grand jury didn’t indict the officer that killed Michael Brown. NBC reported, “Violence, looting, fires and gunshots erupted.” Again, the Brown family asked for protesters to remain peaceful.
In March 2015, Ferguson’s police chief resigned due to public pressure, but hours later two Ferguson police officers were shot. The Brown family issued an “anti-violence statement” condemning the shooting and rejecting all violence aimed at law enforcement. The Brown family, specifically, denounced the actions of “stand-alone agitators” who unsuccessfully attempted to derail the otherwise peaceful and non-violent Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality.
One month later, April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, was arrested by the Baltimore police and died on April 19 due to injuries he sustained while being transported in a police van. The momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement carried over to Baltimore, but on April 27, after Freddie Gray’s funeral, rioting and looting broke out.
Freddie Gray’s mother went on TV and pleaded for the rioters to stop. She said, “I want you all to get justice for my son, but don’t do it like this. Don’t tear up the whole city just for him. That’s wrong.” Freddie Gray’s step-father added the entire family was “really appalled” to watch Freddie Gray’s funeral “transform into violence and destruction”.
(A video went viral of a Black mother preventing her son from looting by giving him a public “whooping”, but certain Black writers were angered by the praise this Baltimore mother received, because she was tragically teaching her son not to resist White supremacy.)
On July 5, 2016 Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a White police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The next day, July 6, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a Latino police officer in Saint Paul, Minnesota. These police shootings launched Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country. Unfortunately, the next day, July 7, five police officers were killed during one of these demonstrations in Dallas, Texas.
In Saint Paul, a riot broke out, but Saint Paul’s police representative stated the violence was neither endorsed nor led by the local arm of the larger social protest movement Black Lives Matter. Castile’s mother told reporters, “When demonstrations become violent, it disrespects my son’s memory. Philando was a man of dignity and peace. Please, I ask you to at all times remain peaceful in your expressions of concerns regarding his death.” In Baton Rouge a weeklong protest turned violent and over 200 protesters were arrested. Then on July 17, three Baton Rouge police officers were shot and killed. Sterling’s aunt said, “We don’t call for no bloodshed, that’s how all this started, we don’t want no more bloodshed.”
On May 25, 2020 George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This time protest and riots broke out nationwide and around the world. However, George Floyd’s brother told the rioters, “If his own family and blood are trying to deal with it and be positive about it, and go another route to seek justice, then why are you out here tearing up your community?”
(But if anyone listened closely, a lot of activists indirectly said they weren’t marching for George Floyd, they were marching because it was an opportunity to make demands on “the system”.)
Finally, on October 26, 2020, Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by the police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rioting and looting broke out immediately and thirty police officers were injured. Days later the governor called in the National Guard. Wallace Jr.’s father condemned the looting. He said, “They’re not helping my family, they’re showing disrespect. Stop this violence and chaos.”
Maybe, this mural in words should be renamed: Black familial pleas for peace haven’t mattered yet.
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