By Valiente Rook
The excessive nature of police “force” when it pertains to people of colour should not be tolerated nor should those who perpetrate it be excused. Many a time, police have gotten away with abusing their power and using excessive and lethal force when it was not required nor mandated.
There needs to be an investigation of how and why such tactics persist and how it can be combated. A community should feel safe around those charged with protecting and serving their interests. They should not live in fear of being brutalised for little to no reason.
This is not a new phenomenon; it is a repeat of a cycle that has been ongoing for years. We have to ask ourselves: why it persists? Why have the lawmakers not dealt with the inherent racist bias in policing? What will it take for black, or communities of colour to feel accepted and a part of the society that has a contract to protect them and their interests?
This is a cause that need not be tamed, nor should it be forgotten over the coming weeks and months. It needs to stay ignited, it needs to be kept in the forefront of our minds and it needs to be driven into the heads of lawmakers. There needs to be change and a stop so that we do not get a repeat of what happened to George Floyd, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Ezell Ford, Freddie Gray and to so many others who have either been hurt or killed unjustly due to aggressive and unwarranted police action.
When will this cycle end? Will all this just die down, until another case is recorded and exposed to the world? There keeps on being a repeat of the same action, happening over and over again, across the United States. There needs to be a firm, overreaching solution and there needs to be substantive change: the police need to accept accountability for their actions.