Janus Justice

Madame and Readers:

It’s hard for things to get traction during the holiday season, but maybe, MAYBE the outrage over the lack of indictment in the Eric Garner case might be the thing to do it.

If white denialism can be overcome.

Because the man who filmed Eric Garner’s extrajudicial execution on camera, who with it recorded the 11 times he gasped out “I can’t breathe,” was indicted by the local prosecutor on trumped up relatively minor charges.  The grand jury in that instance found probable cause to indict based almost solely on the testimony of two police officers.

But a grand jury couldn’t find probable cause to indict the officer who performed the prohibited, murderous choke hold that would kill Eric Garner, even though it was entirely on video for anyone to see.

And still too many whites want to say Garner shouldn’t have, quote, “resisted arrest,” when it was obvious the only thing he might have “resisted” (feebly) was being choked to death by a cowardly and arrogant cop while the cop’s fellows joined in.

All for a “crime” that would be pathetically laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.

And Tamir Rice, 12 years old, was in a park with a bb gun, and someone called the police to say that they were nervous that he was in the park with a toy gun.  So even though the police knew it wasn’t real, they only gave the boy 2 seconds to comply with their hastily shouted commands as they burst on the scene—and then shot him dead.

The Washington Post had an article that included this telling reminder of how much safer things are for whites when police confront them: "Under the Twitter hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite, white people have been relating their stories of doing things like speeding, being drunk in public, mouthing off to cops, and even more serious acts, all of which got them sent home by friendly and accommodating officers, when black people doing the same things would have likely been treated much more harshly."

The Post tries to convey white privilege to those who are so embedded in it they cannot see the forest they live in:  "Your privilege lies in the absence of mistreatment, which is easy to ignore since it just feels like the way everyone should be able to proceed through their life."

Even a number of conservatives are beginning to realize that if we continue to have a justice system for one group, and arbitrary oppression and death for another, we won’t be ourselves anymore, that we will be only like the murderous police-states we have so harshly condemned.

For it is not just what oppression does to the oppressed, but what it does to the oppressor.