In a police state a government exercises power arbitrarily through rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political lives of its citizens. This is occurring across the country in states likes North Carolina where the newly elected governor of the state has been stripped of some political power, Louisiana where simply exercising the privileges afforded under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gets you arrested and charged with a hate crime if what’s being said is aimed at the police, and Missouri where schoolyard fights between elementary aged children now results in state felony charges being brought against the child.
These are just a few examples of a government, at any level, exercising arbitrary power through rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political lives of citizens. With that said, here are some other examples we want to be aware of so we have a better understanding of exactly what is occurring around us as we move through this time of the year focused on shopping, gift exchanges, and spending time with family.
Only in a police state could a Black woman, who reported to police that her son was choked by a White adult male, end up being arrested for yelling at a White male police officer who a) questioned her parenting, and b) asked her why the White adult male could not choke her 7 year old son.
Only in a police state could a Black daughter and sister, who is justifiably upset that her little brother was choked by a White adult male and afraid that her mother is being arrested for yelling at a White male police officer, be arrested herself and have her phone confiscated for video recording the arrest of her mother.
Only in a police state would a White male police officer not arrest a White adult male for assaulting and battering a 7 year old Black boy under the pretense that the child littered, and so therefore and somehow that alleged offense deserved a good old fashioned choking by the White adult male citizen.
Only in a police state would the largest police benevolent association, the Fraternal Order of Police, an organization reporting its membership numbers to be in excess of 325,000 people organized in 2,100 chapters or lodges across the country, lobby the incoming President of the United States to continue providing military material to local police forces and lift the federal ban on racial profiling. So the 325,000 membership of the FOP is better framed and understood, according to some sources, the United States Air Force had an active duty force of just over 305,000 Airmen in 2015.
Perhaps what should be most disturbing, we said disturbing, not surprising…if you know history, is that all of the above is happening at increased levels right here within the borders of this country going into the year 2017. Also disturbing, but not a surprise, is that only in a police state are the victims of centuries of state sanctioned police brutality and aggression against them continuing to use methods (mostly rallying, marching and praying) largely demanded of them by state sympathizers (politicians, members of the media, religious leaders, etc) to deal with state sanctioned brutality and aggression.
When existing, because we are certainly not living, in a police state with a rich and vibrant history of socially, economically, and politically institutionalized racism against a minority segment of its overall population the movement for Black lives to matter is an extreme effort of pointlessness. What should be the order of the day is a sustained effort in support of a movement to set Black people free from the imprisonment and oppression of their minds, bodies, and souls. We call this the Movement for Black Liberation!