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Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

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Addressing the modern day lynching of black lives

Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Alton B. Sterling. Freddie Gray. Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Philando Castille. Terrence Crutcher. And the latest Stephon Clark.

There must be change–there has to be change, the police officers who have killed unarmed-innocent black men should be found guilty for second-degree murder, especially if there is sufficient evidence that shows the cops were in the wrong.

In the words of San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich, “Who gives a damn about what his intent was? You ever hear of manslaughter?”

The aforementioned names are only a small portion of the black men that have been gunned down or otherwise killed in the streets by the very people who swore under oath to protect them.

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Killed in cold-blood, but the most cold blooded part of all these situations is that nearly every one of the cops who took all these lives away, got off scot free.

The majority of these men were also unarmed.

After all, Martin remains one of the few who were considered armed…

Then again that’s only if you consider a Skittles pack, an AriZona drink, a hoodie, or a pin of Martin’s deceased cousin a deadly weapon.

In comparison to Martin, the man who stole his youth, George Zimmerman had a real deadly weapon on him, a damn gun!

It seems like every since they killed Travyon Martin cops feel like it’s okay to kill young black men.

Had Zimmerman been thrown the book, things may be a little different right now.

Although Zimmerman was not technically an officer, his 2012 murder of Martin set the precedent for what we’ve witnessed six years later.

According to California state laws, a person found guilty of second-degree murder may face up to 25 years to life if the victim of the crime was a “peace” officer.

Well what happens when a so called officer of “peace” murders an unarmed man?

In 15 of the more high-profile cases involving African American men, according to The New York Times, only one officer was sentenced.

Most people remember the infamous video of Eric Garner being choked to death as he uttered his dying words “I can’t breath,” as NYPD officers stole his last breath away.

Even with body cameras, eye-witnesses, evidence, clear signs that point to cops as murders instead of heroes, almost all still get away with murder.

All this can really start to make a person think the answer to the title of the T.V. show “How to Get Away with Murder?’ is just become a cop.

When news broke that Clark, another young black man was shot at 20 times and bullets connected eight times from two policemen, killing the 22-year-old father of two daughters, it was an all too familiar tale, one that we know may never be justified.

Clark was slain in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18 after cops mistook his cellphone for a handgun.

And yes there was video of the killing.

As previously stated, what needs to happen in order to negate all of these tragic incidents that we’ve witnessed is police being charged with second degree murder off the top.

If officers are found killing an unarmed person who clearly did not pose any threat to their lives they need to be prosecuted.

With notable killings of black men by police, Black Lives Matter, a social movement was formed in 2014.

However, a lot of people have tried to combat the Black Lives Matter protest by attempting to promote this all lives matter propaganda, which is merely a tactic to put blinders on people who are foolish enough to fall for it.

So don’t start with that bullshit about how all lives matter, no shit Sherlock, of course all lives matter.

The saying is not, ONLY black lives matter, it’s #BlackLivesMatter because black lives are the ones being unfairly taken by a broken justice system meant to protect them.

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About the Contributor
Jah-Tosh Baruti, Staff Writer
Jah-Tosh Baruti is author of the sports column titled Shmackem. Previously he was sports editor for Talon Marks. Baruti also took home an award for his sports writing at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ state conference in 2018.
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    Tracy s FaulknerApr 4, 2018 at 7:43 am

    While I agree with the article and its intent, you MUST do better grammatically to be taken seriously.

    “one of the few who were” one…was

    “It seems like every since they killed Travyon Martin cops feel like it’s okay to kill young black men.” It seems that since the death of TraYVON Marin, cops feel it’s okay to kill young black men.

    “Had Zimmerman been thrown the book”
    Had the book been thrown at Zimmerman…

    ” in order to negate all of these tragic incidents”
    This is not a grammatical issue but a word use issue: NOTHING will negate (invalidate, nullify) the issue of murder by cop. Better would be “what needs to happen to PREVENT ANOTHER of these tragic instances…”

    I commend you for the editorial view and I agree wholeheartedly. But please realize, if we are to make a difference, we MUST be taken seriously therefore we MUST write effectively.

    Keep up the good work and simply make it better!

    Sincerely,
    An old white ally.

    Reply
  • N

    Northern SentinelApr 4, 2018 at 5:54 am

    Martin attacked Zimmerman. Zimmerman defended himself,
    The jury found him not guilty by simple self-defense.
    You want to do something for your community? Stop lionizing criminals and criminal behavior.

    Fists are deadly weapons. Google, ‘deaths by a single punch’. Martin was armed with potentially deadly weapons, his fists. Unfortunately for Martin, he chose an unwise course of action that resulted in his death. Instead of using this as a cautionary tale about the consequences of illegal assaulting someone, too many have held Martin up as some sort of innocent saint and undeserving to be held to the same standard as anyone else that instigated a vicious assault.

    “There is (a) class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. … ”

    “There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”

    Booker T Washington

    Reply
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Addressing the modern day lynching of black lives