Between the Lives of Eric Garner and a Cat.

This is surely not the best of times to be a cop, especially a white cop, in the United States of America. The whole nation is still reeling from the shock and the ensuing riots arising from the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, by a white cop in Ferguson. And now, this killing of Eric Garner, another unarmed black man in New York!

As a daily, heavily-armed law enforcement officer, the use of a deadly force will always be my last resort. One can therefore wonder why any cop will readily resort to the use of a deadly force at the slightest threat to their ego or feeling instead of life. By the way, whatever happens to the use of Tasers or cap stun? Must cops always go for the kill over every incident without first assessing the supposed threats? And, in the case of Eric Garner, when it became apparent that the hapless man was choking for breath, why did the cops not bother to apply a CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)?

It was not long ago that a Brooklyn man was hunted down until he was arrested by the police for kicking a cat. The invectives and racist comments that were directed at the guy was extremely intense. In a bid to appease those people as they cried and condemned the man, the Brooklyn district attorney hurriedly proceeded with plans to prosecute the cat-kicking guy for animal cruelty. The message of that incident to the world at large was simply this: In the United States, the life of a cat is sacrosanct, something you don’t want to mess with.

Since that incident though, two black men and a 12-year-old black kid have been murdered in cold blood by police officers who did not exercise due diligence while performing their duties. Sadly, the affected cops have since been declared blameless by the grand juries set up to look into the two separate incidents. The cops and members of the two separate grand juries may be beating their chests proudly for jobs well-done. But unwittingly, they have sent a combined message to the outside world that: In God’s own country, the life of a black man is worthless, not even worth a dime when compared to the life of a cat.

http://youtu.be/g-xHqf1BVE4