5 Things Friday
That the police murdered yet another unarmed Black man is not the news flash. Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month in 2022, making it the deadliest for police violence. That we have become complacent and almost numbed to the hashtags is the emergency.
Ok, let me try this again. I started writing this newsletter a couple days ago, and it was full of the fresh-start New Year's vibes you might expect from a white lady who just spent the last few weeks decompressing from whatever non-life--threatening stresses this past year sprinkled upon me.
Then Keenan Anderson was murdered by the LAPD. And I had to start over.
My initial email is well....embarrassing. And thank goodness I went to a dance class last night instead of wrapping it up and clicking "send." But I guess I want to share part of it with you because I imagine I am not alone in the way my once laser-sharp focus on police brutality got a little refracted—maybe even a little blurry.
Here it is: "I'm writing this during a brief break in the rain, and the startlingly clear skies and new year's fresh-start vibes have me sitting here, wide-eyed and wondering: Where are we? Because for the past few years, though disconcerting, we have known: We are in a global pandemic; we are in a racial reckoning; we are in a climate emergency...and now? To be honest, I'm a little unclear."
But Keenan's murder clears it right the fuck up. We are not only right where we started back in the days before Darnella Frazier filmed the murder of George Floyd, but we are maybe even a few steps behind that, as the predictable backlash that came from the right was followed by an even more insidious ambivalence from those of us who so proudly and passionately declared we were allies in the first place.
We need a reset.
That the police murdered yet another unarmed Black man is not the news flash. Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month in 2022, making it the deadliest for police violence. That we have become complacent and almost numbed to the hashtags is the emergency.
Monday is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, I recently reread his Letter From Birmingham Jail and suggest you do the same, There is relevance and power in almost every paragraph, but Kings' explanation of the "tragic misconception of time" felt especially poignant right now, thinking of all those months—and now years—since the summer of 2020.
"It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability."
GO TO THIS. Get back out there. If you are in LA, attend the candlelight vigil for Keenan Anderson on Saturday night (1/14/23) at 5 pm on Lincoln & Venice in Los Angeles. BLM Grassroots invites everyone to "join the family and loved ones of #KeenanAnderson as we lift his Spirit and generate the energy needed to fight for justice in his name. Keenan was a 31-year-old Black father and schoolteacher tased to death by LAPD…one of three killed at their hands this year. This is a vigil, not a protest (yet). Please wear white, bring candles, flowers, prayers, and love. God help us."
BOOKMARK THIS. The ACLU created a Community Action Manual for Fighting Police Abuse. It is long, and it is detailed. But it is something you should look over and keep at the ready.
KNOW THIS. In 2022, police across the country killed an average of more than three people a day, or nearly 100 people every month last year according to Mapping Police Violence. The non-profit research group maintains a database of reported deaths at the hands of law enforcement, including people fatally shot, beaten, restrained and Tasered.
DONATE to BLM Grassroots, which continues to fight for the end of qualified immunity for police, the disbandment of police associates, the adoption of the Breathe Act, and so much more.
SHARE THIS. Don't be quiet about Keenan's death. Read the full story here, and stay involved and alert to the fight against police brutality.