When Least Expected™

Big Daddy Blue, Parts I & II

January 20th, 2007 at 10:28pm Manchild

On day 20 of 2007, the inexplicable shooting of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly, 92-year old Black woman killed by undercover police officers executing a “no knock warrant” in Atlanta, Georgia, reminded me that social injustice anywhere is still a very clear and present danger to justice everywhere. It’s also just as true today as it was yesterday that a lie will never outlive the truth. Maybe now, somebody with the power and authority to tear down the infamous “blue wall of silence” once and for all will listen to our cries for justice before another grandmother tries to protect her home and ”dies for nothing.” Never again must the darkside of Big Daddy Blue be allowed to erect what has long been an unethical, albeit legally acceptable, obstruction to social justice in order to protect the illicit activities of the complicit police officers who perpetrate the unchecked hate they hide deep inside the heart of their soul under color of law as they patrol inner-city neighborhoods. Enough Is Enough!!

Oh. Please don’t get it twisted. As evidenced by the ending of today’s poetic essay, this is not a sweeping indictment of “all” police officers who dress up in blue since my sister and brother-in-law are both police detectives in another city. Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with each of our teammates and every police officer who hates “racial profiling” and the collateral damage of social injustice by honoring their duty sworn promise to protect and serve all God’s people matters not the colour of that great person’s beautiful skin.

BIG DADDY BLUE PARTS I & II

My God, that could’ve been you Big Daddy Blue kept beating while lying face down on the ground with no help in sight.  Can it be that all those pugnacious police dressed down in blue would’ve also accused you of “resisting arrest” had you fought back that night? But isn’t fight or flight behavior just a normal, self-protective human reaction to flee a clear and present danger once our adrenaline begins to rise? Big Daddy Blue is just a metaphor to symbolize the darkside of humanity that’s often protected by the violence of the blue wall of silence or some clever, unethical accomplice wearing a judicial disguise.

Community outrage on one side motivated the powers that be to employ the damage control tactics they escalated as Big Daddy Blue walked on egg shells and talked about erecting the blue wall police officers slid behind to keep protecting each other. Nevertheless, Big Daddy Blue was finally caught out of control under color of law, while viciously beating up on an unarmed brother. Exposed by a video, Big Daddy Blue finally knew how it felt to have no safe place to hide, as all the right people watched in utter disbelief the brutal images a white bystander recorded that night. Thank God white community law enforcement officials finally saw Big Daddy Blue’s unlawful, incriminating behavior once the truth got exposed by a “ghetto bird’s” illuminating spotlight.

Black and Brown people will continue to take a bold and courageous non-violent stand against the violence of Big Daddy Blue’s unethical code of silence because the police brutality the whole world saw perpetrated under color of law must always be controlled. Since “we’re not normal,” is this the type of excessive force that will replace the outlawed choke hold? Big Daddy Blue, if Rodney King’s beating was nothing more than a so-called “aberration” as alleged by the police chief, can the victimized and traumatized children who fear you expect this vicious beating to be the last? It makes a middle class white person who doesn’t live in South Central L.A. wonder just how often such inhumane treatment has occurred in the dark annals of Big Daddy’s past.

No wonder a little child cries out, “Big Daddy Blue is coming! Black man, if you wanna live, you’d better run for you life!” Instead of joy, peace and tranquility filling our hearts, killing actually innocent Black men and women produces the rage that permeates the air so swiftly as social injustice keeps cutting up justice with a jagged knife. Big Daddy Blue, how would you explain to a little child why Black and Brown people are still racially profiled and prejudged by the skin covering their hand?  Since our generation is much stronger and wiser than the last, it is no longer optional that Big Daddy Blue treat Black and Brown people with dignity and respect because it is now a written formal demand!

Before closing, galvanized Black and Brown people realized that we failed to acknowledge all those police officers who chose to keep their promise to protect and serve all God’s people that don’t deserve our angry flak. It’s difficult to separate the good cops from the bad cops who hate Black and Brown people after watching the darkside of Big Daddy Blue try to use a lie to justify such a brutally vicious attack. The community activists and civil rights leaders must have the presence of mind to thank those kind and courteous police officers who never go astray and honestly endeavor to also protect and serve the poor. Besides, none of us wants to rob any police officer of the just due good cops deserve since the unenviable task we often ask you to do can be a thankless job that takes courage and copious quantities of nerve since only God knows what danger awaits you behind every closed door.

Black and Brown people will exercise our free will to respect and salute those police officers, who treat poor people fairly, equally and bravely, as they take a gunshot in the chest nobody hopes will pierce their bullet proof vest just to make it safe again for little children to walk the street. For reasons now known, grown folk with gray hair will pray everyday that God will protect your precious souls against unforeseen dangers, as you courageously take the heat from the bad guys and patrol your beat. Hopefully this wasn’t the first heart-felt “thank you” good police officers like you will hear for your sincere efforts to protect us, even when tempers flair and it appears that nobody cares as your patience runs thin. Native Americans will be quick to tell anybody wise enough to listen that one must never prejudge another person unless and until they have walked a mile in their moccasins.

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