#MinimumMandatorySentences – Fighting Racism Workshop

Through the years I’ve read many stories about people of color shot by the police. I have even read stories of kids and even babies shot by the police. The media reports these stories, but they rarely ask the hard questions that need to be asked and sometimes the media has even resort to vilifying the person murdered.

Children are just that. They are kids, with a lot to learn, they are growing up, learning one day at a time. Some kids depending on their social standing/class or ethnic background can afford to make mistakes, and they can learn from them, and those around them will see those mistakes as just a part of their life, it was a stage they went through, or just a stupid idea or action, but for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) the mistake they make can seriously jeopardize their future, or even cost them their lives.

When I read about police shootings of BIPOC, especially children, it breaks my heart, and I do not understand “What kind of a world, would allow this to continue to happen?” In what kind of world do we have to fear those (supposedly) entrusted to protect us?

When I read about wars and how the majority of the casualties are women and children, and when I read about drone attacks killing civilians it destroys me. When I read about children being arrested or even shot, by police or soldiers anywhere in the world, I just cannot understand it. How could you do that to a child? What threat was that child to you? I do not understand this, these are children, and no child deserves evil. The world must push their so-called leaders to end all violence against children immediately.

No Margin For Error

Before the media or society stigmatizes BIPOC children or young men, because of the choices they make when they are not fully mature; They must first look in the mirror. These kids are growing up in the society you made for them. They watch your racist and violent television shows, and films. Programming that “glorifies violence and fast money.” They go to your racist schools that teach them nothing about their people, and instead omit information as to the true history of the United States. The kids hear the popular music on the radio, and it is not all uplifting. There is no “Conscious Rap” for the young kids to listen to on the radio. Usually the type of music that gets radio play is the type that glorifies the dollar and turns women into objects. If the kids turn on the news or reads the newspaper, all they see is violence.

The U.S. is involved in endless wars against BIPOC, and one has to wonder if to these children it must seem, “hey look at the country, they just go and find something they like or they need, and they go and take it by force.” Ask yourself “What are you teaching them as a society?”

For these kids growing up today in an incredibly xenophobic world. All these kids see is violence all around them. For kids in many western countries (countries built on the genocide of the indigenous people, or countries that benefitted from the genocide,exploitation, and theft of BIPOC and continue to do so) these kids are watching their people being abused and attacked.

For kids growing up in the U.S., especially in the inner city add generations of Redlining, and underfunded neighborhoods, over policing, a School to Prison Pipeline, and easy access to guns and drugs, and you do not need a crystal ball to see that these kids are growing up in a trap.

Ask Yourself

How many hours do these kids parent or parents have to work to pay the rent? Why must their parents work sometimes two jobs just to barely get by? Why is housing so expensive and why can’t the average person afford to get by working 40 hours a week?

Why does the media not talk about the Prison Industrial Complex? Is there a business motive to over policing and incarcerating BIPOC people? Why does the media not mention the history of groups like the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, the Brown Berets, the Young Lords? What changes did those groups bring to their communities?

Why have they militarized police? Who benefits? Is this their new form of Eugenics to purposely incarcerate so many BIPOC males on “Minimum Mandatory Sentences” so that they don’t reproduce? Why do police beat peaceful demonstrators? Why are police given immediate immunity from prosecution, are they going in expecting to shoot someone? Would a waiter be given immunity from prosectution if he took a life while on duty, why is it different?

We need to rethink policing, and we must push for a better world for the kids of today and the kids of tomorrow. All kids should grow up with the same opportunities to succeed and not have to fear police officers or soldiers.

R.I.P. George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Stephon Clark, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery Philando Castile, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Richard Trejo, and the thousands that have been killed by police.

Learn More:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/massive-peaceful-protests-us-demand-police-reform-71117694

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/mar/23/police-terrorism-protest-g20-law

https://abcnews.go.com/US/buffalo-police-officers-arrested-shoving-75-year-protester/story?id=71106787

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/04/us/ahmaud-arbery-jogging-georgia-shooting/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/death-sandra-bland-what-we-know-so-far-n396036

https://time.com/5642648/eric-garner-death-daniel-pantaleo-suspended/

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/trayvon-martin

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/newly-released-interview-footage-reveal-shifting-stories-officers-who-shot-n751401

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/24/detained-us-largest-immigrant-detention-trump

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48375144