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| No one believed Chad Holley when he told them that Houston police brutalized him during his arrest because the cops, of course, denied it. But then the video surfaced. |
This is a disturbing but regular occurrence.
The video below captures police officers in Houston brutally beating unarmed, compliant 16-year-old Chad Holley (whose hands are folded behind his head in the surrender position). Holley followed the rules that all black people must follow when encountered by the police and that did not save him. Because the nature of police brutality has not changed. It is not enough to be submissive. The blackness of one's skin is the signal for a sacrifice to those unblinking blue godlings whose bloodlust knows no bounds.
I am going to make a prediction.
After reviewing the video and listening to the testimony of everyone involved, the jury is going to find the police officers not guilty of what the evidence clearly shows they are guilty of.
And I am going to venture at why that might be.
America is a place where what is unspoken is the rule. And what is unspeakable here is that the sole task of law enforcement is to protect white people from the Other--especially people of color--by any means necessary. And their success is measured, wholly, on the basis of the Other's torture, captivity, or death.
And the race of the officer is irrelevant. It is as James Baldwin said:
We did not feel that the cops were protecting us, for we knew too much about the reasons for the kinds of crimes committed in the ghetto; but we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder--on your head--to prove to himself and his colleagues that he was not like all the other niggers.
Be horrified by the video. And then decide whether you are going to be complacent or outraged.