Friday, December 26, 2014

We need to keep both Police and Black Men alive in this country

If we can't then likely many more of both aren't going to be alive. Though I have also written that a big part of this is historical and has to do with 10% of the people controlling 90% of the wealth. And that if you have this ratio or worse it likely won't be safe to be a police officer in any country with this ratio for a variety of provable historic reasons,  Still, if we can't find a way to keep more black men and more police officers alive then it is logical that many more of both are going to die.

Do you see my logic?

The way this likely could be done is first to see there is a real problem rather than pretending there isn't one. The second thing that would have to happen is more communication between black communities and the police watching over those areas. Otherwise, if police don't feel safe going into some neighborhoods, they won't unless they have 10 police cars going in with guns blazing like it was during the 1950s and before.

I would like to share with you how very far we have come. I grew up in Glendale, California where at that time it was all white and some hispanic at that time. But, no black people lived in Glendale then at all that I know of.

My father was an Electrical Contractor and moved to Glendale because his sister who was a college Graduate had told him that Glendale had the best public schools in Los Angeles County at that time. So, my cousin and myself got the best public school education available at that time in Los Angeles County.

One day when I was 12 years old I went that summer to a job near USC. This would be 1960. We were wiring up a nunnery for the Catholic Church I believe. It could also have been a Catholic School where nuns were in charge.

Anyway, I was 12. What did I know then? Then kids across the street that were black started throwing rocks at me. I didn't want to get hit so I watched the rocks and ducked. However, I knew I was out of my turf and culture so I didn't throw any rocks back. I sensed this was a very dangerous situation. I went in and asked my father what to do. He said, "Don't throw rocks back or people will die here today. We don't want that."

So, I did as he ordered me like a soldier and went out and ducked the oncoming fuselade of rocks that were by now bouncing off the utility Electrical truck. The rocks were smaller so even though I was hit by some of them while gathering electrical parts from the truck it didn't hurt much and I didn't bleed from those hits. I mostly worried about the rocks breaking a window in the truck because several hit the back window of the utility truck. We finished our work there. The rocks came continually for about an hour or two and then some parents came home and it stopped before we left.

But, what I'm getting at here is in 1960 we couldn't even call the police or complain this was happening or people were going to die that day. So, what I'm saying to you here how much has changed in a good way since then.

We've come a long way from then but we have a long long way to go to actual equality in all situations. This is why likely we are going to see demonstrations until things change more here in the U.S. and less black people are dying at the hands of police.

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