All you must do is turn on the television and you will see a video of yet another victim of police brutality. It has become the heartbreaking reality of our era. Month after month, case after case. Why does it happen? Where does it stop? When does it stop?
Police brutality
Overwhelmed with questions for which we have no answers. We are distraught at the realization that what we see in front of us, the most powerful evidence of all, does not seem to matter- because it is only a matter of time before it happens again and again, and while the perpetrators may sometimes be brought to justice, a life is already gone; someone is gone too soon, and we cannot bring them back.
What is more, the perpetrators in these cases are the very people who are supposed to keep us safe, those tasked to protect the communities they serve, eroding our society’s trust in the state, in the government and questioning the limitations of our constitutional protections.
Incidents of police brutality happen all around the country. Not all of them make it on primetime television. Still, every single one is important because at the very core of each case is the violation of our most basic constitutional rights.
Abuse of power
Even though there are people in every profession, police included, who abuse their positions of authority, whether it is because they are addicted to power and control, suffer from mental illness or simply lack what it takes to do what they were hired to do, to whom we grant power is ultimately on us.
These cases extend beyond the comprehensible, seem to ignore the unacceptable, and hurt us all. In the end, it is not only about those who suffer at the hands of those who crush as many hearts as they erode our trust in law enforcement, but most urgently about the future and about whether we really are going forward in time. Right now, it seems like we are walking into the past.