Serve & Protect or Kill???

I'm @ work and online as usual (I guess I should be being productive, but....whatever). I just came across a story at www.concreteloop.com about ANOTHER young black brotha being murdered by the police.

According to Concreteloop:
Oscar J. Grant III, 22, was shot in the back and killed by 27-year-old Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle early on New Year’s Day. Graphic video of Grant’s death shows Mehserle shooting the unarmed Grant in the back as he lay face down while other officers restrained him.

AND

Just a day later, a police officer in Bellaire, Texas, shot Robert Tolan, the 23-year-old son of World Series Champion Bobby Tolan outside of their home.

I currently live in NY. Brooklyn Stand Up!!!!! and I hear a lot of stories about black men being murdered, assaulted, or harassed by the police. I've been very furtunate not to have experienced any of this but for a many young black brotha in my age group this is a part of their daily lives.

I know that the police have a job of serving and protecting the community. *Big up to all my good cops out there who are doing the right thing, including my big brother who is an ATL police officer* But, a lot of these cops, especially the white cops, don't give a damn about serving and protecting urban/inner city/black communities. They don't live in these communities so they don't have a vested interest in seeing the community grow and actually become safer. They come from, whereever the hell they come from, do their jobs, and leave...waiting to collect that check every 2 weeks. So that brotha on the corner or those brotha packed in their cars aren't THEIR sons, brothers, nephews, uncles, cousins, husbands, boyfriends, friends, neighbors etc...so they could give a damn about treating them with the human dignity they deserve, even if they are up to no good (which many of times ISN'T the case).

I'm sick of hearing stories about an unarmed black man being murdered, not by some crazed murderer or from an act of passion, but by the very person whose job it is to make them feel safe. And another fucked up thing about that is that these cops, who are almost always white, NEVER get punished besides a short suspension designed only to take heat off the department. I mean, whatever happened to a shop in the kneecap or in the arm or some place to stun the perpetrator. Are copy trained to aim as death zones? No seriously, if you know the answer PLEASE PLEASE tell me, I'm dying to know.

I don't know what could be done to stop this madness. I guess as long as racism lives, shit like this will continue to happen. All we can do as people, regardless of race, is to stand up to this bullshit and make it known that this will not be accepted and these cops will not go unpunished. We protest everydamn thing in this country but maybe something else needs to be done in the face of this matter.

Please feel free to offer any ideas/solutions/whatever to combat this issue.

This post is dedicated to:
Sean Bell
Amadou Diallo
Robert Tolan
Oscar J. Grant III
And any young black brotha that has been unjustly harassed, assaulted, or murdered by a police officer.

I'm Just Sayin!!!!!