"When it came to treating her citizens of African
descent fairly, America failed… The government put them outside the equal
protection of the law… and locked them into positions of hopelessness and
helplessness. The government… wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no.
Not God bless America, God damn America! That's in the Bible for killing
innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human!
The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of
African descent. Think about this… think about this.”
-- Reverend Jeremiah Wright, 4/13/03
"The testimony just didn't make sense… Accordingly, the
court finds each defendant not guilty of each of the respective counts in the
indictment of which they were charged.”
-- Judge Arthur Cooperman, 4/25/08
About
a hundred years ago, WEB Du Bois predicted that the question of the color line
would be the defining problem of the 20th century. In spite of Martin Luther
King’s elusive dream of the day when Black Americans would be judged not by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character, it appears that it
is destined to remain the incendiary issue of the this century as well.
Earlier
this year, even a suddenly-introspective Condoleezza Rice referred to slavery
as the country’s original sin, lamenting, ”What I would like understood as a
Black American is that Black Americans loved and had faith in this country even
when this country didn't love and have faith in them — and that's our legacy."
And now the not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case is a
clear indication that African Americans are still considered second-class
citizens in the eyes of the criminal justice system.
How
else can you explain the rationalization by Judge Arthur Cooperman that five undercover
NYPD detectives were legally justified in pumping 50 bullets into an unarmed Sean
Bell on the night before his wedding? Although the Black community had
understandably been outraged back in November of 2006 upon learning of the
tragedy, patience prevailed as it opted to abide by the Queens District
Attorney’s Office assurances that justice would eventually be served.
It
is for this reason that I find Judge Cooperman’s rewarding that trust by
handing down such an insulting decision so dismaying. He totally exonerated the
police of all eight counts in the indictment while simultaneously ridiculing the
prosecution’s case and eyewitnesses as if they were a joke. This amounts to a
slap in the face of the community.
I am very familiar with South Jamaica, the middle class neighborhood
where the incident occurred, for I was born and raised there. And my mother
still lives there with one of my brothers and his family, as do many of my
cousins and other relatives and childhood friends.
The tone of Cooperman’s remarks would never have been so
insensitive if the same cops had unleashed a hail of bullets on an innocent,
defenseless white man. Many are asking, how is it that such trigger-happy
policing of African-American communities can continue to be rubber-stamped by
the bench as if there is a much lower threshold for state-sanctioned use of
deadly force against blacks than against whites?
Neither this incident nor its resolution is without
precedent. All I have to do is mention the name of Amadou Diallo to trigger
thoughts of the country’s disgraceful legacy of dispensing vigilante justice to
Blacks, from the whippings and brandings doled out during days of slavery through
the 100 years of lynching post emancipation clear up to present-day police intimidation
tactics like racial profiling which inexorably lead to unfortunate deaths like
that of Sean Bell.
So,
the next time the mainstream media replays its favorite sound bite of Reverend
Jeremiah Wright fuming, “God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God bless America,
God damn America!” just remember that he’s merely ministering to a beleaguered people
with whom that message has been readily resonating for ages.
Editor’s note: Lloyd Kam Williams is an attorney and a member
of the NJ, NY, CT, PA, MA & US Supreme Court bars.
