April 18, 2021
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
Vol. 26, Issue 12
who police the police? “Addressing Current & Historical Realties Affecting Our Community”
BLACK LIVES DON’T MATTER
By: Roy Douglas Malonson
I’m tired of seeing Benjamin Crump at the microphone. I’m tired of seeing him on television holding news conferences. Not because I don’t like or respect the man, it is because I now know that when I see the civil rights attorney, it means another Black person has been killed in either a racially-motivated incident or at the hands of police. Seeing Crump is a constant reminder that a bounty is still on our heads and BLACK LIVES STILL DON’T MATTER! If it is not clear to you yet, it should be. How in the hell is it that while, what could possibly be the trial of the decade is being held in Minnesota (the murder of Houston’s George Floyd), another police officer in the state killed an unarmed Black man. But no matter where you are from, the eyes of the world are upon the police, yet they still have no problem gunning down a Black man or woman - for no other reason - than being Black. This time, the picture looked slightly different, the crying mother standing next to Crump was not a Black woman, but she joined the ranks of the other ‘Black lives matter’ parents because her biracial son, Daunte Wright, had Black blood and in the eyes of the police, his life did not matter.
Katie Wright, the victim’s mother, described the last day she spoke to her 20-year-old son. He called to tell her he had been pulled over by the police, and she said she had no idea it would be the last time she would speak with him. She wasn’t plagued, however, with the fear Black mothers typically have when they hear the words “police” and “son,” she thought everything would be OK. “I said ‘OK, when the police officer comes back to the window, put him on the phone and I can give him all our insurance information,’” she said. “A second goes by, and I hear the police officer come back up to the window and ask Daunte to get out of the car. Daunte asked, ‘For what?’ The police officer said, ‘I’ll explain to you when you get out of the car.’” The mother said she could hear the police and her son struggling. “Then the police officer asked him to hang up the phone. Three or four seconds went by. I tried calling back to back to back because I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. Still, the mother did not think her son’s life was in danger. She thought, worst case scenario, Black Lives cont’d page 3
THEY STILL DON’T CARE By: N.L. Preston
Do you need further proof that we don’t matter? The Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times, leaving him paralyzed, is back on the job. On August 23 last year, officers responded to a 9-1-1 domestic disturbance call. When they arrived to the scene, they tried to detain Blake, who was not cooperating with them and, instead, continued to try to get inside his SUV, in which officers saw children inside. That is when Officer Rusten Sheskey shot at Blake’s back seven times when Blake opened the driver’s door of his vehicle. Three of Blake’s sons were in the backseat at Don’t Care cont’d page 6
“OUR VOTE AND OUR MONEY ARE THE TWO MOST POWERFUL THINGS WE HAVE. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU GIVE THEM TO.” - ROY DOUGLAS MALONSON