Last week in a press conference, this mayor made this remark:
“We collectively have a choice of whether we'll be those who heal or whether we'll continue being the killers,”
This week, in response to a question about whether or not he regrets using the word “killers” in relation to police officers, the mayor said that he would not take his statement back and will not have his words be "distorted and picked out with tweezers and put out of context." The mayor said he was not referring to LAPD officers.
"When I talked about killers, I said .... we collectively have a choice of whether we will be those who heal, or whether we will continue being the killers," he explained. "That is what I said. And I absolutely did not say that about the League of Police Officers and I won't have those words distorted.”
In a sound bite today on Los Angeles talk radio station KFI 640 AM, Garcetti went on to say that he was including all members of society as being those who kill these victims, either by inaction or lack of involvement in communities. I am paraphrasing his words because I just heard it moments ago and do not have it verbatim, nor is a written rendition yet available.
My question is this: doesn’t that stance plainly blame not only the victims of the murders, but also blames the surviving family members, every innocent person who had no hand in any murder, every person who has already been active in reversing the epidemic of police violence against unarmed and non-combative minorities?
I know that THE person who commits the murder is directly responsible. Trying to rope everyone else in society into it is pandering. I’m sure the mother of every victim outright murdered by police doesn’t think she is responsible . . .
When an innocent and unarmed person who is not presenting any type of threat whatsoever is murdered by a police officer, and happens to have dark skin, it’s not a question of what that victim did or didn’t do during his or her lifetime to address societal or systematic problems of racism. It is not a question of what the surviving family members and friends did or didn’t do in the years or decades prior the murder. I deeply resent Garcetti‘s spineless claim that he was referring to all of “us” as a society, which was merely backtracking after he faced criticism for his words apparently being directed at “all police officers”.
Regardless of including all police officers or not, regardless of including all people in society or not, regardless of referring to what can be done as a society, it is not true that “we are all killers”. The “we” is the portion with which I take the most exception, because it not only absolves responsibility of THE person or persons who commit the actual murder, it also paints with a broad brush those who do something every day of our lives to alleviate problems such as racism. It’s cowardly to spread blame far and wide just to cover oneself for a slip of the tongue. There are some aspects of racism that cannot be fixed or lessened by victims of racism, only its purveyors can do that.
A Black woman was shot to death by a police officer responding to a prowler call. Her crime? Sitting inside the family home playing a video game with her nephew. The officer stood outside the window of the room they were in and fired into it, killing her. If all of society is the killer, her nephew is included in that.
A 12-year-old Black boy was in a public park and had a toy gun in his hands, someone called the police and reported a man with a gun. Officers responded in a vehicle, and within ten seconds of exiting their vehicle, they shot and killed him. Garcetti’s position loops his grieving family as accomplices in the murder.
An African immigrant to the US, a Black man, was in his apartment minding his own business when a police officer who had just finished her shift mistakenly walked in thinking it was her own apartment. She saw dark skin, but no weapon or threat, so she shot and killed him. The rest of the world‘s population didn’t pull the trigger, she did.
I don’t accept on any way an argument that blames all of “us” for these crimes. For instance, you yourself are peace-loving and a pacifist (even though that may seem redundant, it’s not, and I purposely wrote it that way), and I don’t think it’s fair to classify you as part of the problem of racism if you’re not a racist. No matter how fair and accepting you are, another person’s hatred, bigotry or racism can still poison the well of human life. All of your good acts and your good heart are wonderful on their own, so you don’t need to be guilt-tripped into assuming that you don’t do enough. That’s what I think Garcetti is doing, trying to create some kind of guilt-ridden atmosphere.
I actually considered taking a step I’ve never done in my life: displaying a large banner on my car that encompasses my thoughts on this issue.
There are already many, many people who have spoken and written their opposition to Garcetti and his words. This is not his first rodeo, as we say here in the States; he has made many controversial statements and decisions before.
I do need to state that I neither live in Los Angeles nor am I under Garcetti’s jurisdiction in any way. I am in San Diego, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Los Angeles. The size and importance of Los Angeles in many ways makes it a polarizing city here in the US. A loud voice, for instance that of a mayor of a large and influential city, can carry its message far and wide, so when something very positive or very negative is said, it can cause ripples over long distances.
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WelbyQuentin 