Lawyers from around the Commonwealth will gather before the state’s highest court to support protesters who have held mass demonstrations following recent police killings of black men.
Public defenders, bar advocates and other lawyers, together with paralegals, law students and others who work in the courts have scheduled the demonstration for Tuesday at the Supreme Judicial Court. The demonstration is intended to show support for those who have been calling for police accountability and an end to racism in the legal system.
It is refreshing to see people who are established within power being able to use their status to seek changes in the law, especially by those who are in the justice field.
The protest is organized by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest and largest public interest and human rights legal organization in the U.S: lawyers deciding to come forward to represent the forces against racism.
Those who are meant to enforce the law have a notable reputation of abusing power, including police brutality. This battered justice system is seen in all branches, following the non-indictment of the police officers responsible for killing unarmed black men in both St. Louis and on Staten Island.
It is too little now for those who have been martyred.
It is more than heartbreaking to say that it hurts to see this kind of activism exist, not because it is not the right thing to do, not because it is un-American, but because these are basic human rights that should be respected. We look at the civil rights movement in textbooks when we grow up and think that is so shocking that these events happened only fifty years ago, but even then too many waited too long for these rights.
Freedom is certainly not free, rights are not given– it is the long fight that has earned these values we boast about internationally.
It is a peculiar thing that even after these infamous cases that represent blatant institutionalized racism in our country, here in the dawn of 2015 nothing legally is done to begin reparations.
New York City was in shock when two police officers were shot dead in their vehicles by a man who claimed he was avenging Eric Garner, a black man suffocating to death on video in an illegal chokehold by a police officer who was non-indicted for the murder.
This has nothing to do with the families of the deceased black members of the American public. These families did not want any action in response to the failure of the justice system.
The gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, was shooting for the purpose to hurt anyone he could and was willing to make up any excuse for it.
The police officers who were shot by Brinsley were in fact not even white; they were of Hispanic and Asian descent.
Brinsley shot his girlfriend and seriously wounded her earlier that morning in Baltimore. (This also brings up the concern of gun control here in the States.) He later committed suicide by shooting himself in a nearby subway station.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in response, “When a police officer is murdered, it tears at the foundation of our society.”
“It is an attack on all of us,” he said.
New York police officers turned their back and left the room during a press conference that Mayor de Blasio held because de Blasio political campaign had condemned police brutality and called for reform in law enforcement.
Police officers took this negatively and blamed de Blasio for the deaths of the two officers. Obviously, de Blasio’s goal was to never have police officers killed on duty, but to be less militarized and familiar with handling the public safely.
“We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement. It cannot be tolerated. We must work together to bring peace to our communities,” the Brown family said, and called the episode “senseless”.
Lesser-known cases are being brushed under the mat and not getting much of the media attention they deserve.
Two eyewitnesses to the Michael Brown case have been reported dead. The first was reported by NY Times on December 1, but they had died on November 25.
Deandre Joshua, 20, was found shot in the head, his car set on fire.
Shawn Gray, 23, was last seen by family and friends leaving a restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. His body was found December 9 in a channel near River Des Peres in Missouri.
Antonio Martin died December 23 after being shot fatally by police officers 2 miles outside of Ferguson, Missouri. Martin was shot after matching the description for a robbery: a black man between the ages of 18-42.
Martin died a half an hour after being shot. No ambulance was called. After two hours his body was moved from the gas station and into the back of a police SUV. Martin was reportedly waving a gun, but video surveillance shows that it was his cellphone he was waving when he was shot dead.
Erika Hayden is a WSU student, citizen journalist and grassroots writer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
