For a span of more than five months, riled up supporters and mourners of Breanna Taylor were anticipating that on September 24th, 2020, the three cops of the Louisville Metro Police Department involved with the shooting(Jonathon Mattingly, Brett Hankinson and Myles Cosgrove) would get the punishment that seems fair for the unjust killing of an innocent black women whose last breaths were in the “comfort” of her bed. After the verdict came out, many were discouraged to hear that practically only one of the cops involved in the case got a punishment which was not connected to her death; rather for the misshots that were made to the neighbor’s wall. [1]. This sparked outrage caused an enormous backlash against the verdict made as the next upcoming days helped to show the anger that was still suppressed is being rifled back at the policy makers who seem negligent for not taking the necessary steps to make a mark on the topic
The day after the verdict was made, an organized group of allies and victims were marching to Faneuil Hall to express one’s own concern of the racial discrimination that lays between the minorities who have been treated so vile and with lack of care due to the system of authority.Seeing these peaceful but motivated and determined activists on the streets helped to click a connection relating back to why for the last couple of years now, I have had the aspirations to become an attorney/lawyer which is to help enforce that our justice system is straightforward and creditable to the public that justice has been served in the most credible way possible. I recounted the hours spent researching and reading about the stories such as Taylor’s who have experienced less than the bare minimum of support from certain police forces who have enacted illegal activities themselves trying their best to “ensure justice”. Down below, I took notice that the National Guard and other armored up police officers were taking one’s own time to protect and enforce that these individuals would enact protest in a civil manner as governor Charlie Baker called upon them so that some sort of curfew and order is prosecuted[2]. Personally, I haven’t been a victim for this mishap led by the corruption of racial ties due to living in an environment where my town was nearly ninety percent white but due to research and listening to stories that surround the lives lost through this movement of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, the shooting of Jakob Blake and more, I wanted to learn more in person of the issues that America is still facing in this century of time. So at around nine o’clock at night, a group of friends and I decided to march with them to exert and express our assistance through chants, listening to people’s stories and by being in the moment looking at the full three sixty of the situation at hand. The raspiness of tired protestors with the ongoing chanting electrified the streets of Boston as the streets opened up for them to get from point A to point B. As stated in the first Chapter of Ginsburg, “Citizen participation is at the forefront of democracy,” as other great democracies in the past like Greece have shown the power and change that comes from the governed, not the governance. The Constitution also helps as a precursor for this system of democracy just by looking at the minimum which is the Preamble(“We the People”) that helps to enforce the idea that these rights are bestowed upon the citizens who make up this great nation and not the top one percent[3].
The uprise of this movement comes from the jeopardy of our nation’s democracy being at stake due to the election of 2016 and the suppression that the national government has given to the ongoing rage that protestors have preached out, demanding for causes including defunding the police(to reimburse and spread some of that money elsewhere to a cause more beneficial) or for change in the institution of the police force. With the executive branch having as much power as it does now, the agenda brought up from Trump could measly “trump” the public’s perspective and hopes by enforcing a plan only agreed upon by a select crew of individuals[4]. This sort of system of government has seemed to loom around the way of life since FDR became president which shifted most of the power to the executive. Alongside this, examples of seeing large political heads over the years (Mitch McConnell and Republican members of Congress who despised the Affordable Care Act) team up and try to place the blame on the oppressed, in this case, as many Republicans view the protests as these violent Antifa led catastrophes that will soon burn our nation down to a crisp due to the isolation the POTUS has to the nation’s people.
Another dilemma in the spectrum of political influence to civil injustice is that there shouldn’t be any sort of correlation at all due to the revisions made in the national constitution and other legislature but the strength of partisanship in the last couple of years has shown the increased issue of white partisanship prevailing due to the weakness in the parties. Prior to knowing who would win in 2016, Vox spoke out about how even though the candidates were all over the place in creating a clear campaign and that most individuals were not happy with the matchup of Clinton versus Trump, the main takeaway was how “abstract” and “flexible” their ideas of partisanship can be. The more abstract in which the voter is with political identification(anywhere of the spectrum of far left communism to far right extreme nationalism), the more aggravated one could be if another doesn’t necessarily target all the issues stood by the voter(which could easily make some of the implications for the rights being pushed for to not get the full “okay” and acceptance that one thinks it should deserve).[5] The idea entails that the complexity that lies in movements such as BLM probably needs to occur in increments/slowly over time or that the full message expressed by the sorrows of victims will never push through due to a demographic who may never seem to connect with the problem at stake or are not willing to try.
Although this is how we want to capitalize our nation to be, issues such as civil injustice lay in one’s way due to the polarization of political parties our nation glorifies. Even with a majority of individuals supporting and listening to the main speakers at the protest, some people went out of one’s way to try and protect the police through having flags that entails “backing the blue” and “blue lives matter”. This sort of behavior isn’t new by any means but has caused only outrage between the two parties and people who back them both. Those individuals backing the blue may not clearly know the story of why these protesters are saying ACAB and Defund the Police as they began glorifying stories that only fulfill their own selfish agenda that shows some of the stubborn side that both parties have shown in the course of American history. By not expressing any sort of physical conflict and starting any riots, the protestors that night were able to fulfill their own agenda of making a voice for themselves and having the news cover their story(helicopters overhead with reporters nearby) without making it seem like the “right winged” people feel like they are right about the situation.
As the people doing the speeches wrapped up, people began to disperse in a friendly manner back to their homes and onto the train to analyze and think about this monumental night that went down. This sort of experience, in my own eyes, allowed me to further develop my understanding of what millions of people may feel like living in a society that seems against them as ideas of how we would feel if we were in Breanna’s footsteps or resonate other stories that some have to fear in any circumstance that could be as small as going to the store. By looking at this story and others that connect with it, I hope in the near future that our nation can move in the right footsteps by educating and preaching out notions such as to vote to help reimburse the support needed to drive the Black Lives Matter movement into the spotlight for necessary change to be made as soon as humanly possible.
Work Cited
Hey Bricen, quite enjoyed your “new eyes in a new situation” take on current political situations at hand. In particular your citation of a sort of hyper-partisanship that remained bizarrely flexible. Really speaks to the idea of a sort of tribalism that we’ve seen in politics wherein so as long as it’s “my side” things seem okay. Likewise I deeply respect your ability to be nuanced but not “center” for “center’s sake” in analyzing how conservatives have attempted to make a boogeyman out of ANTIFA (often falsely as if they were a massive coordinated organization, wherein by the nature of their anarchical roots there is no central leadership) as a means to blame the oppressed for suffering caused by those in charge. Again, very well-written!