With the city still reeling from the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year old Black man who passed away last week after sustaining fatal injuries while in police custody, the Governor of Maryland warned of a “long night ahead” in Baltimore tonight (April 28). Earlier today Governor Larry Hogan also promised an enormous security response of 2,000 National Guard troops and half as many law enforcement officers to kick off a week-long curfew in the city, according to USA Today.
The protests have sparked further debate about effective and appropriate responses to continued violence committed by police. Earlier this month, HipHopDX’s Andre Grant sat down with rapper Open Mike Eagle and spoke about the ongoing police brutality around the country. Depressingly, Mike Eagle’s comments about the state of police violence hold the same weight in a new context just weeks later.
“The real problem that we have right now is that the police don’t have to answer to anybody,” Open Mike Eagle said in a clip that debuted as a part of today’s DX Daily. “The easy thing to do if you are a policeman, and you’re encouraged to do this if you’re a policeman, is to like not be a person, but to just be a group of people in a uniform. That’s what you’re encouraged to do. It’s just like the Army, you’re not encouraged to ask questions, you’re encouraged to just follow orders and not connect to other people’s humanity as individuals. You’re not encouraged to do that shit at all. So you’re encouraged to think of yourself as one unit and then if something—like the New York cops. They [were all] pissed off at the mayor. They’ve been encouraged to choose that allegiance over being human. They’re not encouraged to question themselves and whether or not inside of their minds they might think that a Black man is more threatening than a white man. They’re not encouraged to question that. They’re encouraged to be brave policeman, do whatever they think is right, and to trust that the organization is gonna have their back in the end over anything else. What I think has to happen is that they need to answer to somebody. There has to be some authority. I don’t know exactly how that happens but it has to get to the point where they consider themselves humans and they confront the thoughts that they have about how threatening they might feel a Black man is.”
The Dark Comedy rapper also touched on a more general racism that he says continues to spur problematic responses from some white people when they hear about Black men killed by police.
“Probably the most bothersome thing about all of this police brutality shit is that there’s a lot of not Black people [whose] first thought when a young Black man dies is like, ‘What did he do?'” he said. “That’s inhuman. That’s not human. The first thing you’re supposed to do as a human is think about, ‘Man, that’s somebody’s son and didn’t deserve to die.’ Anything in front of that, that’s a psychological issue. We need doctors. That’s another thing that was fucking with me watching Selma, watching people celebrate and wave flags and cheer while people is getting beat. That’s fucked up. That’s fucked up. That’s a sickness. I don’t know how you organize against sickness.”
Listen to this guy. What a genius seeing as the cops are owned by the county and the city but they don’t answer to anybody. Shut the hell up Mike, read a little bit about basic police municipalities, and then open you’re stupid ass mouth.
*your stupid ass mouth
Wow this nigga bout as as smart as trinidad lames.
U said it right Mike
@AAA….I don’t think your reading the message he is sending out properly. Everyone answers to somebody. There is always a head of an organization. It’s that with the police, there is a different direction of discipline when they commit a crime against the public. So when you give someone a badge which puts them above the general public they will build a mind set where shooting or beating someone to death right away won’t be met with the same consequences as it would if the general public were to do it. Who’s going to discipline those in power @AAA? What if it were your son or daughter who got beat to death while in police custody? Forget the ‘Blackk and White’ nonsense for a second and put yourself in the shoes of the ones who get no justice. Closed minded thinking will only lead to more ignorance.
I get what he is saying entirely but what many don’t get is what is called due process. If due process runs its course like it should then the officer or officers involved will be held accountable depending on which municipal they are under. This has nothing to do with me being closed minded but has something to do with people not knowing how this due process works and dealing with a certain situation in an irrational manner. Additionally, if my son or daughter died in police custody I’m not going to cause a big ruckus in my own community and destroy it, I would wait for the evidence to come out, examine the details, and not just give out a stupid ass knee jerk responses or comment on a situation, like Open Mike, without learning about the majority of the details. This rioting isn’t moving us forward but it just shows we don’t wait for the due process to take its course, we just hand out stupid ass responses.
TL;DR
Think before you react. It may just prevent you from looking dumb later on!