Silence is Consensus: An Open Letter to those who Stood By While Children Were Brutalized
Dear People of McKinney Texas,
I know many of you would balk at the accusation of being called racist, but I think you would find it difficult to advocate for yourselves considering the atrocities that took place on Saturday without a single voice stepping forward to condemn the actions of these officers or defend these children. Before the flurry of explanations are offered here’s a few that are sure to arise.
1. They didn’t belong here, they were asked to leave, they refused
That account is what should have been investigated and could have easily been resolved if they officers did their job. Those kids were in fact invited.
1 a. Whoever invited them didn’t have permission to have them there!
While an unknown, even if true, I can’t help but wonder how many guests have passed through your local community pool without permission or incidence, cousins, family, friends visiting….You would NEVER want your guests to have this be their reception at your expense.
2. They should have just listened to the officers:
This video displays how black children are treated even when listening to the officers, your officers were not listening to them, as Officer Casebolt repeated countless times, “I don’t Care!” to every inquiry and statement the kids tried to state.
3. There was nothing we could do:
The video below of a white 10 year old child being restrained while his older brother curses out an officer and a woman passionately screams, “You cannot hit an underage child.” indicates that anyone is indeed capable of standing up for children. It only takes one. If the officers knew that their behavior would have been deemed unacceptable, they would not have approached these children with the aggression of barrel rolling into war zone.
The open acceptance of police brutality against children of color is symptomatic of wider attitudes against black people as dangerous and always guilty until proven innocent. It is preceistly those attitudes that lead police to feel it is not only okay, but necessary to use the most extreme tactics against anyone with a melanated complexion. This cop has placed his weight on the back of a crying 15 year old girl who did nothing but ask for her mother after asserting she had done nothing wrong, which the removal of the handcuffs by the other officers without further processing proves, she had done nothing wrong. If not for his fellow officers on the scene, Officer Casebolt may have discharged his weapon on unarmed children. He pulled his gun out on two young men who feared for their friend. If he had discharged it, shot one of them and claimed to be in fear of his life, how many of you would have stood up to say the two men approached in a peaceful manner as opposed to menacing.
This is the southern hospitality that has always greeted youth of color. Enough is enough, action and not apologies are all that will suffice. This officer needs to be fired and at minimum incarcerated for child abuse. Your community needs to make amends with these now traumatized children, pay for their counseling, pay for their emotional distress from having to endure public humiliation for the crime of attending a friend’s party in a gated white community. You all need to reexamine your motives and priorities, your assumptions that these young black thugs must have been up to something is what allowed you to idly stand by, I hope in the future you will reconsider and remember, skin should not be a used as a sentence to damnation.
wanderingthru30 