We’re all victims of police brutality.

Carl James
2 min readMar 8, 2022
Attractive young woman holds aloft a sign saying, “EndPoliceBrutality” during a protest. She is costumed like a victim.
Photo by Tosin James on Unsplash

Every day, another video of a “bad cop” wrongfully assaulting a Black man seems to appear in the media. If there’s not a video of a Black man being injured or killed there will be one of a Black woman or girl getting beaten and slammed into the ground.

Or a Latino boy or girl.

Or, White.

Or, Asian.

An artist drawing of victim and family, propped up at grave.
Drawing of Christian Hall with his parents. (Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia/Facebook)

Here’s that story. https://whyy.org/articles/after-atlanta-murders-greater-scrutiny-of-police-killing-of-asian-american-man-in-poconos/

I know you’re sick of it, but please keep reading because in every video clip, every photo, every circumstance, all the “good cops” stand around watching. And then, nearly every time, there are either no charges, no prosecution, or no conviction, no matter how damning the evidence.

It’s plain exhausting.

It’s literally self-care to look away sometimes or lose yourself into every tragedy.

But I don’t get the people against police reform, or groups like BLM. Are they not sick of the videos constantly shoved in their face? Aren’t they tired of the complaints from half of the population that there’s something terribly wrong? Don’t they ever get sick of seeing another citizen’s body get beaten?

These people, they’re human. It must be exhausting from their perspective, too.

The police forces of the United States seem to, collectively, exhaust the good will and patience, one way or another, of the entire population. Yet, there’s another Police Chief or Sheriff saying, “It’s just this one time.”

“It was just that one guy.”

“Our investigation showed the officer did nothing wrong.”

How can an officer have done nothing wrong when someone is dead or hospitalized?

The US police forces don’t just use batons, tasers and bullets against our bodies, they assault and violate our minds and confidence every time it happens.

Writing this felt like a beating on my spirit, and I’m sure you felt it too from reading, making us all victims of police brutality today.

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