Copxtortion

In order to fully grasp the context and essence of this column three things must be accepted, in a general sense. The first of which, is assume the word “crime” is synonymous with Black People in the United States. When you hear or see the words “crime wave”, think Black People in the United States wave. When you hear or see the words “tough on crime,” think tough on Black People in the United States. When you hear or see the words “crime is out of control”, think Black People in the United States are out of control. Control being most operative.

The second acceptance is closely related to the first, but separate. That acceptance is the fact that the United States has a history of police tantrums when police are scrutinized and held to account. These tantrums have been called the Blue Flu in the past. Essentially, officers call in sick (en masse) and hold the public hostage; occasionally these events surround contractual/labor issues but, historically, it is anger over being held accountable. 

A compelling tactic. After all, who wants to be without police in an insane asylum run by the inmates and there are more guns than lunatics? Problem is, the police are inmates in that same asylum, resulting in a particularly dangerous societal conundrum. The tragedy is there are genuinely decent human beings that are police officers; I know some of them. The greater tragedy is that they are the exception and not the rule, at least in my sampling and that of most people that look like me.

The aforementioned demand for accountability reached a fever-pitch in 2020; the same year of a worldwide pandemic. The Blue Flu was prominent in the 1960's,1970s, and 1980s; a manifestation directly related to what are called Civil Rights (which is Euro-speak for Black People in the United States’ rights). One has to know the code, to know the score. Cops, quite nakedly, claimed that because of civil rights laws “we are unable to do our jobs”. The translation being ‘if we can’t beat up and kill niggers with impunity, we can’t do our jobs, because that’s our job’. In fact, batons were fondly known as “nigger-beaters” and “night-sticks”.

Once upon a time, I was trained to use something called a “PR-24”, which was a baton with a horizontal handle that allowed it to spin. A lot of individuals said that the “PR” stood for Public Relations. It should be noted that most departments no longer carry batons. Why? Because their use often requires more justification (accountability) than other options.

One may have noticed that batons disappeared from the public landscape subsequent to the Rodney King beating. The only time one sees a baton now is usually in a crowd-control situation. The prevailing philosophy of police thuggery being it is better to kill your black ass than beat it. No witness to testify and less paperwork. 

It is much more difficult to claim mistaking a gun for a baton than it is to claim mistaking a gun for a Taser. Though both are implausible from a practical standpoint, the latter has more legal traction should allegations of police abuse ensue; and batons leave graphic evidence of their usage. Police have innumerable ways of hiding physical abuse even when they do not murder and, rightfully, know that they are part of a “system” that will automatically give them the benefit of the doubt.

Some of these disfiguring methods and tactics have names like “chicken-winging” (of course), twist-ups (that have broken backs, necks and cause severe internal injuries), failing to double-lock handcuffs (that can cause a loss of the use of hands due to severe neuropathy in the wrists). The old phone book method is now obsolete; only because phone books no longer exist. Complimenting and rounding out the tools of torture and compliance is the Taser (which causes deaths and heart attacks each year that no one hears about), CSG (chemical shield gas) and the good old-fashioned beating is always an option, generally executed by several officers so that they can lie for each other.

Police cars come in many different color schemes, yet they are still euphemistically referred to as “Black and Whites”. The silhouette targets fired upon on the gun-range are that of a black, humanoid image on a white background. Subliminal cueing, subterfuge and conditioning at its best. I am too old to believe in coincidences, particularly given the history, and origins, of policing in the United States.

The spring and summer of 2020 brought massive attention to police abuse and, thusly, the third acceptance: America’s Negro Problem (ANP). The police felt they were under siege. The murder of George Floyd became a rallying cry; and though many other Black People in the United States have/had been murdered by police without cause, and continue to be, the Floyd murder received worldwide attention. This attention resulted in calls to “defund the police” by entities such as Black Lives Matter and many political partisans. The defund-the-police mantra was a linguistic tactical-error of epic proportions.

Cops across the country responded by claiming the same thing they did in the ’60s and ’70s: we can’t do our jobs. And it has the same meaning today that it had then. They decided that if they were going to be held accountable that they would simply be unresponsive, much like a petulant child. 

I call this new iteration of the Blue Flu “Copxtortion”. Like every other terrible societal circumstance, it affects Black People in the United States, in multiple ways, most negatively. It artificially exaggerates crime. At the same time, the political calculus is made that an atmosphere of fear and crime will resonate throughout the public; a tried-and-true tactic due to ANP. It has never, ever failed be it the Civil War, Willie Horton, Sister Souljah, “Super-Predators”, or the current U.S. President referring to Black People in the United States as predators “beyond the pale”. I guess so, Joe; no argument from me.

The racism of “crime” is self-evident in the language that describes it. I have been a victim of brutally violent crime and have absolutely no sympathy for those that hurt and maim others; including police. However, I must also acknowledge the socio-political history and pathology that causes mental illness, poverty, homelessness, hopelessness, illiteracy and drug-addiction. 

All have heard of “black-on-black crime”, but when a particularly defective European-American shoots up a movie theater, concert or school slaughtering dozens of mainly European-American victims one never hears the term ‘white-on-white crime’, because it does not exist. Nor does ‘Asian-on-Asian crime’, ‘Latino-on-Latino crime, etc. The only group with such a distinct designation and category are Black People in the United States. “White-collar” crime carries with it an inference of ‘not so bad’ or even sophisticated and admired; one may even become President of the United States as a result. It is no coincidence that such crimes are mostly committed by European-Americans or “white” people as they are, generally, in positions to commit such crimes, which net more and have lesser consequences.

The United States is in the midst of a corporate crime wave that receives no attention, let alone cries for prosecution, and has been for decades. If anything, the victim finds ecstasy in victimization. The entire nation known as the United States of America is a result of crime, founded by criminals; morally and otherwise. We Black Men in the United States even have a crime named after us: Blackmail (male). Subliminal cueing is a potent tool, and I am too old to believe in coincidences.

Crime appears to be “out of control” and the media is having a field-day with it. Politicians, of certain stripes, are seizing on it tapping into an almost primal fear of the descendants of the Alkebulanians that their ancestors kidnapped, enslaved and continue to marginalize in every sector of the society. America’s Negro Problem will never be rectified, it will never be repaired for there is no reparation because the society has never existed without it; and can not. Even if there was a viable solution or rehab for the societal malady of which I speak, the society is so dysfunctional and dependent on it any solution would be rebuked. ANP is this society’s dope, and like every other dope fiend it can not live without the dope or conceive a life without it. ANP is fundamental to what the United States is.

On November 22, 2021, Darrell Brooks allegedly drove his car into a crowd gathered for a holiday parade, killing six in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Rest assured that the political commercials from the white-wing are already in production as Darrell is the new Willie Horton. On January 16, 2022, a mentally-ill homeless man named Simon Martial allegedly killed Michelle Go, by pushing her into the path of an oncoming subway train in New York. On January 13, 2022, another mentally-ill homeless man named Shawn Smith allegedly stabbed Brianna Kupfer to death, a 26-year-old graduate student working in a local furniture store in Los Angeles, California. All three men are black-males and most of the victims were European-American and female, with the exception of Michelle Go, who was Asian, and two males out of the six victims in Wisconsin, one of whom was an eight-year-old boy. 

The fact that the victims were predominately female taps into another societal textile that is not to be woven herein. Additionally, there have been a number of alleged attacks on police officers in recent months allegedly perpetrated by black-males. The table has been set, time to dine and, black-male, you are what’s on the menu. Hell cometh nigh.

Black Lives Matter is nothing more than a slogan as far as I am concerned. We are men, women and children. We are humans, we are sentient beings, we are not a slogan. The BLM “brand” was employed in marches, protests and civil unrest all over the United States during the spring and summer of 2020. Nothing was accomplished. 

I have always been critical of Black Lives Matter because they were a societal placebo; they were a milquetoast slogan and immediately suspect to me because European-Americans supported them. Black People in the United States that are really about confronting U.S. apartheid in the interest of other Black People in the United States have never received widespread support from European-Americans; and never will. Malcolm X did not. Martin Luther King did not. The Black Panthers did not.

After all of the histrionics manifested under the Black Lives Matter banner there has been no police reform, no laws changed and no change in the status quo; and that is neither accident, misfortune nor act of God.

Then came Kyle Rittenhouse, and after the Rittenhouse murders Black Lives Matter seemingly disappeared; this sudden silence became deafeningly loud after the election of Joe Biden. Since Joe Biden took office along with the “first African-American woman” to be Vice-President police killings of Black People in the United States are at a record high. This is no coincidence and Kamala Harris is not “African-American.” Whatever that is.

I am constantly haunted by a Fox News host who stated “you’ll notice one thing, after Kyle Rittenhouse took action on that day and did what the police were incapable of doing, the protests ended”. Since Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder spree, Black Lives Matter has been as quiet as a church mouse. Again, I am too old to believe in coincidences.

I reiterate that police shootings have increased since the protests of 2020, which is rather malodorous given the prevailing rhetoric that police are afraid to “do their jobs”. It appears they are doing them just fine, at least pertinent to this metric. It is societal manipulation at either its worst, or its best depending on perspective.

The highest rate of fatal police shootings per million of the population are Black People in the United States. That number falls significantly for Latinos. For European-Americans the number a third of what it is for Black People in the United States. These numbers are exponentially more dramatic when overall population demographics are factored into the percentages. 

Ergo, if police killings have risen sharply (and they have), where is “BLM”? What happened to the outrage? Where is the media? Where is the “police reform”? Black People in the United States continue to allow ourselves to be politically useful idiots. Used for political expediency, then cast aside. It is incumbent upon us to not be the model horses ridden on the merry-go-round of American apartheid to amuse and enrich the practitioners, perpetrators and perpetuators of same.

The backlash is afoot and is on schedule. The pearl-clutching is evident when I go to the grocery store. It started with the Virginia gubernatorial election of Glenn Youngkin and the anti-black blueprint employed in his campaign; a smashing beta test. This same malignant blueprint will now be deployed and rolled-out nationally. 

The white-wing is going to employ blatant inferences of scary and “out-of-control crime”. “Voter fraud” is also going to be en vogue. Remember, the context of which I am equating the word crime apposite Black People in the United States. The strategy is fool-proof and will result in an over-reaction. On the receiving end of that over-reaction will be Black People in the United States; particularly black-males.

“Tough on crime” will manifest itself in not only police abuse and overreach on steroids, but also a general open hostility directed at Black People in the United States which is evidenced in the recent cases of Jordan Neely and Ralph Yarl. The Black Man in the United States best prepare for intense oppression, because the United States is being blackmailed with black-males and it is open season. Beware Black Man, because we are truly about to catch hell in streets, jails, courtrooms and every other venue in and across this country. We are the default of this society’s ills.