Monday, October 18, 2010

Movie Madness: American Violet

American Violet is a powerful movie and shows the realities of the injustices of our legal system.  In American Violet a young single Black mother of four is wrongly accused of selling drug in a school zone. She is forced to plead  guilty because she has to go home and take care of her children and is scared to face the judge who may sentence her to 16-25 years. I don't really want to tell the whole movie because I would prefer if everyone would watch this movie because it is based on a true story but we all know how corrupt the system is.

 This Saturday I was at a demonstration for Askia Sabur who was beat by the police and then jailed after he had to recieve stitches in his head.  This story is not an unfamiliar story in the Black community, I have seen the police harass countless Black women, men, and even our children. Just last week there were eight white officers standing outside a Black middle/high school claiming there was supposed to be a fight after school!!  Their presence was very intimidating to many of the students, teachers, and parents...many people thought something had happened already! The harrassment of police officers is a on going problem and sometimes it looks as if there is no end to the abuse. The reality is cops are cops it does not matter if they are Black or white because Black cops are sometimes worse than their white counterparts!!

The question is what are we suppossed to do when police harass us?? This is not ever going to be an easy answer but its important for Black people to have some knowledge about the law and know what we are legally allowed to do and cops have no right to change the laws. If a cop is harrassing you take the BADGE NUMBER this is important many cops believe Black folks do not have any sense about what to do when they are being harrassed. If someone has a camera, phone, or any other recording device make sure to record the situation...this is evidence!! Most importantly remain calm because these damn cops will charge you with disorderly conduct/disturbing the peace and do not threaten the officer because threatning an officer is a crime!!  It is important that we do all we can to expose these crooked cops and their racist legal system, we should never sit back and act as if it is not happening. Report every single cop that harrasses you and please make sure you keep all paperwork from the reporting process so you can follow up and stay on their behinds! Most importantly educate yourself about this legal system because in reality cops do not know a damn thing about the legal system they are just puppets for the courts, lawyers, and politicians!

Peace

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