Police Violence	Email me
Norm's Soapbox- My corner of Hyde Park

The current Police Violence debate needs to be redefined. There is a reason that the murder of George Floyd sparked protests in France, the UK, in Africa, internationally. Unjust use of power is the problem.

The root is not American racism. Sixteenth and Seventeenth century colonialism established the international colonial economic scheme of supression. It incorporated skin color as an additional marker of poverty to keep colonials in power and extract the wealth created by workers. Black lives matter. Brown lives matter. Lives matter. Black, brown, immigrant, homeless, native American, mentally ill, disabled, the marginalized are not valued, lives put in jeopardy. We must insist that all lives matter, not just blue or black lives, but all of us. The scheme to preserve and increase the wealth and power of the wealthy by creating a false hierarchy devaluing lives with an 18th century claim of colonial white superiority, a pecking order using appearance is unethical and destructive.

Coal miners, factory workers, checkers, janitors, farm workers, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, native American, Indian, all need to understand they are all essential and of value, far more than Wall Street. To claim one is "better" than the other divides us, allowing power and wealth to be stolen. Those that will not value all lives must not be in a position to harm or kill with impunity, in D.C, the US, Georgia, Paris, Berlin, or London. Those who would claim superiority must be taught they are like us, neither inferior or superior, and we all are in this world together, all dependent on each other. The rocket scientist needs the stock boy and ditch digger, the President needs Doctors, nurses, drivers, and janitors, as they are all essential.

Historic U.S. slavery is not the source. African governments and merchants enslaved their victims and sold slaves to Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, and Americans for profits for each, a major characteristic of colonialism. Slavery still is profitable in all of those for some, though now mostly hidden. It is driven by 18th century mercantile capitalism, just as opposition to unions, and economic classes.

When a government allows someone with months of training to wield life and death decisions with little oversight to enforce laws that lawyers spend years to learn, injustice and conflict is inevitable. Only justice can resolve this. ----