America's pattern of terror

The threat of terror alerts continues to haunt American society as if 9-11 happened yesterday. But while we cautiously board airplanes, the thought of another terrorist attack never far from our minds, another type of fear routinely plagues a particular group of American citizens. The most recently publicized infraction of this type involved 13-year-old Devin Brown, who was involved in an early morning car chase with Los Angeles police officers. As soon as I heard that he was an African American male, I knew that boy had a better chance of surviving an actual wreck than being "urged" to pull over by police. As expected, young Devin was gunned down by one of the officers. I was immediately reminded of a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, who was beaten and sodomized with a toilet plunger by New York police officers while in custody; an unarmed Amadou Diallo, who was felled by a shower of gunfire, 41 shots to be exact, at the hands of New York police officers; the fatal shooting of Tim Thomas, an unarmed teenager, by cops in Cincinnati; and even the fatal shooting years ago of an unarmed black woman by a cop at a traffic stop right here in Charlotte, not far from where I grew up. If that's not terrorism, I don't what is. Too often those sworn to protect and serve here in the United States inflict abuse upon African Americans, particularly males. Forget Osama bin Laden. The bigger threat for African Americans is Officer Do-Good, who is too often the recipient of misbegotten empathy and support by juries when it comes time for him to be tried for police brutality, if the case even gets to trial. Such officers are routinely acquitted, and the memory of it all is far too easily erased from the consciousness of American society. [more]