From Stephon Clark to Voter Suppression, the Attack on Black America Intensifies

Black Lives Matter protesters march through the streets in response to the police shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California on March 28, 2018. (Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images)Black Lives Matter protesters march through the streets in response to the police shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California on March 28, 2018. (Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images)

It’s hard to watch. Guns aimed at the dark. Loud yells. Loud salvo. Night drizzle in the tactical lights. Cops mistook his cell phone for a gun. I know already, he’s dead. I finished watching the video of Stephon Clark’s murder. Days later, White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders labeled it a “local matter.”

President Trump has stripped Obama’s mild federal oversight of police and left Black people even more exposed to severe state violence. At the same time, Republicans have enacted voter ID laws, purged rolls and shut polling places. Renewed governmental enthusiasm for mass incarceration and voter suppression has created a vortex in which Black citizenship, already second tier, is further ground down.

Republicans are effectively an anti-democracy party. They criminalize citizens of color while foreclosing elections to pass legislation for the wealthy. It’s why we feel rage.

We see Stephon Clark dead and know it could be any of us. The laws that protect us are being peeled away.

Rough ‘Em Up

“Please. Don’t. Be. Too. Nice,” Trump joked about slamming suspects’ heads into police cars. New cadets in crisp blue uniforms clapped and cheered. A chill went down my spine when I saw the video because I knew the probable results of this joke. Every week, I see a car brake suddenly and cops jump out to stop a young Black man. He’s scared. They pat him down, turn him and pat him again while yelling in his face.

We record it on our cellphones. The police leave. Sometimes, I ask if he is OK, but often, the young man is ashamed and scared and angry. He half-runs away. A heavy silence sits in the air, dissolved when one by one, we move on.

This scene is repeated across America. Around one million law enforcement officers — federal, state and county — form a vast pyramid that polices the 325…

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