News of Darren Wilson’s resignation will do nothing to soothe the hurt, anger and insult heaped on this community.
The hundreds of solidarity actions that took place in every corner of the country and across the world over recent days merely reinforce that the egregiously racist, corrupt and violent treatment black and brown communities face every day will not be dulled by whisking one man away following Wilson’s one hundred days plus of taxpayer funded vacation.
Wilson was already fired from the Jennings, MO, Police Department, a body so racist and dysfunctional the Jennings City Council was forced to completely disband it in 2011.
He has had all the machinery of a heavily armed police state, every level of legislators and Bob McCulloch in his corner since day one. His supporters have raised more than half a million dollars that we know about, and the Police Association and Fraternal Order of Police will ‘protect and serve’ him for the rest of his life.
As we await a decision from the Grand Jury following the murder of Eric Garner in New York, as we watch with dismay at the attempted character assassination of 12 year old Tamir Rice – killed by police while playing on a swing set – as we watch the continued cover up into the police shooting deaths of Kajieme Powell and Vonderrit Myers Jr., we stand strong in the knowledge that we have already won.”
If it weren’t for the bravery, courage and tenacity of the Ferguson community, this would have been just another of our babies shot and killed in the ‘line of duty’. This determined fight back against the forces of institutional racism and often lethal racial bias can be traced from Emmett Till to Amadou Diallo to Oscar Grant to Aiyana Jones to Akai Gurley and on and on and on.
Wilson should have been treated as any other accused of a violent crime committed in front of dozens of witnesses. He should have been arrested, charged, and taken to trial. It has always been abundantly clear to us that the Grand Jury process was rigged. Now that the documents have been released, it is clear to all.
As father of six Eric Garner said, moments before the life was choked out of him by members of the New York Police Department while paramedics stood by and watched, “This stops today.”
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is an author, documentary filmmaker, public intellectual, organizer, pastor and theologian.
