CASH IN THE APPLE
12-18-14
By Cash Michaels
MENTALITY –
Question…what do butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers born in the United
States all have in common?
Answer….
they were all born here, so they’re American citizens, imbued with the
Constitutional right of free speech. That means they, and anyone else who is a
citizen of this great nation, are entitled to voice their considered opinions
about their government – be it local or federal.
That’s part
of their citizenship, an a long as they expressed those entitled opinions in
responsible ways,…well, that’s what makes a democracy.
Police
departments are legally arms of local government, thus, citizens, who provide
the salaries of all government employees and officials through paying their
taxes, have a say in how they are policed.
So why are
we taking valuable time and considerable ink to point these basic rules of
citizenship out? Because apparently members of the Cleveland Police Department haven’t gotten the memo about exactly
who works for whom around here.
How else to
explain the inexplicable Cleveland police reaction to Cleveland Browns running back Andrew Hawkins warm-up shirt calling
for justice in the Tamir Rice and John Crawford police shootings.
Tamir Rice
was the 12 year-old-boy with the toy gun who was shot instantly once police
drove up on him in November. Crawford was fatally shot in a Wal-mart store when
police saw him with a pellet gun he had picked up to purchase.
Apparently Cleveland Police Benevolent Association
President Jeff Follmer feels that both of these cases display his fellow
officers in defensible actions, because after seeing Hawkins warm-up shirt on
television, Officer Follmer fired off a nasty statement bashing Hawkins for
being a know-nothing athlete, and demanding that the Cleveland Browns issue an
apology.
“It’s
pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law,” said an irate Ofc.
Follmer. “They should stick to what they know best on the field. The Cleveland
police protect and serve the Browns stadium and the Browns organization owes us
an apology.”
You see stuff like this just
doesn’t get under my skin, it boils there.
I get that the Cleveland cops,
especially in the aftermath of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner shocking grand
jury decisions, are not pleased with having their own dirty laundry being
brought out into open, and certainly don’t like two recent police shootings
involving their own thrown back in their faces.
Do they have the right to complain?
Yes. As much as I’d like to tell them to shut up and just do their jobs…without
shooting any unarmed people…it would be hard to deny them that freedom.
But what they don’t have the right
to do is denigrate citizens who have a legitimate care and concern about the
state of policing in their community. What Andrew Hawkins called for was done
in a meaningful and thoughtful way, with a level of dignity that can only be
admired.
To demean him as just a dumb jock that
doesn’t know the law, and then demand an apology from Hawkins owners to show
him and the world that is really boss around here, is pretty pathetic in and of
itself.
The Cleveland Browns, in their
response, took the high road.
"We have great respect for the Cleveland Police Department and
the work that they do to protect and serve our city. We also respect our
players' rights to project their support and bring awareness to issues that are
important to them if done so in a responsible manner," the Browns said in
a worthy retort to the brass and senseless police statement.
Please note that there is no apology included.
And then there’s Hawkins himself, who responded to the Cleveland
demand by eloquently saying that, “A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an
apology.” Hawkins added that he felt for the families of police victims, and he
had concerns about the safety of his own two-year-old son when he grows up.
"I utterly respect and appreciate every police
officer that protects and serves all of us with honesty and integrity. (It)
wasn't a stance against every police officer or every police department. It was
a stance against wrong individuals doing wrong thing,” Hawkins said.
What this, and the senseless reaction to LeBron James and other NBA players
wearing their “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in honor of the last words of NYC
police chokehold victim Eric Garner,
reveals is a blatant hostility towards black people period. To tell
professional athletes that their only mission in life is to perform when
they’re told to, collect their checks, but otherwise shutup and don’t worry
about the world around them unless given permission to do so, is just flat out
condescending as all getout.
And to tell the organizations who hire professional
athletes that they need to apologize for them, or even punish them for
exercising their freedom of speech AT ALL, is diabolical at the least.
“If you won’t apologize when demanded, we get your massas
to make you do it!”
Kind of makes you wonder just how these cops see the
average black citizen in the street, you know, the ones without the
multi-million dollar contracts.
But the police aren’t alone in the damn foolishness file.
Fox News commentator Geraldo
Rivera tore it with me two years ago when he openly blamed 15 year-old Trayvon Martin with his own death in
wearing a hoodie the night he was fatally shot by George Zimmermann.
Rivera was forced to apologize for that by his own
outraged son. But now Geraldo has done it again, getting on Fox News, saying
that LeBron James should not have worn a T-shirt saying “I Can’t Breathe,” but rather,
“Be a Better Father.” Rivera said that “I Can’t Breathe” spoke to victimhood,
whereas “Be a Better Father” spoke to encouraging the black community to
overcome fatherless families which lead to crime and despair.
Rivera’s point to similar to former NYC Mayor Rudolph Guliani’s – if blacks didn’t commit so much
crime, we wouldn’t need so many white police officers in black communities.
First of all, police officers killing unarmed black men
repeatedly has nothing to do with black fatherhood, or the lack of it. No one
in the conservative Tea Party has any darn sense. Does that give the police the
right to start killing them needlessly?
But the power of the anti-police brutality movement has
forced the powers that be to come back with the only weapon they feel they
have, namely smearing an entire community. Never mind that the policies of
these people relating to no jobs, illegal drugs and guns and poor education
have plenty to do with the black crime rate.
The long and short of all of this is that the respect that
we are due is respect we are going to have to fight for. We have no choice.
I hope we’re ready going into a new year.
Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk
radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online
at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions
exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).
Cash in the Apple - honored as the
Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story
Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s
Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.
Until
next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in
your life. Bye, bye.
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