I Want Justice

I am beyond angry.

            There are many reasons for my anger, chief among them some obvious choices, such as the cops murdering black people in my country.

            One black man was pinned to the ground, unarmed, by police and shot point-blank in the chest. WHY?! For what POSSIBLE reason could these cops have done something so heinous?!

            Fear.

            It’s out of fear, just like it was out of fear that they shot a fucking gun into a car with a CHILD in the back seat! They shot and killed a law-abiding citizen after pulling him over for having a busted tail light. He had his girlfriend and their child in the car with him and these cops shot and killed him.

            I want justice. I want to see these cops stripped of their uniforms and dragged through the streets by their feet, tied to the back of a Hummer going about 10 mph. I want to see these murderers placed before a judge and stripped of the ability to ever again serve in the capacity of public service. I want their firearms taken from them and used to shoot every limb on their bodies, multiple times.

            I want justice.

            What would justice be? Clearly, taking these policemen off the force would be the first step. But they have MURDERED people. In cold blood. Do they not deserve pain in retribution?

            I imagine the families of the men who were killed. I imagine the child in the back seat of that car, witnessing her mom’s boyfriend shot by police and killed in the driver’s seat for reaching for his driver’s license as ordered. Then, I imagine all the women who experience fear for their lives on a daily basis, as well, because of the men who exist who want nothing more than to harm. I think of my female friends who have walked down the street to unsolicited sexual harassment, and that is the least severe thing I can imagine because I have friends who have been raped and beaten. I, myself, have been sexually abused.

            Many things go through my mind when I think of these things. I think of the #YesAllWomen movement on social media and I think about how it doesn’t apply to me, even though I’m a woman, because I walk down the street without fear… or so I think. I can’t stand to go anywhere alone. Is that a result of social conditioning?

            I think of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and how white people everywhere try to dilute the problem and separate themselves by saying #AllLivesMatter. Now it’s #NotAllCops.

            Well, it may be that not all men are rapists and murderers and it may be that not all cops are murdering sacs of scum that need to be eradicated from the face of the planet. But it is true that all women and all minorities are afraid. Every year. Every month. Every week. Every day. Filled, at least in some capacity, with fear. Fear of those who are supposed to be our peers and our protectors.

            I don’t want to live in America anymore. I want my family to move to Canada and live out the rest of our days in a peaceful country that has very little violent crime, even if it means I will not be allowed to own a firearm. After all, with the new laws coming to fruition in my own country, I can’t own a gun anyway because I suffer from mental illness.

            If I can’t fix it, I want to get away from it.