Follow Us on Google
How do you watch as life bleeds out of another human being? How do you feel when you take a knife into a fellow human being? What comes to your mind when you take up a cudgel to smash on another fellow while fighting? How do you feel when a fellow human being falls down by your feet and slowly begins to gasp for breath before crossing that thin line between life and death? In the case of American police officer, Derek Chauvin and many others like him in the employment of the United States of America, what comes to the mind when you pin another human being down in a chock-hold knowing fully well he could die from that act? Do you see that human being as a person, breathing like you, who came into the world the same way you did, nurtured from childhood to adulthood by a mother and a father, through unmet wants and deprivations, through good and poor health or you only see a “thing”, a rag or an item that could just be tossed aside after its usefulness must have come to an end, you being the determiner of when that item reaches its expiry date, Just like Chauvin did in the case of Floyd?
I have raised these posers in order to understand the workings of the mind of a murderer, whether a murderer feels anything at all at the moment of committing that dastardly act. This is not only about uniform or killings hidden under the cloak of officialdom as witnessed in the case of George Floyd and Chauvin, I am talking of cold killings like that of the University of Benin student who had gone into the church to study.
For about nine minutes, Chauvin placed his knees on the neck of Floyd, arrogantly with his hands in his pockets. Clearly that posture tells a lot about the policeman. He never saw Floyd as a human being but an object that could be trampled on ground or quashed. Video footages reconstructing the incident by The Times of London also showed that, “Mr. Chauvin, who is white, kept his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, according to the criminal complaint against him… Chauvin did not remove his knee even after Mr. Floyd lost consciousness, and for a full minute after paramedics arrived at the scene”.
Information made up of video clips and pictures that have been coming out since that Monday incident that had sparked outrage and protests in different States of America and other parts of the world have shown the way blacks are treated in America. Some of us have heard about these inhuman treatments, but they were stories of far flung places which were inconsequential to us until recent happenings.
I have come across instances of three to four policemen descending on hapless blacks. A particular video clips of about five policemen storming what looked like the home of a couple with their dogs comes to mind. The clip showed the dog taking a bite at the black man’s calf who was already on the floor with his hands behind his back, in a position of surrender. This notwithstanding, the dog was not pulled off. There was another of a young person who was being battered by a white policemen. Most times, it is always about four policemen pummeling a hapless individuals. You now wonder whether their actions were not premeditated.
Shooting of blacks by Policemen, as if they are hunting for games in a forest, are also rife. A black woman, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times in her own home when police went to the wrong address. There was also the case of Oscar Grant who had been handcuffed and was faced down but was still shot in the back by a policeman who was later found guilty of manslaughter. Ahmaud Aubrey was shot while jogging. They claimed they suspected him of burglary. Another blackman, Corey Jones who was standing beside his car that had mechanical problem was shot three times. In the case of Michael Brown, he was shot 12 times, even in the back, the officer was not charged. A blackman, Jordan Davis was shot for playing his music loud. The video that threw me and actually confirmed that there was an orchestrated, deliberate and planned ploy to systematically kill off black is that of a policeman that had flagged down a motorist. The driver was said to have voiced out concern about being shot to which the policeman placated the driver that they only do that to blacks. Black life does not matter in the US especially among policemen.
All the above have clearly shown that George Floyd’s death was just the needed trigger to ignite the keg of gunpowder that America had been sitting on and which President Donald Trump’s indifferent and insensitive statements have not helped to dissipate. Rather, the America president’s utterances since he assumed the mantle of leadership seem to have been the encouragement that US policemen needed to act out the extermination script. A poignant reminder of the holocaust in modern time.
Obviously, things can never be the same again in the US. New rules of engagement between black Americans and policemen have to be established. The situation cannot be like it was in the past. The blacks are part of the American society, they have no other countries but America. They cannot be deported, neither could a country be carved out for them anywhere. The white Americans must come to terms with the fact that the blacks are as much part of that society as themselves just like the Jews, Asians, Indians, Hispanics and others who have found homes in America.
However, we have the manifestation of the same behavior of people like Chauvin in our society. That cold blooded, seemingly premeditated killing that we witnessed in America lives with us too. Unfortunately, there is no one to fight anyone’s battle. We see manifestations of such bestiality among our policemen too. People have been shot for no just cause by Policemen. Our check points are killing grounds when commercial drivers refuse to part with N20 bribe. There have also been the ready excuse of accidental discharge to cover up cold-blooded murder, to cite few instances.
The killing of Miss Vera Omozuwa, student of the University of Benin, in a church is as bestial as one can imagine coming from another human being. This young lady who had her life and future ahead of her had this short-circuited by an animal in human form and in no other place but the house of God. So what makes this perpetrator who also raped the young girl different from Derek Chauvin? Nothing. They are both of the same ilk.
As we battle to understand the rationale for the killing of Vera, another 18-year-old, Bello Mubarak, student of the Institute of Agriculture, Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, Oyo State was attacked by assailants who also wanted to dishonor her. She died defending her honour. Clearly, our society has its own fill of the Derek Chauvin of this world. May the Almighty continues to preserve us.
