Maria Arpa
This week
How can this happen?
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Florida police use mug shots of black men for target practice
Last Month in Florida, a group of soldiers went to use a shooting range for
target practice. (Using guns at all is another topic but stay with me on
this one). It turns out that just before their session, Florida police had
been using the same shooting range for target practice. Only they forgot to
take down the images they were using and those images were all of black men.
And then it gets worse. If this wasn’t bad enough, one of the images was of
the brother of one of the soldiers, a mug shot taken 15 years ago, after he
was arrested in connection to a drag race in 2000 that left two people dead.
His mug shot was among the pictures of five minorities used as targets by
North Miami Beach police, all of them riddled by bullets. So they were using
images of real people.
The Police Chief admitted that his officers could have used better
judgment, but denies any racial profiling and defended the department’s use
of actual photographs saying the technique is widely used and the pictures
vital for facial recognition drills. But the family questioned why officers
were firing targets with images of real people, in this case
African-Americans, especially at a time when relations between minority
communities and law enforcement are so tense.
The man, whose image was used and who was 18 at the time said, “Now I’m
being used as a target? I’m not even living that life according to how they
portrayed me. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a career man. I work 9-to-5.”
He saw pictures of himself with gunshots through his face.
Now remember that black men make up the majority of the prison population
in the USA while non-hispanic black people make up only 14% of the
population, and black men aged 18 to 19 are nine times more likely to be
incarcerated than their white peers. In the UK people from BAME (black,
Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds constitute only 14% of the general
population in England and Wales, but make up 25% of its prison population.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
Imagine what has been ingrained in the subconscious if a law enforcement
agent comes across this man or people that look like him on the street and
they need to decide whether to use deadly force or not.
Now can we talk about white privilege?
The Wednesday Whisper
Have you ever felt outrage and disgust on a social issue?
Would you be willing to send this out to anyone you think might be interested in getting a little dose of mindfulness each week?