Urban Thought Collective

Here we go again. A big city police department is embroiled in yet another controversy surrounding brutality towards citizens it is supposed to protect and serve. Video has emerged of a swarm of Philadelphia police officers viciously beating three young unarmed black men.

On the tape, about a dozen Philly cops gather around a vehicle, and begin violently pulling the three men out of the car. Half a dozen officers held two of the men down on the ground, while repeatedly kicking them. One of the victims is shown being punched. Another appears to be struck with a baton. And the third man is also aggressively subdued.

The victims in the tape have now been identified as 23 year old Brian Hall, 19 year old Pete Hopkins, and Dwayne Duches, 24.

This is one of the worst cases of police brutality I have ever witnessed. It’s Rodney King all over again. In fact, it’s Rodney King x three! I mean, King was one unarmed black motorist savagely beaten by a gang of cops. In Philadelphia, there were three black motorists who appear to get the living daylights beat out of them. It’s eerie and disturbing to watch. A repeat of a sad history now tripled in one camera frame.

How is it that cops continue to chase suspects, and become crooks themselves by engaging in ridiculous and uncalled for abuse? There seems to be no apparent justification for the savage abuse of these young black men. The Justice Department needs to fully investigate these officers for civil rights violations, and eventually prosecute them for excessive force.

Black America has always had an uneasy relationship with law enforcement, and our community has complained about police brutality and racial profiling for decades. With the widespread technology of video cameras and cell phone cameras, you would think that police would get smart and behave differently. Yet, the privileges of the men in blue seem to trump all common sense and humanity far too often when it comes to the darker brother in this American family.

On the heels of the Sean Bell verdict, in which an unarmed black man was murdered in a hail of more than 50 bullets, the Philadelphia situation is beyond disheartening. It is as if black people are not regarded as full citizens. It makes my stomach turn.

Of course, there have been countless incidents concerning other unarmed blacks in the last decade. From Amadou Diallo in New York to Margaret Laverne Mitchell, a mentally ill homeless woman who was killed by the L.os Angeles Police Department over a stolen shopping cart, the list seems to go on and on. And those are just the ones that we know about.

We have police officers across the country in what appears to be a “shoot and beat down first” policy when it comes to dealing with members of the black community. And no one is dealing with it SYSTEMICALLY. We’ve gotta think beyond case-by-case at this point, people. Let’s make a plan.

See for yourself:

More tomorrow …

Najee Ali is Executive Director of Project Islamic H.O.P.E, a national civil rights organization that advocates for the human rights of oppressed people regardless of race, gender or religion. He was selected by Wave Newspapers and Our Weekly Newspaper as one of the 25 most influential black leaders in Los Angeles. More information is available at: www.islamichope.org.