“If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly” – Thomas Sowell.
Dallas, August 10, 2016, a 32-year-old male calls 911 for aid. In his call, Tony Timpa tells the dispatcher he had schizophrenia, and he was off his prescription medication, plus he had taken drugs. When the three Dallas police officers arrived, Mr Timpa had already been handcuffed by private security guards. The police officers retrained Timpa by placing their knee on his back and neck—for 14 minutes. “You’re going to kill me!” were Mr. Timpa's words as he squirmed on the ground. Moments later, he fell unconscious. Failing to check his pulse for any sign of life, the police officers, assuming Mr. Timpa was sleeping, joked and laughed as one of the officers said: “wake up, Tony, time to go to school,” and another officer went: "five more minutes, mom.” The paramedics put Timpa on a stretcher, and (as can be heard from the Dallas police officer’s body camera) one of the police officers says: “I hope we didn’t kill him.”
For years, the Dallas police department refused to release the video recording of the horrible death of Tony Timpa until they were forced to do so by legal injunctions, specifically after a judge’s ruling in federal court. The Dallas Morning News was able to obtain the footage, and what is seen in the video wasn’t just horrifying, but the insensitivity of the police officers’ mockery of a schizophrenic and drug-induced fellow who called for help while having their knee on his neck and back the whole time is what glued the watchers to the footage.
According to the 2016 autopsy, “Mr Timpa died within 20 minutes of the police officer’s arrival of cocaine and stress associated with physical restraint”. His death was ruled a homicide. Prior claims by the Dallas Police Department of Mr Timpa being aggressive were completely shattered by evidence from the footage.
Sergeant Kevin Mansell and Officers Danny Vasquez and Dustin Dillard were the three officers involved. Criminal charges of “misdemeanor deadly conduct” brought against the three officers were dropped in March 2019, and none of them were officially charged for the death of Tony Timpa.
On May 25, 2020, a man was pinned to the ground with a police officer pressing his knee against his neck. The police were called by a grocery store clerk who alleged that George Floyd, a 46-year-old male, had passed a counterfeit 20-dollar bill. Mr. Floyd was handcuffed, facing the ground while two other officers restrained him, one of the police officers, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee against Mr. Floyd’s neck—for more than 9 minutes and 29 seconds (New York Times), according to the footage that went viral; in which Mr. Floyd could be heard saying in a suffocating voice, “I can’t breathe”
The medical examiner’s findings showed that Mr Floyd stopped breathing while he was being restrained by the officers and ruled the death a homicide. However, the autopsy from Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office concludes the cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement restraint and neck compression." Fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine intake were other factors that played a significant role in his death. The findings further confirmed that Mr Floyd suffered from other significant conditions such as arteriosclerotic heart disease and hypertensive heart disease. On 3 April, Mr Floyd tested positive for SARS-COV-2, although this particular detail wasn’t listed as a fatal variable (npr.org).
Mr Floyd's family issued another autopsy, which was performed by Michael Baden, a well-known pathologist and former New York City chief medical examiner. The findings showed that Mr. Floyd's death was a “homicide caused by asphyxia,” a state of being deprived of oxygen which can lead to death by suffocation. The finding continues: “Mr Floyd had no underlying medical problem that could have contributed to his death.
Many have argued that black Americans are more likely to be killed by a white police officer compared to their white counterpart. According to the Chicago Police Department statistics, there were over 700 hundred murders and 4,000 shootings in 2020. In 2014, the FBI’s Universal Crime Report showed that 90% of black people killed died at the hands of other black people, and 14.8% of white people killed were killed by black people. A study done by the University of Washington (Washingtonpost.com) showed that police officers were more reluctant to kill black suspects than white suspects.
There is no evidence of systemic racism in America today, in other words, no black person or any other person of color is refused employment as a result of their skin color, nor are their applications to universities declined because of how they look.
We pick a side when we fail to speak the truth, a dangerous side. We aren’t standing for justice or change when we only want to see what fits our narrative. The truth will remain relative to millions of people if facts continue to be ignored or not presented at all.
All black lives matter as all lives should matter because when some lives don’t matter, we are gradually heading towards Hitler’s Germany.
No amount of evidence would convince someone who chooses to obliterate truth or redefine truth. Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Dan Bongino are some of the prominent black men who are educating people on politics, wealth, black families, and crimes. Their teachings are so relevant. There is a way to stop misinformation, to promote facts rather than feelings: show the studies and the irrefutable data. Data show that even though racism still exists, it isn’t a major factor in the precarious situations most black people find themselves in today. There is evidence that proves that the father's absence is a bigger contributor than racism, as pointed out by former President Barrack Obama. In his Father Day’s speech back in 2008 to the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, the then Senator Obama said:
But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.
You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit a crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”.…We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.
Most readers have no idea who Tony Timpa was, but the whole world knew who George Floyd was. The narrative isn’t the same. Mr Floyd’s death fuels racism and police brutality, and in no time, he was elevated to almost a hero status, with the public forgetting his criminal endeavors. Mr Floyd was one of the many black men who chose the wrong path. His death could have been avoided. What about Mr Timpa’s?
Mr Timpa’s name isn’t mentioned because he is white, and he goes against the narrative of police brutality. This is a typical case of reverse color blindness; we choose to see what we want to see. It’s just like sin; we would rather call out someone else’s rather than our own. So, as we examine these cases, let us be equally outraged at the level of evil we see in both cases and not pick and choose.
Our lives don’t change unless we see ourselves for who we truly are and start taking responsibility for our actions. Believing in hard work, making good and smart choices, education, and learning—shouldn’t be frowned upon, nor should people who hold up to these standards be demonized, this should be the norm for black people and all people. In a society where being baby mamas and daddies is normalized, some dare to hold on to the true definition of family.
There is racism, and it’s a despicable sin; it is equally a sin to create division and judge people based on the color of their skin, and we will all be held accountable for every wrongdoing. A society whose frameworks and ideologies aren’t biblically rooted can never be fair.
Comments