WITH President Barack Obama’s presidential term coming to an end next year, many people wonder what he would be remembered most for: that he was the first black President who presided over a police force that killed more black young men, his own race, than any other before him, or as the President, who put his head on the block for Israel?
This week, a homeless, black man nicknamed ‘Africa’, was fatally shot by a member of the Los Angeles police department.
Eye witnesses say the homeless man who had some mental health problems was unarmed when he was shot.
Four bullets were fired at him as he lay on the ground.
The video showing the murder of Africa, which was broadcast on Sky News, is very disturbing.
It shows the man in a scuffle with two police officers before he is overpowered, pushed to the ground and shot.
Everything goes quiet as yet another black man took his last breath at the hands of police, adding to the ever increasing victims of police brutality!
And not in Zimbabwe, DRC or some unknown country in Africa, but right there in a ‘land of opportunities’, the USA.
Commenting on the most recent shooting incident, a Jamaican Rastafarian friend says America is a fast life; a country where you live fast and die fast, because “Babylon (police) will dead you,”’ he says.
Los Angeles police department put out a statement stating that the officers involved in the fatal shooting had been responding to reports of a robbery nearby, that they demonstrated compassion until force was required, and that the suspect had ‘continued fighting and resisting’.
Luckily though, the incident was captured on camera by an onlooker, and the video tells a different story from the police’ official version.
A distressed onlooker identified as Steven Tugmon, told the ABC News: “What did he do?
“He wasn’t an aggravated person.
“He wasn’t mad all the time. He just had mental problems.”
This incident, once more, highlights the problems of race relations in America, and police brutality.
More-so, it challenges President Obama’s legacy.
In his victory speech, President Obama told people that ‘change had come’.
He said: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
And to African- Americans who had waited for so long, since slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, he gave the example of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old African-American at the time, who, “was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin,” he said.
But to victims of police brutality like Michael Brown and Africa, change has not yet come.
The killing of unarmed, young black men, was certainly not part of Martin Luther King Junior’s dream.
According to the Los Angeles Homicide Report, 16 black men have been killed in Los Angeles alone since 2014.
And 252 people have been killed by the Los Angeles police since 2000; most of these victims are black young men.
As I write this article, Sky News is saying the US Justice Department, in their investigation of the killing of an unarmed black teenager Michael Brown (by the police last year), found out that the Ferguson Missouri Police Department routinely engages in racially biased practices.
Change did not come.
The American economy has not been doing greatly in the past few years, leaving many people, especially black people, homeless.
The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce estimates that during any one night, there are about 83 347 homeless people in Los Angeles, of which 39 percent (of the homeless people) are African-Americans.
In addition, most of the homeless people have disabilities, mental illnesses or other health related issues.
A US charity for the homeless people, Union Rescue Mission (URM), says the Skid Row is attractive to immigrants who end up homeless.
“America, with its open door to immigrants — and Los Angeles in particular as an entry point for many immigrants — is especially vulnerable to the realities of poverty,” says the charity.
“Many people who come to America view it as a place where they can start over with nothing — and frequently end up here with little to no resources.”
Where then is the social justice and democracy for vulnerable groups in America?
Many people I spoke to about this issue, think President Obama could have done more for African Americans.
For example, IM, a Zimbabwean Law student in the UK, is of the view that there is nothing more that President Obama could have done, especially on the issue of guns and police brutality.
“I wouldn’t blame President Obama at all, because under the US constitution, American citizens are allowed to own guns,” he said.
“If he tries to take that right away from people, they will impeach him.
“The House of Representatives and Senate will certainly impeach him.
“In addition, America is fertile ground for some of the world’s worst crimes: drug barons, you find the most sophisticated ones there.
“The US police operate under some of the most difficult conditions.”
However, , a Jamaican Rastafarian-based in Manchester disagrees.
He thinks that America is going through a phase similar to the time of the Civil Rights Movement.
“It’s racism; there is no excuse about that,” he said.
“America is a police state, and England is slowly becoming a police state too. “America thinks them are big daddy to the world, to mankind.
“They are not our daddy…My parents live in America, in Florida. Most of my family live in America, in New York, California, in Florida.
“I could have been living in America, but I only temporarily pass through America.
“Yeah, because they are racists!”