Another Black Man Imprisoned For Years Was Innocent

The other day there was another black man on the news that was recently released from prison after more than two decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. He wasn’t out of his teens when he was apprehended for the rape and murder of a woman. His sentence was life. His attorney was finally able to have a test performed on the man’s DNA to see if it matched the genetic material stored as evidence. There was no match. The man was freed.

The man thanked god and Jesus for his freedom. He was so glad to have his life returned to him. The man carried no anger in his heart. He just wanted to spend time with his family. The man planned to use his experience to help other young men put some perspective back into their lives so they wouldn’t fall into the same traps that enveloped him. The article was inspirational and spiritual in most superfluous ways. There was the scene with the brother singing gospels with his church associates. There was the man getting hugs from all the black people with smiling faces that were just so happy to have the brother back in their lives now. His mother never lost faith that he would be exonerated. And no one harbored any ill will against the representative of the justice machine that worked so hard to keep the man behind bars.

The message in the article was forgive and forget. It was very applicable to the holiday season. This is the high time of the year that we are supposed to take heed from our spiritual teachings and ask for forgiveness from our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.

Interesting though is the fact that our society hardly ever forgives black people for their trespasses. It seems that our law enforcers and justice system hardly passes on an opportunity to prosecute black people to the maximum extent of the law for violations that hardly get noticed on our attention span radar if the perpetrator were of obvious European heritage.

A black man standing in front of police officers with a hairbrush is as good as dead. Public grooming seems to be a crime punishable by death the way cops are so gung ho to stop, drop, and roll to come up with guns drawn and bullets blazing. Police barely have time to stop the squad car and put the transmission in park. But let a white man hold up a store front with a homemade bomb of duct tape and road flares and the city will put up with his attention getting shenanigans for hours on end until a peaceful resolution can be negotiated.

If black people survive our run in with the local Sheriff Buford T. Justice, Deputy Barney Fife, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane, Police Chief Wiggums and the like our convictions are virtually guaranteed as long as there is at least one person who is willing to say that they saw the black person do it. Never mind the fact that the witness was a blind man with a Seeing Eye dog. The jury has nothing but faith in his testimony. Besides, if the black man didn’t do it he shouldn’t have any trouble producing the proof necessary to thwart a conviction.

And just where were you when the crime took place?
I was in the hospital having my appendix removed after it exploded.
Yeah right! Can you prove that someone was watching you the whole time you were in the recovery room?
Uh, No.
I thought not. The prosecution rest your honor.
But you’re my attorney! You’re supposed to be defending me!
Objection your honor! I would like my client’s last comment to be stricken from the record! I would never defend someone who is so obviously a criminal!

And through all of this black people are supposed to have enough character to be free of any resentment. These people are lauded by the television news networks and are held up as a pillar of pure virtue. But each and every time a black person turns the other cheek and forgives this society built on some perverted version of truth and justice rooted in logic that wouldn’t cut it even in the Bizarro world we make it that much easier for the next black person to be railroaded into the slammer in the future. Innocent black people whose lives have been destroyed by the system need to point the finger at the system and demand changes.

DNA testing should be one of the first steps necessary to get a conviction whenever applicable. It has gotten to a point where the eyewitness testimony has about as much accuracy as a coin toss in gaining conviction. The lie detector has more accuracy but is ruled inadmissible because a lot of people feel that it is too unreliable. But we will buy the testimony of a deaf person who would swear up and down that he heard the black man confess to a crime he never committed.

And if turning the other cheek is supposed to be such a virtue why doesn’t society turn the other cheek more often when it is a person being accused of committing a crime? Doesn’t this virtue cut both ways? Is it just me or is the idiocy of all this hypocrisy getting just way too thick for other people to stomach as well?