"They Can't Kill Us All"

"They Can't Kill Us All"

Adult nonfiction
"'Every body want me to be calm, do you know how those bullets
hit my son? What they did to his body as they entered his body?'
Lezley McSpadden screamed as the news was relayed, her husband and
other loved ones wrapping her in a tight hug...
There were fires in the streets before DeRay, Netta, and
Brittany even made it to Ferguson. By morning dozens of businesses
had been torched, Ferguson police cruisers pummeled, and above it all
were the festive lights city officials had hung, spelling out SEASONS
GREETINGS."
I'd have been angry as Hell if my son, in his teen years, had
been shot dead by a police officer and his corpse had been left on a
city street 4 1/2 hours. That's what happened to 18-year-old Michael
Brown in the town on Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014.
Wesley Lowery, author of "They Can't Kill Us All," was sent to
cover the story for the Washington Post. Brown was not the first
black man shot by those sworn to serve and protect. But the ambiance
was different, the grief more universal and raw. People were more
willing to share their own stories of harassment and brutality.
"Ferguson would birth a movement and set the nation on a course
for a still-ongoing public hearing on race that stretched far past the
killing of unarmed residents--from daily policing to Confederate
imagery to cultural appropriation. The social justice movement
spawned from Mike Brown's blood would force city after city to grapple
with its own fraught histories of race and policing. As protests
propelled by tweets and hashtags spread under the banner of Black
Lives Matter and with cell phone and body camera video shining new
light on the way police interact with minority communities, America
was forced to consider that not everyone marching in the streets could
be wrong."
Ferguson was only the first city in which, over a considerable
time span, Lowery would apply his strong research and reporting
skills. As similar tragedies of white cop on black citizen violence
unfolded, he traveled the country--providing a narrative of the
actions and reactions, interviewing and profiling important
participants, digging for deeper nuances and truths, and repeatedly
taking the pulse of the fledgling movement.
If you want to really understand the continuing tragedy of white
cops killing blacks and not being convicted or even charged and black
people's attempts to obtain justice and safety, "They Can't Kill Us
All" is a must read.
According to a YES! magazine article, highlighting the not-so-
obvious tragic consequences of white Cop on black violence, research
shows that not only grieving families, but entire communities are
traumatized. Add in the effects of structural racism and the dearth
of culturally competent mental health workers. We have a real crisis
in this country.
On a personal note, I have a really strange reaction to Skittles
candy. Every time I see it I remember a night when Adam was fifteen.
He went out, wearing a hoodie, to buy Skittles and a drink. The same
night Trayvon Martin, only two years older, was shot by George
Zimmerman for doing the exact same thing. That was the moment I
became most enraged on behalf of the vulnerable black communities in
our nation. No teen should be killed in cold blood for buying a
snack; no parent should lose a child this way.
A great big shout out goes out to the powerful black writers who
inform us of very important and necessary truths.
jules hathaway


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