Hearing his voice it immediately registered that his was a unique gentle & child like spirit. His request that his boundaries be respected was violently ignored by police who in less than 40 seconds were in his space & face with no probable cause to be there.
Juxtapose this w Dylann Roof who, after shooting 9 black people at a church meeting, got treated to a meal from Burger King.
I shuddered when the police grabbed Elijah, his anxiety was palpable & visceral. If someone grabbed me like they grabbed him my instinctual gut reflex would be to flinch and recoil. That is how they frame this shit as "resisting arrest."
They said he "didnt make sense" and used that as justification to terrorize Elijah for 15 minutes.
Let me add that it shouldnt matter that Elijah played violin for homeless kittens or that he was a vegetarian who was teaching himself Japanese. Or that he was an anemic introvert who only felt safe going into public spaces by wearing a mask. His humanity shouldn't have to be qualified because it should have been sacrosanct. They murdered this young man and their brutality only came to national attention bc of recent murders of more black people.
Can you imagine the shock of watching police in other countries flagrantly executing citizens in the streets?
Why is it acceptable here?
How is it that we look aghast at genocides committed by foreign governments but have yet to face & be repulsed by the genocide perpetrated by our own? It IS genocide and a sustained one that has lasted for 400 years.
To effectively dismantle systemic racism we must confront our collective caucasian complicity that has allowed these killings to go on this long.
There will be no justice for Elijah until we do.
