Oakland

That cop who murdered the kid in Oakland on new years finally got arrested today, which is something I think took way too long to happen. Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but I think the double standard employed in this situation has been absolute bullshit. Simply put, had the roles been reversed I think the outcome would've been much more drastically acted upon by law enforcement.

Everyone recognizes its a tragedy and admittedly its a pr nightmare for the BART authorities, but I just can't stand the fact that this guy wasn't locked up from moment one. Its a difficult situation to find even a single positive thing about, and its been making me think about the nature of power and the corruption therein. We can fight, we can stay upset, but in the end even if the power is toppled the oppressed would just become the oppressors. In a listless world, we can't take solace in the ideas that God will do what's right or since someone is placed in an authoritative position they know how to miter just authority. Corruption is everywhere.

Where do we find solace then? In what way can we find security, comfort or a reason for laws of justice and equality, and beyond that a reason to even trust in them? I offer this: The rules and abject skew of power may not be where we want them, but even in the wake of the postmodern we can find reason to be happy. In countless points in history and even in more dilapidated areas of our world right now, this very moment, crimes like these have gone unpunished. Those in power never want to give it up, and our justice system, as fucked as it may be, shows us reasons for progress and hope. We have built a vociferous and remainingly democratic society, and its the fact that those in power have no room to squirm from the damning of their actions which we should be grateful about in moments like these.

Racism still exists in this country, and a lot of people in this country get carried away with stupid bullshit, but we remain largely democratic. What we have to focus on as a collective is defining our values, creating rules for this game we all play in society which makes cheating or taking advantage of those less fortunate harder and less socially acceptable to do. 150 years isn't that great an amount of time, but its all its been since we abolished it from our shores and even less since we actually tried to bring about equality. In a society where we've been taught to expect most everything instantly, we have to understand that an incident like this has fortunately become the exception and not the rule.

I don't know how other to say it than this, and it may sound too simplistic or inferior, but its what I believe. Things are getting better for humanity as a whole, and people at least have it in their hearts that they want the best for one another for the most part, no matter how fucked up it comes out based on their actions. This isn't an ideology that has existed forever, and the amount of humanism we've brought about through time and even within our own limited lives is something to be happy about.

It was weird: when I saw that former officer's mugshot today, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I imagined what I would feel like were I in the same place, what an unconscionable monster I'd think I was. This stain will never be erased from his life, and in some ways it may be a greater hardship on him than some others who've committed a similar act. The ruling class in this country is entirely narcissistic, and they prefer to commit their crimes against their fellow man in the dark rather than with a public forum passing judgment on their imperfection. It just seems tough to fall from a position that has such overwhelming support and appreciation from the public into a level of beast whom is a pox on society; someone we're ashamed to have mistakenly allowed into our powerful elite. When the american people see themselves reflected as a result of their moral actions across the globe, they hate to be reflected as this. It must be worse to fall from a vaunted position into that of a beast rather than that of the perpetual "beast", if for the chronological shock of losing everything which comforts you so quickly.

I in no way am trying to exhonorate this man or what he did as anything outside of murder, I just think its interesting to look at the tangents at play. In the end, though, we can hope that the situation is handled correctly and that people take a serious look at some of those they may be treating with undertoned but still entirely existent inequality.

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