Premeditated

An acquittal was given on Friday September 15 for former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley in the fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith. The defense for the officer requested a non-juried trial. The circuit judge, Timothy Wilson, looked at the evidence and decided that the officer was not guilty of the charges brought against him. The charges included murder.

If you are unfamiliar with the situation you should get educated. Google it. Please. What’s crazy is, there’s video of Stockley saying he was “going to kill this mother [expletive], don’t you know it” (4:03-4:15 approx) during the chase that led up to Anthony Lamar Smith’s being shot to death after the police crashed their vehicle into his own. Stockley clearly spoke his intent and his opinion of Anthony Lamar Smith: a “mother [expletive]” he planned on killing, “don’t you know it.”

Then he did it.

It’s not like Jason Stockley woke up on the morning of December 20, 2011 and said to himself, “I’m going to kill some mother [expletive] today, don’t you know it,” but somewhere between when he woke up and went he shot Anthony Lamar Smith fatally, he did say to himself, “[I’m] going to kill [some] mother [expletive], don’t you know it” and then he said it out loud. And it was recorded. And he followed through. And it made no difference in the final verdict.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. – Luke 6:45

I’m working on a piece of fiction to play off of all of this. I haven’t fully formed it yet, but it will be coming.

Until then….

I’ve been listening to, and re-listening to the song “Premeditated” by Reconcile (featuring Jackie Hill Perry) from the album Streets Don’t Love You, in light of this most recent ruling and case. The song talks about the some of the systemic injustices that exist in society today, including in the judicial system and hints at their being intention behind it as well. Some of the questions he asks include:

How many children in the system?

How many kids’ll see a cell?

How many fathers in the system?

How many kids’ll go to hell?

and….

How many cops is pleadin’ guilty?

How many blacks behind the bars?

How many badges black and filthy?

How much it take to make it hard?

How much it take to buy a judge?

How much it take to drown the guilt?

How much it take to see your kids?

See all the prisons that we built

In verse 2 Jackie Hill Perry (beast mode incarnate IMO) aptly states:

The po-pos ain’t opposed to kill

She speaks words that are in line with those of former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley. He is seemingly not opposed to killing some “mother [expletive], don’t you know it,” and the Georgia officer caught here saying “we only kill black people,” seems to also reflect, or really, expectorate that same mindset. There is a clear and documented acknowledgement that they are not opposed to killing a certain type of individual. And, it can be implied (by their brazenness) that they feel rather confident about their ability to “kill [some] mother [expletive], don’t you know it,” and get away with it. I’d say this is corroborated by the murder of Walter Scott.

Officer Michael Slager fired eight rounds at Walter Scott while he ran away from him after a traffic stop in April 4, 2015, hitting him five times. Then he went over to his fallen body, planted a taser next to him, and radioed in a lie to dispatch. Only because of the cell phone video of a civilian did the truth come out. The smooth and oiled way in which officer Slager’s lies and deceit came forth hints at Scott not being the first man killed by a law enforcer who then lied about how it was a justified killing and got away with it by planting evidence.

And there is rather suspicious video (6:30-end approx) hinting at the possibility that Anthony Lamar Smith is just another of these same victims .

The citizens of St Louis came out in protest and demonstration, venting their frustrations and their hurt at the brokenness of the system.

I felt it too. I’ve been upset by these things before, but never to this extent. To have a law enforcement officer, someone who should be held to a higher standard, state his intentions to “kill [some] mother [expletive], dont you know it,” and do it, and get acquitted… I’ve never cried over these things, never been so mad I wanted to scream, hurt my neck from clenching my jaw as tight as I could to try and contain my rage… until this. I asked my wife to pray for me…. Because I knew (and I worked… hard… to convince myself of what I knew, but could not fully grasp at the moment) that God did care, does care, even though it doesn’t look like it.

My wife prayed with me, and we cried together, and we prayed some more, and we got it together.

And I really started trippin’ over the person of Jesus Christ, because I know that he gets it. Jesus lived as part of an oppressed people. The Jews, his people, under Roman occupation, were frequent victims of legal police brutality (including crucifixions). As I prayed and cried over these things I could just hear Jesus saying “I get it, I get it.” I know that there is a special place and reward for martyrs of the faith, but I think there is also special relationship that Jesus has and will have with those who are victims of injustice and oppression. Because he gets it, and he cares intimately because he lived through it. As Bizzle notes in “Equal Opportunity”:

If you don’t think God cares about oppression you ain’t studied this book right.

I’ll close with a little Propaganda featured on the song “Gangland” from Lecrae’s Church Clothes 3:

Delusional calling that system criminal justice

Where the rich and the guilty are safer than the poor and the innocent

Why would we listen?

…..

And it was a crooked system just like this that left the King of Kings bloodless

Yeah, we are truly a descendant of a King Only his reign is infinite

Anyway… story to follow next time.