WASHINGTON — Trust the system. Trust the law. It’s blind, applying to everyone equally. It exists to bring justice, not reserved for any one group. No one is above it; no one is below it. It serves you.
That’s what I’ve been told, repeatedly. And then I watch a press conference where justice is shredded by an arbiter of the system and I ask myself, "how?"
I listened as Daniel Cameron explained how its agents could just go into a woman’s home, shoot her dead, and bear no responsibility. Agents who then attempted to mislead the public. Tried to smear this good woman by tying her to criminal activities.
Mr. Cameron would have me place my faith in this. A system that says shooting through a wall is worse than shooting through a person. A system that employs people who think killing an innocent woman is legal, moral and ethical.
Emmitt Till, Atatiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor. All victims of the same system. Their assailants empowered by it. Free of consequence and punishment.
If this is what the law allows -- a complete lack of accountability in the death of an innocent -- then it’s time for these laws to change. It's time for them to be put on trial.
A community filled with both anger and fear has been looking for this change, for a long time.
Ida B Wells was looking for it in her reporting.
Emmitt Till’s mother was looking when she left his casket open so the world could see his battered face.
The people we’ve seen in the streets, in the past as well as today, are looking for it. Where do we find it? In rage-fueled violence? I don’t think so. The anger is righteous, and justified, but it must be channeled. It must be aimed where it will have the most impact: the ballot box.
Arbiters like Daniel Cameron are elected officials. They serve at our leisure. When they show us that they are willing to put the enforcers of unjust laws ahead of the people they are charged to serve, then they must be eliminated. Voted out, replaced by reform minded individuals. Those who will fight to change those laws and punish bad actors.
When this happens, we’ll find what we’ve been looking for, justice. And along with that justice, trust.