Jesse Williams: BET Humanitarian Award speech.

You may have seen this video make the rounds. A powerful speech. Hard to link to on YouTube for some reason, can't get a good quality video. Seek it out.

Sandra Bland and the suicide narrative.

Since the suspicious death of Sandra Bland the media coverage has been a real swamp of information/misinformation/red herrings. The brutality of her interactions with the police have become increasingly transparent through video and transcripts.

There's also talk about mental illness, and the way it's being talked about in the media and on social media makes me worry about the intent behind using mental illness as a villain instead of focusing squarely on the police force.

Don't talk at me about depression and suicidal ideation when every instant of her experience with law enforcement was demoralizing, dehumanizing and hate-based.

I've been trying to stay abreast of this on twitter, Yves comments got me, because there's a lot of misrepresentation of suicidal ideation by the assumption that as they pointed out "someone that smart, passionate, determined, revolutionary etc wouldn't kill herself."

This is dangerous and hurtful.

I hate that so much of the defense of #SandraBland is "Someone that smart, passionate, determined, revolutionary etc wouldn't kill herself."

— Call Me Yves (@Adamant_Yves) July 24, 2015

You're posting videos of #SandraBland's brightness and photos of her smiling to prove she wasn't suicidal. It's problematic.

— Call Me Yves (@Adamant_Yves) July 24, 2015

I'm afraid it pins us to the wall. If it comes out that #SandraBland killed herself, then what? Is she less woke? Less revolutionary? Etc.

— Call Me Yves (@Adamant_Yves) July 24, 2015

I am no expert on #suicide either but our focus should be how she was brutalized by police

— Fetty Schomburg (@DanTresOmi) July 24, 2015

If she did kill herself (which seems highly unlikely) that doesn't mean she wasn't brutalized by police, in a long, seemingly never-ending shit-show of racism and aggression.

If she did kill herself (which seems highly unlikely), that doesn't mean she isn't deserving of support, and that her death shouldn't be mourned as being devastating.

If she did kill herself (which seems highly unlikely), it doesn't mean that the entirety of the stress, violence and vitriol focused on her is a symptom of a racist, systemically unjust justice system.

There is a lot going on here, and there are fantastic writers and journalists writing on the subject. I'm going to try and educate myself the best I can. Black twitter and activist twitter is a fantastic resource for discussion and insight.

It is increasingly disheartening to see story after story of police brutality and murder coming up from the states. I just want to send my love and solidarity to those feeling directly targeted. It's just so overwhelming.

The murders of Caroline Small and Sandra Bland.

Caroline Small was a woman living through a mental health "breakdown" of some kind. Whether afraid or overwhelmed, she slowly drove away from police who were questioning her, and what followed was a brutal, unnecessary shooting and her murder. Then of course, the cover-up, as this happened in 2010 and it's only making national news now.

Daily Kos' Shaun King has an overview of what happened. I don't watch the videos of these things any-more. I find them too upsetting. They make me sick. You're watching someone being murdered. I trust the journalists who do watch them, and I think it's important to circulate these stories, these names, and these videos.

It seems every day there's a new name, immortalized to hash-tag status. A murdered man or woman. Predominantly black.

Another name is that of Sandra Bland. She was arrested for a ridiculous traffic infraction (not using her blinker!?) and was violently arrested by an insanely aggressive police officer. Three days later she was found dead in her jail cell.

Why was she even in jail for 3 days? This makes no sense to me. What kind of traffic laws are these!?

There is an ongoing investigation into Sandra Bland's death, and so far it's being treated as a homicide.

In Caroline Small's case, they didn't even consider the possibility there was a non-violent way to approach her, totally dismissing and ignoring her mental state (and considering these same officers waved-away the EMTs after she was shot multiple times, you get a sense of their value for life). Her mental state, and her need for aid was completely overlooked.

With Sandra Bland, mental illness is being used as a red herring for her death. Police officers have said she committed suicide in that jail cell. Everyone is calling bullshit. She was never told why she was being arrested, the arresting officer was hyper-aggressive, she was violently handled - it's just a whole shit-show.

For Caroline small, her mental state was ignored. There was no consideration for her.

For Sandra Bland, quoted as being "argumentative and uncooperative" by the arresting officer (she kept asking why she was being arrested and was never told), mental illness is used to discredit her as a victim.

The real sickness in all of this is the palpable aggression of the police towards those they encounter. It seems in several cases there was a real desire to shoot and kill. I don't know what the answer is. Police reform? Community involvement? Community-based peace officers?

I hope the outrage fuels real change.