There is a particular meme that has appeared in my Facebook newsfeed more than once, and I am infuriated by its flippant callousness and deep miscomprehension of recent events revealing systemic injustice in law enforcement. Perhaps you have seen it too:
In the aftermath of the deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and many others over this past year or so, I saw this meme posted ... and I cannot fathom how anyone would wave away deadly force (gunshot wound, chokehold, etc.) as "poor treatment" -- as if these incidents were merely a matter of officers being a little too rough, impolite, rude, or neglectful. Unarmed people have been killed. Families have been shattered and loved ones and communities are grieving. And none of it is funny or deserving of this kind of sneering sarcasm.
And though I am not really into debate via infobyte, I have perused some threads of comments emerging from the above meme. In appreciation and gratitude for some of the images and quips used to challenge, rebut, reprove and disavow it, I offer this gallery of responses below.
Because this meme must be dissed, defanged, and strewn of any principalities lurking there that aim to misinform, ignorize, shallowize, and condescend to the public --
Because "being treated poorly by police" is a such a horribly minimizing and dehumanizing phrase to use in light of the realities --
Because this is so true for so many of us --
Because somehow, unarmed teens in bikinis must be forcibly contained and chained --
Because when "laws" can culminate in you being killed for simply existing, there is something deeply wrong with those laws --
Because of myriad discrepancies. For example --
And besides --
Because, innocent or guilty, we actually do not have an instant death penalty, even if some folks might prefer it that way --
And because so many people love to blame this guy for our sociocultural illnesses --
Even though the roots of the problem lie elsewhere --
And yet --
In conclusion, to vent some righteous anger to the contemptuous meme that set this all off, and to the disdainfully sneering mindset that it transmits, (and yes, I know that he doesn't look like a first-century Jew here) --
