Dontre Hamilton

This afternoon I went to a gathering of people arrested on Dec. 20th in the protest for justice in the death of Dontre Hamilton. I expected a large crowd, 75 were arrested, but found only about 25 persons present. I expected some lawyers to be present to give us some advice. There was none. I expected more black males present there was only one. We did establish some kind of sharing list among ourselves. Afterwards I realized there was no discussion of what brought us to the protest on Dec. 20th, demanding justice for death of Dontre Hamilton, an unarmed African American male shot 14 times by a white police officer although he had broken no law. I thought maybe the plan to arrest us two days before the DA announced there would no charges filed against the police officer in order to scare us and divide us, had worked. The focus of the meeting was on us not the injustice and death to Dontre.

I have noticed the news account of Dontre’s killing has been shorten to there was a struggle in the park and Dontre grabbed the police officer’s club and maybe make took a swing at police officer which justified him shooting Dontre 14 times. Left out of the narrative is the fact that Dontre was resting on a public park bench, already had been checked by police twice earlier that day and found to be doing nothing wrong or illegal. Also left out of the narrative is that the coroner’s report that Dontre had bruises on his body indicated he had been beaten before he grabbed the officer’s club. The officer was fired by police chief for not following police procedure and shaking down Dontre but DA said that did not figure into his report. I am going to try to find a narrative that is complete. However, it does not take much more information that we already have to know that the police officer should have been held accountable for killing Dontre. A trial and jury could decide his innocence or guilt just like any of us who shot a person in similar situation. But however, you cut it justice was not served and that is why we were on the streets that night we were arrested.

Dontre’s case is important in a bigger way. He represents black man around the USA who are treated unfairly by white police officers. Police officers are just human and we cannot expect them to be free of the racial discrimination in our society. It is not a struggle of police officer against young adult black males. It is much deeper and the way to get at it is through cases like Dontre’s.

After the terrorist attack on the magazine “Charlie Hebdo” on the website appeared the message: “Je suis Charlie”, I am Charlie. This was the cry throughout France. I remember in some of the protest calling for justice in death of Dontre the cry was “I am Dontre.” That cry is important for unless we identify with Dontre Hamilton and black men whose lives seem not to matter as much as white lives, the issue of racism this case highlights will not be resolved. Saying I am Dontre is saying I am willing to take on the suffering and discrimination faced by black males in our society, not generally or in the abstract, but personally. I need to know more about Dontre Hamilton, what he felt and experienced, so I can truly say I am Dontre.

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