WHERE DOES IT ALL END?                                                 

How can any of us watch the news these days and not despair for humankind???

Today I actually turned it off and had a good cry.  Rioting in the streets of Seattle, protests in Vancouver and huge unruly mobs forming all around the world.  The police seeming to be getting out of control in many places and it looks like total Anarchy is on so many minds.

Add to this the people flaunting the separation needed to contain the Covid pandemic and the world seems to be spinning totally out of control, where will it all end? 

The videos brought to light over the past few weeks are showing us the worst of police actions.  Watching a man be slowly suffocated while he pleaded for breath, made me feel like I was a participant in the torture, I feel unclean and so very, very sad.

I truly believe that the majority of police officers act in good faith and try to uphold the law in the best way possible, but watching these awful videos makes them look like vicious bullies.  No way do I believe that the majority of people being arrested are honest, upright citizens, they have usually done something wrong to be arrested.  However, once somebody has been wrestled to the ground and subdued, there should be no further use of unnecessary force.  Surely a handcuffed man, once on the ground should only require minimum restraint, or if he is fighting, then kneel on his back, not his neck.  Four big guys putting weight on him, especially cutting off his breathing is a criminal act.

A policeman on the beat must immediately feel his adrenalin hit the roof when he sees a person who seems to be carrying a gun, if the person does not drop the weapon, when requested to do so, I can imagine that the officer’s thoughts are of self protection, and a shooting occurs.  Sometimes it turns out the perceived weapon was nothing but an item the man was carrying, and an innocent person has lost his life.

I can also imagine a raid on a home being very scary and the sight of a knife or a gun will once more cause a death.  If someone burst through my door, without warning, I would have the same instincts to protect myself, and I may be holding my tv remote, which can be viewed by a very scared young cop as a weapon.  The fact that police are allowed to do this “no warning” breakdown of a door, is asking for mistakes to happen.

Statistics prove that fatal police actions are in the majority against people of colour, and this is where our system is wrong.  It is an obvious fact that people of colour are discriminated against in every country of the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that circumstances of poverty and a very low standard of living, plus a feeling of always being put down, makes many younger black men feel angry and worthless, which probably leads to lawbreaking.   If they are killed by police, it doesn’t make them into an instant hero and a great guy, but neither should they have been treated as an inferior and his life worth less.

I am all in favour of peaceful demonstrations, people should be able to show their sorrow and disgust at what is happening around them, but because of massive unemployment and a feeling of unrest, there is always a section of the population who will protest and riot, not because they feel it is the right thing to do but because some people will join in any fight, be on any side, just to create havoc and be part of the group.  These are the anarchists and the people who scare me.

As a child, I was brought up with a simple faith, my grandma taught me to love God and to love people of every colour and race.  If I ever turned up my nose at sitting near someone I didn’t care for, I always got the same lecture…”If he is good enough for God, he’s good enough for you”.  This was my grandma’s philosophy and it became mine and I hope I instilled this value into my four daughters.

I know this is very simplistic but does it really have to be any more complex than that??

I was brought up in a small village, by neighbours who would keep you in line with a swat, if you misbehaved.  I would never tell my gran or I got another one for being a pest to someone.   I learned to get to know people before I decided whether I like them or not, not to pass judgement on what is on the outside and try to find that which lies below the skin.  That is where the real person lives.

Thank goodness for my quiet little village of Oliver where people are not rioting in the streets, it is not perfect but it is Heaven to me.