The recent murders of two NYPD officers, Rafael Ramos and WenJian Liu, have left many wondering what has happened to us as people.
While many would like nothing better than to see us divided along racial lines for their own agendas, I refuse to believe that most people are so jaded that they would fall for such propaganda.
What I do see happening, however, is something that is very concerning to me. I believe that the race baiting by those like Al Sharpton and others, has caused many who are on the fringes to begin to come out of the shadows and find a platform to release their venom.
I tweeted out Sunday morning on Twitter the hashtag #NYPDLivesMatter with a picture that is being circulated, of the badges of the two slain New York police officers.
My tweet was immediately met with a response from an obviously angry person that replied with “Don’t do that #NYPDLivesMatter sh*t…Like really?” #ReapWhatYouSow.”
It saddened me beyond words to think that someone could actually hate someone so much that they would revel in the fact that two innocent police officers died because of a revenge-killing following the deaths of two black males.
Whether you agree or disagree about the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases and if their killings were justified, supporting vigilantes who seek revenge on innocent people is never the answer.
I believe that we will see more vigilantes who believe that they are justified in killing because of the hatred they are harboring and will de-humanize those that they wish to seek revenge upon.
The man who murdered the officers, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, said before the killings, “I am putting wings on pigs today.”
He did not see these men as human and treated them accordingly. It’s the same way people in the 1960s addressed police officers they didn’t respect.
These men were human beings, however, with lives and families that have been left behind to mourn.
Liu was survived by a wife of two months and had served on the department for over seven years.
Ramos was a police officer who was married and had two sons, who will never again hear their father tell them that he loves them.
Ramos didn’t deserve what he got and his sons certainly didn’t deserve to lose their father just because he was a police officer.
One of Ramos’ sons asked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when he came to pay his respects to the family, “Why, why my dad?” “What has my dad done? What did my dad do wrong?”
What he did wrong in the eyes of his killer was put on a badge and go to work. He was not a human being in his killer’s eyes, just a ‘pig’ that represented what this killer hated.
I was disheartened by another tweet allegedly posted by a young black woman who claims to be a Student Leader at Brandeis University.
Khadijah Lynch, a junior and an Undergraduate Department Representative in the African and Afro-American Studies Department, wrote on Twitter, “i have no sympathy for the nypd officers who were murdered today.”
This woman didn’t mention the slain officers by their names but rather as ‘NYPD officers.’ It appears that she saw labels rather than real people that allowed her to show no feelings toward them. Is this really any different than Brinsley’s opinion that the officers were just ‘pigs?’
How might this same young woman have felt if it were her family that had suffered a loss of life? Would she be able to express sympathy then?
Also, would Lynch be able to look into the eyes of Ramos’ son and answer his question about what his father had done wrong?
Would she be so heartless as to tell Ramos’ son that she had no sympathy for his father’s killing or would she be able to recognize the hurt in the boy’s eyes and treat him as a human being who is suffering?
And what about those protesters led by Sharpton in DC, chanting before the killings of the two officers in NY, “What do we want?” “Dead Cops!”
Again, these protesters did not look upon the ‘cops’ as real living and breathing people with families. They saw them no differently than Brinsley and Lynch.
We won’t survive as a nation with this type of hate-filled disregard for life.
Hate isn’t a race issue. Hate is a REAL issue. It doesn’t care what color your skin is. If hate gets a foothold in our lives then we lose the ability to see others as human beings. When that happens, life has no meaning and everyone becomes a target.
My guess is that the killer who shot the two NYPD police officers didn’t take two seconds to consider how the families of these two officers would feel once they learned of their deaths because he had de-humanized the victims in order to carry out his revenge-killings.
Those who are leading the race baiting, chanting in marches, and tweeting out hateful rhetoric, are at risk of devaluing life and would be wise to check themselves to make sure that they don’t soon find themselves on the fringes with those that have become devoid of empathy for their fellow human beings.
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