Today is my birthday. I woke up to a lovely breeze from the window, quiet, and my husband greeting me with sapphire and diamond earrings. My children were still safely snug in their beds, and he and I geared up for a morning run on along our master-planned, tree lined streets. When I came back and flipped up my laptop, I was hit with news that there was ANOTHER police shooting in Baton Rouge this time, and a least three officers were killed.

Some folks may be inwardly celebrating this travesty, as some blood atonement for the seemingly unending reportage of police shootings. Others may be gleeful and welcome some sort of war between them and the police. And to that, I say…WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

No one should be celebrating this, or even thinking this will be a just comeuppance for the force. Because you know what’s going to happen? You are going to make the police force in it’s entirety ANGRY. And you know where they will lay the hammer? Not in my lily white Republican neighborhood, but in the ‘hood, where the most vulnerable to police brutality reside….and you know what? I don’t care how many AK47’s Pookie and Ray Ray have in their mama’s garage, YOU WILL LOSE. THIS. NEEDS. TO. STOP.

The very people and community you think are being avenged will be the victims of an utter police state. The weakest amongst you–the women, children, and babies–will literally be in life-or-death situations in the poorest and most crime-riddled areas.

But let’s consider another alternative, where the police as a collective decide they will no longer patrol the poverty-stricken areas infested with drug dealers, pimps, and sociopaths? How safe will you feel then? Are there enough Pookies and Ray-Rays to protect all of them, considering the dearth of black men in those areas due to prison factories? Either way, the weakest and most vulnerable are screwed, and those who have been able to escape the ‘hood can be nestled in safety as those communities burn.

In both scenarios, WHO THE FUCK WINS?

This reminds me of a post on Sojourner’s Passport that seems almost Nostradomas-esque. It was written in 2010.

The day will come when outside (i.e., White male dominated) law enforcement gets tired of even pretending to protect African-Americans from other African-Americans. We complain about police brutality when they do respond to what’s going on in Black residential areas. We complain when they don’t respond.

At some point, the police and the non-Black (White and emerging Latino) political elites that control them will decide to put up physical barriers around violent Black residential areas and call it a day. And have the police patrol the perimeter to make sure that the inhabitants stay inside those violent, crime-ridden neighborhoods at night. I’ve warned African-American women to rethink our traditional, knee-jerk reactions to the police. After all, White-male dominated law enforcement are the only organized group of male protectors that African-American women and children have! During You Betta Recognize, Part 2: White Male Dominated Law Enforcement Is The Only Thing Standing Between You And Mass Rape In Black Neighborhoods I said,

WE’VE SEEN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WHITE MALE-DOMINATED LAW ENFORCEMENT PULLS BACK FROM POLICING AFRICAN-AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL AREAS: DUNBAR VILLAGE.

We know what happens when White male-dominated law enforcement pulls back from policing Black residential areas in the US. Dunbar Village. Rowan Towers. We also know that many (if not most) African-Americans (of both genders) are indifferent to these sorts of atrocities, as long as it’s not happening to them personally. . .

RECOGNIZE THAT AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE NO ORGANIZED MALE PROTECTORS OTHER THAN WHITE MALE-DOMINATED LAW ENFORCEMENT.

With the limited exception of the Nation of Islam, there generally are noorganized group of male protectors within Black residential neighborhoods. The masses of African-American men assume no responsibility whatsoever for protecting the women and children in their neighborhoods. That’s why deeply confused African-American women, such as the Deborah movement in Chicago try to take on the male duty of protecting Black residential areas. White male-dominated law enforcement is the only thing currently standing between the Black women and girls who live in Black neighborhoods and mass rape. More African-American women need to remember that before having knee-jerk anti-police reactions.

The Peace Walls are coming. And which side of them will YOU be on?