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White people must think we’re stupid. Black people who work for the police must think so too. The narrative the city of Dallas would have us believe about the murder of Joshua Brown strains credulity to the point of farce. I’d sooner believe extraterrestrials built Epcot Center to prepare us for their arrival than I’d believe the BS coming out of Dallas PD right now.
Joshua Brown was the key witness in the Amber Guyger trial. Guyger, a former cop, was convicted last week of murdering her neighbor, Botham Jean. Brown was an important witness because he lived across the hall from Jean. Brown testified that he heard two people “meeting by surprise,” and then shortly after that heard two shots. He testified that he did not hear Guyger shout “hands up,” which was an important part of her defense.
Brown was found dead from multiple gunshots, this week.
To recap, Joshua Brown was a key witness in a trial that saw a white cop actually held accountable for her murderous actions, and a week later he turned up dead.
Immediately after the shooting, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson asked people to “refrain from speculation.” I get it, he’s a mayor, what’s the brother gonna say: I understand why everybody thinks these racist cops killed that brother, but let us figure out an official excuse before we have a race riot on our hands?
But two days later, the police are out with their official story and it sounds like a group story an eighth grade creative writing class would come up with.
According to police, Brown was killed in a “drug deal” gone bad. Dallas police have arrested two (of three, they claim) suspects. Police claim that these men drove four hours from Louisiana all the way to Dallas to… buy weed. After shooting Brown (the police didn’t even bother to give a motive for why they allegedly shot him, apparently there are enough dumb people who think that interstate marijuana deals often result in gunfire) these alleged suspects apparently left all the weed AND MONEY behind.
Every single part of this police narrative smells like bull. The only people who drive four hours to buy drugs are freaking wholesalers. You’re telling us that Josh Brown is moving enough product to make three people drive four hours to buy enough drugs to make the trip worth it? You’re FURTHER telling me that Brown is a big time wholesaler, but shows up to to a drug sale BY HIMSELF, when he knows that people are coming all the way from Louisiana. You’re telling me he’s doing all of this ten days after he’s the star witness in a police murder trial?
And, just to think like a lawyer for a second, you’re telling me that a big time drug wholesaler is the star witness for the prosecution and his drug hustle is UNKNOWN to until after the trial? You’re telling me that the prosecution rested its case on the say so of a drug kingpin, and then either didn’t know or somehow hoped that the defense — the COP’S DEFENSE TEAM — would not find out? And you’re further telling me that a bunch of cop and cop lawyers in fact DIDN’T find out and didn’t use Brown’s drug history to impeach his credibility at trial.
You’re telling me that the man who testified against a white cop at a highly publicized murder trial WHILE WEARING A DRAGONBALL-Z T-SHIRT, was actually a drug pusher conducting interstate wholesale operations, and nobody knew about it until he turned up dead?
No. Also, f**k you. How dare you expect me to believe something like that. I’m a goddamned educated man. You can shove that police narrative right back up your ass where it came from. You might as well get these suspects to confess to the murders of Biggie and TuPac for all I’ll believe it.
The problem is not that Dallas police is full of s**t, the problem is that we have nobody left to trust with an investigation of this magnitude. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is calling for an independent federal investigation into Brown’s murder. So is S. Lee Merritt, the attorney representing the family of Joshua Brown. Dallas police have absolutely no credibility to investigate this crime. Merritt points out that Brown was afraid of being targeted and didn’t want to testify. He fled to California when the trial started (a weird move for somebody with an allegedly thriving drug business in Dallas), and had to be coaxed back to Dallas to testify. Brown didn’t trust DPD to guarantee his safety, I certainly don’t trust DPD to investigate their failure.
A federal investigation led by the Department of Justice would be appropriate, except, have you met the Department of Justice lately? Attorney General William Barr is a Trump enabler who seems to relish his power to meddle in the normal operations of law for nefarious purposes. F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray appears to be a man more interested in keeping his job than conducting thorough investigations (still waiting for you guys to follow up on any of the multiple witnesses to your buddy Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged inappropriate behavior, Director Wray).
There is nobody left involved with federal law enforcement who can be trusted to value the life of Joshua Brown, or anybody black, over the objection of Donald Trump. That is by design. This is what happens when you elect a man who thinks the Exonerated Five should have been executed.
I do not know where black people turn for justice in this country, and I say that as a person who reports on justice. The police kill us. District Attorneys and Mayors cover for the police. The Attorney General is corrupt. The Civil Rights Division has been gutted. The courts have been packed with arch-conservatives grown on the Federalist Society’s farm.
Nobody will help us. They kill us on tape, and nobody will help. They kill us in our homes, our cars, our parking spaces, or just while walking down the streets, and nobody will help. They escape indictments and convictions, and nobody will help. When they are convicted they receive the lightest possible sentence, and nobody will help. When we take the streets we are met with military style counter-insurgency tactics, and nobody helps. You vote for open bigots and racists, over the OVERWHELMING objection of black and brown people, who then implement bigoted and racist policies that bring death and destruction to black and brown bodies, and not only does nobody help us, but they blame us for not voting ENOUGH to help them.
Everybody and every interest group has their own pet issues. Whether it’s health care or election security or taxes or whatever. Meanwhile, THEY’RE KILLING US. They’re killing us and it’s hard for me to get people to care about them killing us enough for them to talk about it on freaking Facebook.
They killed Joshua Brown. They’re going to get away with it. Nobody will help.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.