White Americans are increasingly waking up to the reality that our society is killing Black people. With the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, David McAtee, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Rayshard Brooks, and so many more weighing heavily on our consciences, we're now being faced with yet another terrible realization: lynchings are not just an evil of the past.
In the past two weeks, three Black men have been found dead in public areas, hung from ropes strung up in trees.This symbolism shouldn't be lost on anyone. The very image of a noose hanging from a tree is directly connected to hundreds of years of purposeful and concerted campaigns of terror that white Americans have inflicted on the Black community. Torturing and murdering Black people and leaving their bodies to hang in public places has been a way of sending a message for hundreds of years — with the message being that white people were in charge, and no one would stop them or their lynching mobs.
This viciousness is gut-churning, and it's obvious this must be taken seriously.
But the police don't seem to think so. In fact, police in the areas where these hangings have occurred — Palmdale, San Bernardino, New York City, and Houston — have labeled these deaths as "suicides." The autopsies
hadn't even been performed yet.
We need answers now. Sign the petition to demand that police investigate these men's deaths as homicides, and that the Justice Department review them as hate crimes!Malcolm Harsch was a father who looked forward to spending time with his kids. Four hours after he was stopped by a local police officer, he was mysteriously found hanging by a USB cord with blood on his shirt.
Robert Fuller was a young man, barely past adolescence. The 24-year-old was the baby of his family and his siblings report that he wasn't suicidal.
Dominique Alexander was only 27 years old when a pedestrian found him hanging from a tree in a Manhattan park.
In each of these cases, police rushed to reassure the public that there'd been "no foul play," even blaming it on the mental health strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. What's even more sinister is that officials overseeing Robert Fuller's case have lied by claiming there were no security cameras in the immediate vicinity of the park where he was hung. Yet Fuller's body was found near a busy area that included City Hall and multiple businesses —
as well as at least four cameras.At a time when the public is increasingly demanding accountability when it comes to police murders of Black people, it is even more disturbing that police would write off these obvious lynchings and jump to conclusions about "no foul play."
As Harsch's family
so clearly explained: "There are many ways to die but considering the current racial tension, a Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn't sit well with us right now. We want justice not comfortable excuses."
People all over the U.S. are already beginning to realize the police can't be trusted to tell the truth or to protect our fellow neighbors. Now, it seems, we're learning that lesson yet again. How can we trust police when they're so eager to write off the hangings of Black Americans and just pretend '
there's nothing to see here'?
Authorities must stop dismissing lynchings as "suicides," and start investigating them as the racially motivated murders they clearly are! We need answers, and that starts with finding the racists who murdered these three men!