Police Brutality Exposed In Cleveland And Everywhere Else

Once upon a time there were these musical artists, you see...(okay, we can call them rappers) and they went by the name of NWA. One of the groups most noted songs was titled "F### Tha Police." It was a song popular among many, including street kids and teens, who were attracted to the rebellious words which bombed out of their stereos.  

The group spoke of police brutality on a scale that suburban America did not truly believe existed. That was nearly 30 years ago; and it seems as if nothing stemming from their words has changed since that time. 

Most recently, a Cleveland officer was found not guilty in the shooting deaths of two unarmed suspects in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire. Thirteen Ohio officers fired at the suspects' car that night in a school parking lot. One officer was charged in the incident. His name is Michael Brelo. 

Prosecutors said Brelo waited until the vehicle had stopped and the occupants were no longer a threat when he stepped onto the hood and fired 15 rounds into the windshield.

The judge's verdict for 31-year-old Michael Brelo came after a four-week bench trial on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams on Nov. 29, 2012.

Brelo was also found not guilty on two counts of felonious assault. Russell was struck 24 times and Williams 23 times.

So, how much more police brutality do people of color have to endure? There's no need to strike up conversation about those who have died by the hands of police in Baltimore, New York, Ferguson, and surely every city where black Americans live. We're now quite familiar with those accounts. 

Still, no one wants to regress to a radicalized mindset such as the one expressed by rebellious, yet poignant, hip/hop artists nearly 30 years ago. However, the more we see injustice regarding senseless black killings by the hands of the police, the more we truly feel like regressing to a "f### tha police" state of mind. Surely by now, they have to understand that...I hope.