Double Standards: When a White Person Murders a Cop

A white man murdered Officer Michael Johnson of the San Jose Police Department over a month ago. For officer Michael Johnson, there will be no national funeral. Jet Blue won’t fly out any cop that wants to pay remembrance. There will be no massive parade. There will be no CNN live streams. There will be no police officers protesting during the event. And guess why?

America does not give a damn if a white person murders a cop. But when a Black person does, it’s the biggest problem in America.

It’s been over a month since the cop was killed. Where is the same national outcry deploring the actions of the cop killer like there was with the Black man who killed two cops in New York? Where is the same declaration of war like when a Black man killed two cops and the NYPD issued a statement saying that: "we are now a wartime police department and we will act accordingly"? Will there be the same "war" when a white person kills a cop? Of course not.

The difference here is the cop killer was white. It isn’t sensationalist. It isn’t what the media wants it to be. It isn’t going to be used to detract from peaceful protesters in the Black Lives Matter movement. There’s no political or ulterior motive for the mass discussion of it.

When a white person kills a cop, there’s a different response than when a Black person kills a cop. First, all white people are not responsible. White people have the privilege in which they don’t have to live up to the actions that a lone white cop killer makes. Secondly, the media won’t use it to deter from the real problem of institutionalized racism. And the white killer most likely will be framed as a good person who was recently “stressed out”.

However when a Black person kills a cop, every member of the race is expected to denounce the actions. For instance, victims of state sanctioned violence are expected to make a comment each time a cop has been killed. After the killing of the NYPD cops, both Michael Brown and Eric Garners family both publicly released statements denouncing the killings of the 2 NYPD officers. These killings had nothing to do with them, yet they still have to denounce killings of a cop that is apart of the same institution that killed their own family member.

Where are the cops denouncing the killings of unarmed Mike Brown and Eric Garner? Why aren’t families who have lost a cop to violence asked to denounce the extrajudicial killings of Mike Brown and Aiyana Jones?

 In America there’s a double standard. Black people are consistently forced to refute violence against police, even though Blacks are killed every 28 hours my racist cops, vigilantes, and security forces. When cops are killed, stop-asking families that are victims of state sanctioned violence to denounce the killings. End the double standard.  And stop re-traumatizing Black folks who are a victim of America’s state sanctioned violence.