The value of an African-American male’s life has yet again come in to question.

Last year, I found myself appalled by the not-guilty verdict delivered in the George Zimmerman trial. Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch captain on trial in Florida for the murder of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

According to police reports and media coverage, Zimmerman called 911 to report what he described as a “suspicious person.” He was then instructed not to pursue or engage the individual.

Disregarding the dispatcher’s instructions, Zimmerman got out of his vehicle and approached the person. Moments later Martin was dead. Zimmerman claimed the shooting was in self-defense following a struggle between the two.

There was an outcry from the local and national community. People across the country were united by their yearning for justice.

 

The Zimmerman trial and shooting of Trayvon Martin was a testament to just how far the country has come since the racially segregated days of the civil rights movement — not far enough.

There is no value to be placed on a human life. The only equal for a life is another life. It is outrageous that a man can wrongfully take the life of another human being and serve no time.

It would be easy to say that it was not an issue of race and pretend that this isn’t an issue in America, but that is false.

In America, people are imprisoned for selling marijuana. Yet, a man takes the life of a young black man and serves no jail time.

How can a country be built on the principles of “liberty and justice for all” and let such a thing happen? It is baffling.

Since the Trayvon Martin case, I have found myself more aware of the occurrences of such injustices. Recently, there has been a multitude of media coverage surrounding the Michael Brown shooting.

Brown, an 18-year-old African-American male and robbery suspect was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. He was unarmed, police said.

Initial reports said the police officer claimed he shot Brown after a struggle over the officer’s gun. But a female friend of the officer made an anonymous call to a radio station introducing a new version of the events.

According to the friend, Brown was “bum-rushing” the officer while he had his gun pointed at him. The officer then allegedly shot Brown until he was no longer running toward him.

The autopsy report found that Brown had been shot six times, and two of those shots were in his head.

Reportedly, Brown had his hands in the air as a sign of surrender. The angles of the wounds to his arms do support the theory that his arms were up in surrender.

The trend in justice is to imprison people for accidental deaths. What else would shooting an unarmed teenager a minimum of six times be called?

The Ferguson community has since been in an uproar. Battle lines have been drawn between police officers and people from the predominately African-American suburb.

Violence erupted at a candlelight vigil held Sunday night.

Participants crowded the streets near the scene of shooting, some of them shouting “No justice, no peace.”

Police officers dressed in riot gear arrived by the hundreds and were accompanied by K-9 units. Reports described a peaceful protest turned volatile.

The city has since been in a state of unrest. Rioting and looting has led to implementation of a city-wide curfew.

In both the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown shootings, character assassinations were used to portray the victims as criminals or thugs.

I have viewed the footage of Brown robbing the convenience store just before his shooting. It is apparent that Brown and Martin were indeed not angels but they were still victims. Using the shortcomings of their lives as a justification for their wrongful deaths is both ignorant and cruel.

If being guilty of a crime or just being a defiant teenager was justification for death, there would be no correctional facilities, no judges, no jurors and more importantly, no justice.

Adam Lanza is responsible for the death of 20 kindergarteners, his mother and six others. After Lanza’s suicide, he was portrayed as a sick person more than a killer. Sympathy was shown for his illness more than ridicule was for his crimes.

It is baffling that people use the footage of Brown robbing a convenience store as a sign that he was a heartless thug.

He did not deserve to be gunned down by a police officer simply because he robbed a convenience store.

For years, the value of a black life and especially that of a black male was devalued. As blacks marched and protested for equality in the 1960s, they were met with police brutality and humiliation.  

After all of these years and so much supposed progress, the confrontation between officers and the African-American community in Ferguson seems eerily similar to those dark corners of American history.

No human being deserves to be profiled, harassed or murdered based on their race.

The country should not be divided by this event.

This event should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in the country that more progress must be made.

In such a diverse world, we must let our humanity unite us rather than allowing fear or the color of our skin to divide us.

Coming together rather than being torn apart by the racial barriers of the past is how the nation will overcome this crisis.