Greetings Dear Community,
I wanted to write to you today about love.
February is all love.
I wanted my message to be light-hearted and full of joy, mustered up even in spite of the arduous duration of this pandemic.
And then, [on] Wednesday [February 2, 2022], twenty-two year old Amir Locke was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer.
And I still want to write to you about love.
I don’t have words sharp enough, large enough, heavy enough to tell you what yet another police killing in Minnesota feels like right now. I could talk about the potential housed in his twenty-two years, what he may have become, how he may have served his community, what a light he was to his parents and family members who loved him, how his imminent plans to move to Dallas to be with his mother meant that he almost made it out of Minnesota alive.
I’ve said these things before.
After awhile, after so many deaths, my words start to feel . . . unspecific, even insulting to the memory of the wholly singular human being who was known and loved and held and is now gone.
In that way, even our grieving starts to mirror the thing stalking our community. Ironically, racism doesn’t discriminate. It strips us from the recognition that each of our lives is precious and important. As the names rack up, it allows people to forget that we are loved beyond measure by someone, somewhere who has spent countless hours braiding our hair, or washing our bodies, cooking for and feeding us, squeezing us and kissing our foreheads, laughing with pride at each of our accomplishments, and grieving every wound we suffer – those visible and invisible . . . someone, somewhere loves us completely. And they will be utterly bereft by the violent theft of a life they worked so diligently to nurture.
Yesterday I saw a huge mural east of the Lowry Tunnel on 394: “Justice for Amir,” it said. I thought, “what does that even mean anymore?” How many more signs will call for something so basic? And how can something so basic require the total overhaul of American society?
Dr. Cornel West said, “justice is what love looks like in public.”
How do we love Amir now?
Justice for Amir would have meant that he could one day hold his grand-babies. Justice for Amir would have meant that he could walk down any street in any city in our country and not be followed by eyes, or police, or suspicions. Justice for Amir would have meant that he never worried about having enough to eat, that his school would never be shot up, that the Earth that cradled him wouldn’t be poisoned, that the decisions of people who couldn’t actually see his light would govern his fate. Justice for Amir would have meant that we had already alleviated the inequities Black and other People of Color weather every day.
Justice for Amir would mean life.
We need a new way. We cannot rely on elected officials or volunteer organizers to build the way for us. This needs every single one of us and our families and friends and neighbors and colleagues. This goes beyond a civic duty, this is a moral imperative.
We save our own lives by ensuring that others get to live theirs unfettered, free.
If you are reading this, it means that you are close to an organization that is striving to help you show up in love everywhere in your life. It means that you have resources you can call upon and we are making more. If you are reading this, it means that you care—but can you love?
Love with me. Love harder. Love more. Love aloud. Show everyone around you what justice really means.
With enduring love,
Related Off-site Links:
After Amir Locke Police Killing, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Should Resign – Robin Wonsley Worlobah (Teen Vogue, February 10, 2021).
Cover-Up in Minneapolis? Police “Executed” Amir Locke in “No-Knock” Raid, Say His Parents and Activists – Democracy Now! (February 8, 2022).
Minneapolis Police Kill Black Man While Serving No-knock Warrant; Activists Demand Answers – Henry Pan (Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, February 2, 2022).
Protesters March in Downtown Minneapolis, Calling for Justice for Amir Locke – MPR News (February 5, 2022).
Minneapolis Police Release Bodycam Footage of Amir Locke Killing – Henry Pan (Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, February 4, 2022).
Locke Family: Amir Was Law-abiding, “Loved By All”; Attorneys Blast No-knock Entry – Jon Collins (MPR News, February 4, 2022).
Black Mothers and Women Press for Accountability in Police Killing of Amir Locke – Cole Miska (Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, February 7, 2022).
UPDATES: Amir Locke Killing: Prosecutors Won’t File Charges Against Minneapolis Cop – Jon Collins (MPR News, April 6, 2022).
Amir Locke’s Mother Says She Is “Disgusted” With the City of Minneapolis After Charging Decision – Shaymus McLaughlin (Bring Me the News, April 6, 2022).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “This Has Got to Stop”
• Under Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, “More Negligence and Suffering”
• “And Still and All, It Continues”
• Bearing Witness
• The Problem Is Ultimately Bigger Than Individuals. It’s Systemic
• “I Can’t Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
• Something to Think About – May 28, 2020
• Honoring George Floyd
• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Quote of the Day – June 9, 2020
• Something to Think About – July 21, 2020
• Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
• In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
• “Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
• “We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
• Nancy A. Heitzeg: Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
• “This Doesn’t Happen to White People”
• Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
• “An Abolitionist Demand”: Progressive Perspectives on Transforming Policing in the U.S.
Image: Penumbra Theatre.
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