#AntonioMartin.

Yet another Black person is dead by the hands of the police*.

Literally hours ago Antonio Martin, an 18 year old unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by police in Berkeley, Missouri. Berkeley, from my understanding, is within the same county as Ferguson and St. Louis. The same cities in which Michael Brown and Vonderrit Myers, Jr. were killed respectively. Reading the reports from the crime scene, Martin’s body was laying on the ground at the Mobil gas station for more than 2 hours. Af of this moment, his body is STILL on the ground. When he was shot, he was still breathing. No medical attention whatsoever was given to him. He lived for approximately 30 minutes or so and he eventually expired.

They just… let him die. They didn’t help him, they didn’t try to sustain him, nothing. They literally stood aside and let him die.

We still don’t know the details of what happened between he and the officer who shot him, but it’s come to the point where what happened doesn’t even matter. The fact that he was unarmed, the fact that we’ve seen this story play before our eyes countless times before, the fact that we can already predict the outcome of this case speaks volumes about the condition of the system that claims to sustain freedom and democracy in America. We already know that Antonio Martin will be vilified and that his character will be assassinated ruthlessly by the media. We’re already expecting the officer responsible for his demise will be let off with not so much as a slap on the wrist. We won’t get a reasonable explanation for why an ambulance didn’t arrive for over 2 hours. We can sense that there will be no indictment, if it even gets that far.

And that’s what we’ve come to in America. A Black man or woman is killed and it means nothing. Just every day life, and literally so, since just about every day we’re hearing about yet another hashtag, another atrocity. Black people, Brown people, mentally and physically disabled people… it would appear we’re all expendable in the eyes of those meant to serve and protect us. No mourning or remorse for the lives lost, no condolences or sympathies to the families. There is literally not a damn given about these victims and their families.

Which is why we must indict this system that suppresses and oppresses on a daily basis. Which is why we must resist against the status quo and the normalcies surrounding the deaths of Black people by the hands of the police. We’ve got to keep fighting and keep pushing for a better agenda that will protect all of us. We’ve got to keep pressing towards the mark that is true freedom and equality. This is not it. And it is far from over.

I’m tired of seeing this. I’m tired of losing my people frivolously to violence. I’m tired of seeing my people literally rot on the ground. Black Lives Matter and I refuse to believe otherwise, despite what I keep hearing and seeing. I’m tired of having to prove that Black people are worthy.

I’m just… tired. I had to write this to get this off my chest, and no doubt it comes off as rambling. But I have to release somehow.

How long…