Atlanta rapper Killer Mike appeared on CNN to discuss the police shooting of Ferguson, Missouri teenager Michael Brown. One of half of the rap group Run The Jewels revealed his father was a law enforcement officer, but he did not want his children to follow into that profession.
After sharing that he holds cops in high regard and most are well-intentioned individuals, Mike does acknowledge that there has been a change in the way the police interact with the citizens they are charged to protect and serve.
“The culture of policing is changing. It’s becoming militarized. They’re getting old military weapons. They’re using kids fresh out the military, and using military tactics,” said Mike. “We have essentially gone from being communities that were policed by people from the community to communities that are policed by strangers. That’s no longer a community. That’s an area that’s under siege.”
Mike was then asked about comments made by filmmaker Spike Lee. In a separate interview, Lee stated his belief that there is a “war on the black male.”
“This is a black male issue. It has been for all my thirty-something years on life, and I refuse to let you only think about that,” Mike responded. “Whatever this country is willingly do to the least looked upon – we can all come to agreeance that often times black males are the least looked upon. We’re the least thought about in terms of education. We’re the least thought about in terms of community violence. We’re the least thought about in terms of community and police relations. But whatever this country is willingly to do to them, to black people, to those males will eventually happen to all Americans.”
Watch Killer Mike’s interview below.
No comments:
Post a Comment