When a Child Dies
Newsbreak: Cleveland officials announce no charges to be filed in the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
There is something shattering about the death, the killing, of a child. When a child dies the natural order is torn, the stars weep and the earth quakes. We have become so accustomed to this system we suppose it is natural instead of a human imposition. Politicians in the pocket of so called police unions bow before bags of silver and blink away the death of a child—especially if a black child.
What man-made institution is more precious than a child? What job? What so called profession? What office? What state? When a child dies, adults don’t deserve to breathe their stolen air. When a child dies, the living must not rest until they have purged the poison that dared harm such a one. When a child dies, time runs backward and attempts to right such a wrong.
This should inspire movements worldwide to fight like never before. For something vile has happened before our eyes. A child has been killed, and in America—because it’s a black child—it means next to nothing.
—Prison Radio, December 29, 2015