I wonder if Martese Johnson’s exclaimed “I go to [the University of Virginia]!” plea synonymous with “I’m not like the others!”
“The others,” of course means other people who could be more deserving of the beating Johnson took from the Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control agents after Johnson was denied entry to the Trinity Irish Pub just moments prior.
Was Johnson trying to distinguish himself from other people of African descent who found themselves victims of law enforcement violence?
I can’t be sure until he discusses his side of the beatdown.
One thing we know for sure is that where Johnson attended school or where he lived did not matter much through the eyes of those ABC officers, who arrived at the verdict of rendering the junior UVA honor committee student bloody five days ago.
It seems that Johnson’s polite and cordial discussion with the pub’s bouncer just prior to the beating, and the lack of visible evidence of intoxication, could not change the violent outcome.
I feel bad for all innocent victims of police profiling or violence, and particularly for Johnson today since he learned a brutal lesson about the generally posited rules for people of African descent to rise above the smothering cape of selective violence—namely, get a good education, hang around the right people and reject all things deemed as thuggish through the eyes of the rule makers.
The lesson? The rules don’t matter…
song currently stuck in my head: “mortal man” – kendrick lamar
mentalunrest.com 