It happened, then it didn't happen. This reporter should have covered it sooner. It went down the memory hole before a proper story could get written, so this is what the public is left with. A young black woman walked into the Aldi's on West Mound to by groceries. She was wearing a t-shirt that read "demilitarize the police" . She shopped. She paid. While she was leaving she was confronted by a security guard.
Rodney King was the first break in the dam. The beating that sparked the rebellion in 1992 was not new. What was new was video cameras. Now everybody could see the unrestrained violence against the defenseless that America calls “law enforcement.” Consumer electronics have advanced. There are cameras in every phone. Video has now recorded the recent deaths Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. It did not record the less nationally known case of Henry Green V here in Columbus.
On Wednesday July 27th a white supremacist militia threatened a planned rally to protest the death of Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis. The rally and march had a Facebook events page that the group, The Twin Cities General Defence Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW-GDC), was using to promote the protest. That page became littered with threats from white supremacists claiming allegiance to the Three Percent Militia, which has a history of physical confrontations with black lives matter protestors in the Minneapolis area.
After the murder of police murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in St Paul, activists working for justice for the murder of Henry Green V redoubled their efforts with two events in two days and the promise of many more to come. Both were attended by large crowds. The mood at the first was somber and defiant while the mood at the second was just defiant.
The video rolls into this office faster than it can be processed. American police have celebrated the nation's independence with a wave of public executions bringing the total number of unarmed black men killed to 115 in 2016. That is more than twice the number killed in the Pulse Nightclub massacre carried out by private security contractor and former prison guard Omar Mateen.