13 year old Lee Weathersby was the first homicide victim in the city of Oakland of 2014.
He was shot and killed on his way home from visiting a friend's home. Three weeks later, his older brother, Lamar Broussard and his best friend were also shot and killed, making the two young brothers homicides 4th and 5th.
A temporary light was shone by mainstream media on a heartbroken mother who lost both of her sons to gun violence. No matter if the gun violence is perpetrated by po'lice, or the so-called “Gangsta Homie”, these murders destroy our families and communities (mostly of color) in every aspect.
As a young, misplaced diaspora African living in Amerikkka I have bore witness to stolen Africans being treated as if we were not human beings at all. In the world of wite supremacy and capitalism black lives do not matter, unless there was a profit to be made.
The po'lice kills us with impunity and receives medals of honor so how safe are our children when we have these cold-hearted, child-killers roaming amongst us? How can we rely on the police to do their sworn duty to protect the citizens when there are po'lice who shoot down kids themselves?
With so much against us people who are darker than blue it makes no sense for us to continue to intoxicate ourselves with the poisonous cocktail of cultural interception, land theft, the Willie Lynch Syndrome and the Turf War Syndrome resulting in us killing each other and our communities.
Determined to keep the legacy alive of her two sons, Lee and Lamar- who were not troublemakers and lived their lives straight, Strong Mama Dinyal, who we had the blessing to meet when she came thru to POOR Magazine's poor -people -led newsroom in Deep East Oakland at Homefulness, created the platform “L's Up, Guns Down!” followed by a peaceful march that was held on December 6th, calling on a peace truce for the young people to end violence towards one another. There is another peace march scheduled to take place in San Francisco in the coming weeks in honor of all the victims of violence there, including the recent murder of Paris Jr., who was gunned down in the Western Addition neighborhood, the same neighborhood his father and I grew up in.
I remember saying to Paris Sr. how tragic it was to see our children die on the same streets that raised us. My younger brother, Marcus Nellon was murdered in the Alemany Housing complex in February of 2006, with his death first being ruled “suspicious” to a suicide. The suspected ex-girlfriend and her family viciously attacked my family with mockery and confidence that they will not be held responsible because of the ties that the ex-girlfriend allegedly had with then District Attorney Kamala Harris.
The final blow that came from the family was the audacity of the ex and her mother taking me to “Judge Judy” to sue me for my brother's urn, and the ex-girlfriend's mother with the sinister laugh saying to me, “You know we can be snakes, right?”
Marcus never had suicide on his mind, 2 days before his death he said that he was surprised that our mother, Carol X, who had transitioned on 9 weeks prior, had so many friends. His plans were to move on from the heartache and enlist into the military service. Since Marcus was a young black man from the hood, his life didn't matter. The system has already destroyed young black men's lives like my brother with tricknology and false conviction, even starting the cycle when they are still babies. Some folks of color have the gall to glorify Black-on-Black AND Brown-on-Brown, cruising the neighborhoods terrorizing your own villages, killing children, elders and parents without a care in the world, allowing for the po'lice to roll up and create problems between you and another brother of color living on another plantation (hood, set) Taunt and disrespect the families of the victims with this false sense of power and in reality, lost folks of color who perpetrate these crimes,
in my opinion are "Klansmen of Kolor". Politicians recently have began visiting the neighborhoods, vowing to come together with the communities to "find a solution" to the rash of violence that plague our youth. I thought we were coming together with serious suggestions and a serious plan to move forward to help our children. Folks were over-talking and interrupting each other and when I spoke up on real solutions that can help, including holding community accountability, of course it got quiet. I left the meeting feeling like I should go buy a shovel and start digging graves because when one of us Warrior Mamas or Papas speak up on what the people REALLY needs, It sometimes can sound like a foreign language, even amongst my own brethren. I felt like "fuck it- I will find a way, with the help of God and Mother Nature to reach our babies- EVEN IF I HAVE TO DO THIS BY MYSELF!!" While we are having these "meetings" blowing smoke up the peoples' behinds our children are dying!
The blood that flows on the pavement is real- SMELL IT!! There is a solution to every problem, so long as the village is willing to the mandatory footwork that is needed for the sake of our children, and that is real!