The American “thug” Trials

      
The American "Thug" Trials was born of modern day perspective, hence the title. It's a close descendant of the Salem "Witch" Trials we've all read about in school and watched in movies. The Salem witch trials were described as a series of hearings, prosecutions, and executions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. It’s without a doubt the nation's most infamous case of mass hysteria ever recorded. The relevancy of these historic trials is important because it shows the mentality that plagued common people over 300 years ago, never ceased. The same kind of instinctual prejudice and fear that took over a small Massachusetts village, has taken over the minds of people in modern day society, sparking “witch hunts” to criminalize certain members of our society, encouraging attacks of those who are of a different race, religion, and/or creed and creating separate rules and laws for anyone who does not follow current traditions or social behaviors. These historic trials have been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of religious extremism, false accusations and lapses in due process or lack thereof.

The extent of the injustices in the Salem Witch Trials and now the American Thug Trials is increased by the indisposition of people to afraid to step forward simply to say, "This is wrong, unjust, un-American". Most of the accused and the executed in Salem Massachusetts were women, and most feared that by speaking out, they might either face accusations themselves or hurt their standing in their communities. Be it the church community in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, civil rights legislation in Selma, Alabama in 1965 or the Political realm in modern day society, the same fear is unmistakable.

Black men are now the focus, and the idea of a witch has been replaced with thug. The witch-craft, or the crime, is not obeying current societal traditions while black, wearing hoodies while black, driving while black, playing loud music while black, or just being black while black. The punishment is death, especially if you're black. Someone fearing you is baselessly a crime in modern day society, one that only white people can capitalize off of and have been since Black Americans have been seen as Black Americans. Crimes that allow the alleged victim to react in any way they see fit, based off spectral evidence, just as they did in Salem. Before May, 1693, 141 people were arrested for witchcraft, 19 people were hung, four died in jail, and one tortured to death. There were instances in Salem where some women were accused and executed on the same day. 400 years later, these executions persists by people who deem blacks ass thugs, which to some is an immediate threat. Unarmed black men have been losing their lives to law-enforcement officers and random people who decided that these men were dangerous enough to die, the exact moment they were accused.

Trayvon Martin	Aaron Campbell
Steven Eugene Washington	Timothy Russell
Danroy Henry Jr.	Travares Mcgill
Jordan Davis	Victor Steen
Alonzo Ashley	Oscar Grant
Henry Dumas	Timothy Stansbury Jr.
Kimani Gray	James Craig Anderson
Wendell Allen	Ervin Jefferson
Orlando Barlow	Sean Bell
Kendrec  Mcdade	Ousmane Zongo
Ronald Madison, James Brissette	Amadou Diallo
Eric Garner	Patrick Dorismond
Jonathan A. Ferrell	Ramarley Graham
Jordan Baker	Michael Brown

The names mentioned above are but a few of the victims of this societal cleanse by people who think that it's their civic duty to rid the world of these individuals, for the purpose of their race, outfit, actions, language, or just out of fear. The only crime these black men committed in the eyes of today's justice system, was existing and their trial and sentencing came instantly. For the majority of these men, there were no indictments, no arrests, no trial, no accountability and no remorse. One of the only differences in the Salem trials compared to these "trials" is that some of the trials in Salem actually took place before someone was found guilty. With no one at fault is to imply these unarmed men caused their own death, even after medical examiners deemed some of these circumstances a homicide. The mass hysteria continues to select different targets and how they are dealt with. Be it Witches, Thugs, or Gays; apparently the protagonist in this real life story are the people who can edit and update policy and procedure as they see fit, hide behind badges and or apparently the ones who have the legal right to 'stand their ground', and is safe from prosecution as long as their purge is on their ground, and can deal with anyone who stands on their ground.


"Donald Maiden Jr.'s 8th birthday, he was playing tag outside his apartment building when a 46-year-old stranger walked up and shot him in the face. When police asked accused Brian Cloninger, who is white, why he shot Donald, who is black, he said, "Because I wanted to."" Unfortunately, we live in a society that, every so often, are afflicted by some convulsion of adverse righteous behavior, a frantic impulse to self-cleanse and cast out anything society feels doesn't belong. History has shown that it’s such an overwhelming state-of-mind, that only a select few survive it. Left are those asking: How could this have happened? How could civil liberties be abandoned? Why hasn't anyone done anything about this?


So be it years from now, people undoubtedly will ask the same questions about our present era, a time when the most unbelievable charges of transgression find supporters; when it’s enough only to be accused by anonymous sources, to be hauled off  or killed by someone with a badge or random people who see themselves as Judge, Jury and Executioner; a time when the hunt for black men has become a national outcry. Until the masses recognize black men as an intricate part of society and not a hindrance, the black mans character will always be a Crucible of Society.