As the Coronavirus continues to disproportionately affect African-Americans in the US, Police across the country have chosen to use Mask as a convenient excuse in this Global health crisis to single out African American men for harassment and in some cases arrest. It is no longer driving while black, It is now; (WMB) Wearing Mask while Black.
Recently, Democratic lawmakers want police departments to be vigilant about any racially biased policing during the coronavirus pandemic, as people in communities of color express fears of being profiled while wearing masks or other face coverings in public.
Democratic lawmakers want police departments to be vigilant about any racially biased policing during the coronavirus pandemic, as people in communities of color express fears of being profiled while wearing masks or other face coverings in public.
Former presidential candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, and other Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged federal law enforcement agencies to provide anti-bias training and guidance to police officers. The officers may increasingly encounter masked residents as the nation weighs a gradual reopening of the economy in the coming weeks, the senators said.
“With the ongoing public health emergency, it is more important than ever for law enforcement to build trust with communities of color,” the senators said in the letter, which was first shared with The Associated Press.
The fact that simply wearing a mask in compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation has become another tool for harassment speaks to the added burden and racism that African Americans have to endure in this country. While other ethnic groups only have to about the Coronavirus, many in the Africa-American communities now also have to worry about wearing masks and police harassments.
Few days after the CDC’s mask recommendations, two black men in surgical masks recorded themselves being followed by a police officer as they left a Walmart in Wood River, Illinois. In another incident, an African American doctor who wore a mask as he volunteered to test homeless people for COVID-19 was handcuffed and detained by police outside his home in Miami, Florida.
This wanton acts of police harassments of African Americans once again speak to the failure of many elected leaders from the communities who are yet to confront the ongoing deteriorating relations between African Americans and the police in America.
Source: Afro World News
