Stand Your Ground – Squeeze Kids of Baltimore

I haven’t blogged for a while, but I should have written down many items for the conversation as of late.   From a young man killed on his way home in from work in Memphis to a fourteen-year-old boy shot and killed in Washington, DC. What value do we, as a society, place on the body of young black men?

During the summer of 2022, a fifteen-year-old boy, trying to earn a living in the traditional way of washing windshields at stop lights, faced a bat-whiling driver who took the time to park his car in the middle the street and chase after him. The teenager had a gun in his possession, then in his hand. He fired five shots, killing the 48-year-old white man.

Michael S. Harrison, Baltimore City’s police commissioner, said the arrest “is another sad reminder that guns are too easily accessible to our young people.” Nothing was said about the frequency of bats in the hands of older white men. When the threat is backed by a history of unaccountable crimes, like Emmitt Till, why do we question why young black people seek to protect themselves? It is because, by color alone, they are feared.

White people fear young black teens in the affluent area of the inner harbor. The masses of white people strongly support for moving the “squeezee kids” of that and other influential sites in Baltimore City. Don’t believe me? Look at the map published on where squeeze kids can seek their trade. Not a lot has changed since the real-estate redlining in the city—defined spaces where young black men should exist. 

Let’s go back in history for a minute. Yes, history, but still the reality. George Zimmerman chased after Trayvon Martin as he walked home from the convenience store with candy and tea. George said that Trayvon looked suspicious. He said he was attacked by the young, barely 17-year-old boy and shot him in self-defense. No one saw anything to dispute this, and George was able to walk away. 

Often, black people are killed and blamed for their death. Why wasn’t the white guy blamed for chasing a child with a bat? Why did he have the bat in his car? How often did he chase after black people before his death? We will most likely not know the answer to these questions. Why? Because it might make the white person look guilty. Giving a viable excuse is much better than saying they should have stayed in the car or left the bat at home.

When the police sat on George Floyd, robbing him of his breath, comfort, and life, people did not hesitate to make it all about how George was wrong. “He was trying to pass a twenty-dollar fake bill.” Oh, yes, he must deserve to be dead. “He didn’t want to be put in the car because he feared being trapped.” Oh. Yes, he must deserve to be dead because he did not comply. “He had drugs in his system.” Oh, yes, he deserved to be dead. 

None of that warranted killing him as he lay on the ground, begging to breathe. No one listened, no one rendered aid until he stopped breathing, just like Freddy Gray, just like all the others. Breonna Taylor was said to have drugs in her home, thus explaining the need for the raid.  None were found.

Yet people fight the saying “black lives matter.” If all lives truly mattered, why aren’t more white people screaming that this is an abuse of power and a grievance against constitutional rights? If all lives mattered, we would not have to point out that black lives matter, too.