To those who turned their backs on Akaila Gurley: Shame

Akaila Gurley searches for her father

 

On November 20, Akai Gurley was walking with his girlfriend in a dark stairwell in `the projects’ in New York. An officer came upon them, fired and killed Akai Gurley. Gurley was unarmed. Gurley was Black. Gurley was 28 years old. Gurley was a father. His daughter, Akaila Gurley, is two years old.

The local district attorney is impaneling a grand jury to `investigate the matter.’ Many in New York have protested Akai Gurley’s killing and it context. Their placards read: “Once again in sorrow”, “Not one more”, “Don’t shoot”, “We are human.” Some ask questions: “How long will they kill our sons and daughters while we stand aside and look?” Others simply call for the names: “AKAI GURLEY”.

Akaila Gurley is often at the head of the protests. Akaila Gurley is two years old. Every one of the lethal bullets this year, and in for decades past, has not hit only its victim. Each bullet struck a daughter, a mother, a partner, a community. Whatever the grand jury finds, whatever the newspapers report or the scholars later on unravel, this much is clear right now. Akaila Gurley’s is two years old, and her father is dead.

Akai Gurley was not killed simply by a single officer, and that bullet was no “unfortunate accident”. Akai Gurley was killed those who have agreed that parts of a city are `real estate’ rather than residents, that some must `tragically’ die so that others might prosper. What is the lesson for Akaila Gurley and for the children of her community? The slaughter of the innocents never involves only the innocents slaughtered. The slaughter of the innocents attacks the dreams and aspirations of generations of innocents, no child left innocent behind. To those, uniformed and not, who turned their backs on Akaila Gurely, one word: shame.

 

(Photo Credit: Nicole Bengiveno / The New York Times)