Cain said to his brother
Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose
up against his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is
your brother Abel?” He said “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”
– Genesis 4:8-9
Chicago police Officer Jason Van
Dyke pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and misconduct
charges in the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan
McDonald… Van Dyke's attorney, Daniel Herbert, has said Van Dyke
feared for his life and insists that the video doesn't tell the full story.
– CNN, December 2015
This shall be a day of remembrance for you.
In times to come, when your children ask you,
“What is the meaning of these precepts, these statutes, and
these laws,
that the Lord our God has laid down for you?”
You shall tell your children,
“Once we were Pharaoh’s slaves in
Egypt,
and God brought us out of that
narrow place by his mighty hand.
Before our eyes God worked great
and terrible signs
and wonders against Pharaoh and all
his house.
And he brought us out from there to
lead us to the promised land.
And God commanded us to observe all
the statutes,
to love God, for our own good
forever
so that we might live as on this
day.
And for us justice will be to take
care
to observe all these commandments
before the Lord our God as he has
directed us.”
*
And to love our neighbors as ourselves,
is this not the first and last?
And are we not as bound to struggle
for the freedom of our fellow persecuted as our own?
Remember, now,
at Homan Ave and Fillmore St
in the heart of North Lawndale,
there is a dull brick building
a city block long,
with cameras watching
from the corners of the roof
and a few unmarked cars parked
outside,
beneath the fire escapes,
beside the steel garage doors.
If you ask the police officers
standing around what it is, they’ll
say,
“I don’t know what this is.”
“This isn’t a police station”
“We don’t hold people here.”
But if you ask Kory Wright,
he might tell you
about the nightmare
he and his relatives lived through
in that building
On the morning of his 20th birthday
a hot day in June,
when he and his cousin were on his porch
He was having his hair braided
while another cousin and a friend
played video games downstairs
A woman walked up to them
and asked for change for a fifty
to buy crack cocaine
Three minutes later,
officers in plain clothes
swarmed the house
arrested the four boys
and took them to the black site
no rights read, no calls made,
no prints taken, no papers filed
Kory told the officers it was his birthday
and they sang Happy Birthday to him
Then
they put the boys in separate cells
the size of cubicles
An officer zip-tied Kory to a bench
strapping his hands on both sides
told him “It’s gonna get a little hot in here”
then left
The temperature rose
For six hours, Kory sat sweating
and hurting
with no water or toilet or phone
In another room, his friend Deandre Hutcherson,
19, was cuffed, arms spread as if being crucified
while officers punched him in the face,
stomped on his groin, and interrogated him
about crimes he knew nothing about
When pressed on allegations
of police abuse at Homan Square,
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said,
“That’s not true.
We follow all the rules.”
*
When your children ask you
“What is the purpose of these laws?”
Tell them we were once slaves,
and that is why we know what freedom means.
And that is how our religion came to us:
As a mission
to set the world free –
Tell them
we were once captives
in mitzrayim, the
narrow place,
and that the God of Nature brought us out
by parting an ocean and softening a heart
Tell them
we obey these laws
because they come from freedom
and serve that purpose only
and that the darkest, narrowest place of all
is not in Egypt or in Homan Square
but in our very hearts and minds
if we forget the meaning of these words:
Tzedek, Tzedek tir’dof
/ l’ma’an tich’yeh /
v’yarash’ta et-ha’aretz
/ asher Adonai eloheycha noten lakh
Justice, Justice shall you pursue,
so that you may live
and possess the land the LORD your
God is giving you
Put these words upon your hearts.
Teach them to your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road
when you lie down and when you get up
Tattoo them upon your skin
and pin them to your clothes
Tzedek,
Tzedek tir’dof
l’ma’an
tich’yeh
Write them on protest signs
and frame them over your bed
Tzedek,
Tzedek tir’dof
l’ma’an
tich’yeh
Justice, and Justice alone shall you follow,
so that you
may live.