When the system of justice fails, how do you secure change?

Death by police in the black community must stop. Selling loose cigarets, wearing a hoodie, hands in pockets, kids with toys – all have resulted in excessive and systemic police violence. If police are somehow unable to distinguish guns from toys or drills resulting in deadly force and are also working in great fear of their own community, they should seek other careers.

The community of those that feel change must start, has a wonderful weapon at their disposal – the boycott. Boycotting the bus system in Birmingham brought change years ago. Now, lets start by a system of rolling boycotts of corporations that are part of the problem because of their history of exploiting low paid workers and their market and political power. What would happen if anyone with a social conscience decided to boycott Walmart on Monday, Kroger on Tuesday, Target on Wednesday, Walgreen on Thursday, Walmart on Friday, McDonalds on Saturday and Sunday?

I wonder how long it would take for these corporations to feel economic pain and begin to lobby for changes in policing in order to maintain their profits. I bet it would be a lot quicker than waiting for police and politicians to responding to citizens. Write all the letters you can, demonstrate until you drop and nothing much seems to happen. Stop spending and the results would be a whole lot quicker.

I really don’t care who gets boycotted or when. Everyone is free to suggest who and when, but a bit of coordination would make things highly visible, very quickly. Those in power only seem to respect violence and money. Rejecting violence is essential – it just leads to more violence, but money always speaks loudly!

Another tactic would be to fill your cart at a retailer, wait in line and then decide not to buy the goods and leave. This bit of civil disobedience would be more work, but would cause great heartburn among those retailers so targeted.

Hands up, don’t shoot! I can’t breathe! Where can this go?