HBO’s “The Night Of” Isn’t About Whodunit

Last night, HBO aired the second episode of the eight part limited series, “The Night Of.” After an engrossing premiere, the show did not disappoint with it’s second episode. Riz Ahmed plays Nasir Khan, a young, innocent, college student who is thrown into unfamiliar territory when a young and mysterious woman lures him back to her house. After a night of alcohol, various drugs, and sex, Naz wakes up to find the unnamed woman brutality murdered in her bed. Throughout the premiere we are aware where this is going, so we look for various clues given to us by show creators, Richard Price and Steve Zaillian, to try and formulate our own theories as to who could of done this brutal crime. Because of Naz’s innocent and gentle character, we think of him as simple being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We meet veteran Detective, Dennis Box (Bill Camp), who is in charge of investigating the murder, and lawyer, John Stone (John Turtorro). The premiere ends and we think this show is going to be about not only the mystery of who actually killed this woman, but also the showdown between these two power players, Box and Stone. As viewers, we position ourselves with Naz because the show makes it clear that it’s very doubtful he committed this crime. Therefore, we align with John Stone as our hero of sorts who hopefully gets to the truth and frees this innocent kid. After the second episode comes to a close, we realize that this show isn’t about the truth. It’s about a criminal justice system that doesn’t seek the objective truth, but rather a “most likely” truth. It’s about two opportunists in Stone and Box who want to advance their careers and face off with each other.

The show gives us a taste of John Stone’s life as a low level attorney, who has never dealt with something as big as a murder. Even his ex wife questions whether or not he is ready to handle something like this. When Stone talks to Naz early in the episode, he makes it clear that he doesn’t want to know the truth because the only thing that matters is what the prosecutors believe to be true. The more Stone knows about the case, the more he’s put at a disadvantage in terms of winning it. Later in the episode when Stone presents himself as Naz’s defendant in the court room, the Judge congratulates him on getting such a big case and asks how he got it. Stone replies, “right place, right time.”

The best thing about this show is that I don’t know where it’s going. It looks like the show may take an even darker turn with Naz being thrown into a maximum facility. Hopefully the show will give us the objective truth of what really happened that night, but from looks of it, the show may disappoint us just like our system often does, and decide to present us with nothing more than a story about two self-interested men trying to advance their careers with Naz being stuck in the middle of their game of chess. Another dimension that may continue to develop is Naz’s Muslim heritage. We have already seen some racism displayed by various cops and other bystanders, but it will be interesting to see how the show either elevates the fact that Naz and his family are Muslims or whether or not it’s just an aside. One thing is for sure, this show is truly captivating and will keep its audiences on their toes throughout.

 

 

Pat Toomey’s Shameful Silence On Black Lives Matter Is Disqualifying

After a week of violence and increasing racial tension, Pat Toomey offered no sympathy whatsoever for those of color who were unjustifiably gunned down by the police. He completely ignored the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille. He did, however, speak up after the killing of police officers in Dallas. While the nation was thrown into confusion and division, Toomey reacted by pitting us into a Police versus Black Lives Matter narrative. Unfortunately, this isn’t new for Pat Toomey.

In a political ad released back in March, it stated, “When rioters destroyed American cities, Pat Toomey stood strong with police.” The “rioters” the ad was referring to were the ones in Baltimore and Ferguson after the deaths of Micheal Brown and Freddie Gray. The language used in this ad completely denigrates the Black Lives Matter movement by framing them as nothing but agitators. For some reason, many politicians (often white males), refuse to give the Black Lives Matter movement any legitimacy. Instead they choose to pander to those who can’t find it within themselves to acknowledge issues of race and policing. These people often adhere to racially coded phrases like our need to restore “order” and Donald Trump’s favorite, “let’s take our country back.”

What many conservatives fail to understand is that the answer is not to choose a side, but to acknowledge that implicit biases exist and the systematic oppression of colored people has not gone away. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t support the police, but that we should hold those who are there to protect us at the highest of standards. And even when just a handful of those officers do not reach that expectation, there’s a problem. What public officials shouldn’t do is try to frame this as a black versus white issue. Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what most Republicans like Pat Toomey do.

Alton Sterling Being Shot Point Blank

When asked about the recent violence, Pat Toomey claimed that there “could” be some wrongdoing. Furthermore, he went on to say that we should treat these issues, “regardless of the race of the perpetrator or the victim.” First, Toomey ignores the obvious video evidence of wrongdoing by implying that we don’t know all the facts yet, which is just his way of deflecting an uncomfortable truth. I wonder if Toomey would worry about the facts if the victims in these videos were white. He goes on to say that we shouldn’t even consider the race of the victims. The fact that people of color are FIVE times more likely to be victims of police brutality can not be ignored. If we chose to conveniently ignore that fact, we chose to live in a fantasy world where there was never slavery or Jim Crow. In issues of discrimination and prejudice the most violent and oppressive force is silence, especially from our public officials.

 

 

Don’t Be Silent, Just Be Loud Where It Matters

The level of racial tension in our country reached a point we have not seen in a long while this past week. After two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, were murdered by white police officers, the country was thrown back into the heated debate over police brutality and use of force. Peaceful Black Lives Matter protests commenced all across the country. Unfortunately, a non violent demonstration in Dallas was interrupted by a violent individual who gunned down 5 cops and injured another dozen right when the event was reaching its end. The shooter, who I refuse to name, explained that he wanted to kill white police officers because of the recent deaths of Sterling and Castille. This violence has forced us, as a country, to take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves how we got here.

It seems that whenever we see a video of blatant police brutality leading to the unjustified death of a black man, we are forced to pick a side. Those who call out the police for using excessive force are labeled as cop haters and those who stand behind the police are labeled as unsympathetic racists. This can be seen nowhere better than on social media. Many people feel it is necessary to take to social media after such terrible events and express their sympathies and opinions. While writing what you feel and think can be a healing mechanism in such confusing and difficult times, too many people decide to “call out” those who are silent. Unfortunately, too many people think that it helps to victimize people into making their presence and solidarity with those affected known by posting something on the internet. While going through Facebook this week I saw many people labeling those who weren’t making statuses about what was going on as the “problem” and that they were being complicit in the murdering of innocent black men. This labeling seemed to be effective because every time I refreshed my browser, I saw another status with the familiar hashtags of “#BlackLivesMatter” and “ThoughtsandPrayers.”

Social media can be a great tool for organizing issue oriented campaigns such as Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and many more. It can also be a place to express your opinions and engage in productive political discourse. However, it becomes completely counterproductive and self-serving when people decide to guilt others into sharing their opinions on the internet just so they aren’t perceived a certain way. While offering your sympathies and opinions on an issue can be important, just doing that alone does nothing but give yourself the illusion that you’re helping. And it’s true that too many people remain silent in times like these, especially those who aren’t directly affected like white people, but those conversations are more important and effective to have in real life. If our first impulse to events like these is to turn to social media and call out everyone who doesn’t make a status as racists or silent oppressors, then we will never make progress.

The truth of the matter is that these are extremely difficult discussions that while uncomfortable, must be had. One of the main reasons we as a country struggle so much in having these difficult conversations is because those on both “sides” are too quick to label one another as “racists” or “cop haters.” Most people agree that being a police officer is an extremely difficult job, but can at the same time acknowledge the problems facing minority communities when it comes to police brutality and our criminal justice system. After the election of Barack Obama, many believe us to be in a post-racial and colorblind era and our job is to not ridicule or victimize, but to educate. Many want to have a honest and productive conversation but are too fearful to do so because of the labels we so easily throw at them.

With the assassination of five white police officers by a black individual, who wasn’t participating in the protest, we can not allow the Black Lives Matter movement to be defined as a violent one. Some may try to say that the police brutality problem doesn’t really exist and that those involved “had it coming” because they either resisted arrest or broke the law. Our job is to call out these claims as classic examples of victimization and respectfully educate those that do not understand. The systematic oppression of black people has existed since slavery and the oppression still exists, but it is only more disguised. After slavery ended, our country continued to hold those of color back through the implementation of Jim Crow. After Jim Crow ended during the civil rights movement of the sixties, the systematic oppression didn’t just disappear. It sill exists within our criminal justice system, which disproportionally jails those of color; often with drug offenses that effectively strip them of their rights. A black man gets slapped with a federal crime of possessing marijuana and when he exits prison, he has lost his right to vote, to get a job, and to buy a house. The oppression still exists and the barriers we put up in front of people of color are rendered invisible and result in them being overlooked.

I’m not going to try and say that I have all the answers to fix the problem of police brutality. All I’m trying to point out is that a conversation needs to be had with ourselves and with our peers. This conversation can be had on social media, but will be more effective in real life. Those who waste their time on the internet getting into comment battles and worrying about whether or not they’re opinions are “correct” in the eyes of others, have to get off their computers and either talk to a family member or friend, go to a protest, volunteer for a campaign, or simply try to educate themselves. We have to collectively remind ourselves that the movement to bring about a country that is more equal and just is larger than ourselves. Don’t be silent, just be loud where it matters.

 

No Indictment: Good News For Hillary, Bad News For America

James Comey, the director of the FBI, announced earlier today that Hillary Clinton will not be indicted for her use of a private server while she was secretary of state. Most Clinton supporters may think this is great news, but they are surely mistaken. Here is Comey’s statement, “Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Just because Hillary won’t be getting any charges doesn’t mean this issue will go away. Comey was clear in stating that Hillary Clinton was “extremely careless”, which only makes her seem less qualified to be president.

Comey explains that she can’t be indicted because there was no intention to break the law. To me and most people, Hillary’s ignorance, or anyones ignorance for that matter, should not exonerate them from punishment for being incompetent at their jobs. I’m not an expert in law, but I’m pretty sure being unaware of the rules is not a good enough excuse to be irresponsible at your job or break the law. This whole situation seems very sketchy and because the public already doesn’t trust Hillary Clinton, this will only make her problems worse. While I will never understand the full complexities of this investigation, I do know one thing: the future of America stands upon the edge of a knife.

The most important and pressing issue that must be dealt with for the future of our country is denying Trump of any legitimate chance to be president. After Bill Clinton’s eyebrow-raising meeting with Loretta Lynch, the public is viewing this whole email investigation with a magnifying glass. And now that Hillary isn’t going to be indicted even though she clearly mishandled information in a careless way as a high ranking official, the Trump campaign will continue to breath. Her incompetence and blatant disregard for the rules as someone with an incredibly important job in terms of our national security doesn’t reassure people that she will be make a good President. Trump’s campaign has made mistake after mistake, but they continue to survive because they are running against a terrible candidate with baggage that will never go away. I truly believe that the sole reason why Trump remains within striking distance of being our next president is because the Democrats nominated the only candidate that could lose to him.