The Time Has Come

A truly moving story via Gregory McKelvey. Removing police from schools is an urgent need, especially for Black students.

Imagine: Its 2025. You're getting pulled over. A community representative approaches to let you know you have a taillight out. They don't need your license and registration, they don't write you a fix-it ticket. You're back on the road in less than five minutes. You swing by the store and grab a new light, not because you're afraid of what the city will do to you, but because you respect your community and know that having all your lights working is part of the driving privilege.

Your neighbors got into a loud spat a few weeks ago and without fear or hesitation, called a domestic assistance number. A counselor arrived and was able to talk the couple down and suggest solutions for their disagreement. No one was hurt, the kids participated in the discussion, and it's been quiet ever since.

Your friend has been struggling with addiction and you fear they might be a danger to themselves or others. You call a substance abuse specialist and they talk you through ways to help your friend get treatment. They offer to send an agent out to speak with your friend directly and provide information on harm reduction centers in your area.

Black and brown people are no longer being exploited through tickets and fines to pay for police. Trust is slowly being fostered in the community.

Teachers are being paid a living wage and students are being given more time, attention, and education. Books are up to date and classrooms are optimized to keep up with technology.

Trump is out of office.

It’s been a very long time since the name of a murdered black person was used as a hashtag.

Casual racism is no longer tolerated. The KKK has been classified as a terrorist organization. The Confederate flag isnt flown and has been removed from any official state flags or insignias. Most Confederate monuments have been taken down and placed in storage or museums.

You trust the investigation force to deal with crime the same way you trust firefighters to put out fires.

That's what 'defund the police' looks like. What we've seen in the last few weeks shows how overreaching and power-drunk many officers are. We asked too much of them and then called them heroes despite evidence to the contrary. We let them think that they could get away with anything, including murder. Its time for change.

Copied and pasted.

. // tw police brutality, death, guns, and shooting //

for those who aren’t aware, yesterday there was a shooting in paniqui, tarlac. a mother, sonya gregorio (52), and her son, frank anthony gregorio (25) were both shot in the head TWICE because they lit up fireworks in their area, and a police officer, jonel nuezca, got mad. jonel nuezca was off-duty and police officers aren’t allowed to bring their guns around when not on duty. it’s also been said that there were some previous altercations regarding right of way and the issue resurfaced during the confrontation. this man killed two people due to a personal vendetta. 

there were many witnesses around, one of them being nuezca’s daughter, who was about 12 (i can’t find any news articles disclosing her age). his daughter just stood and watched as they argued, even going as far to say “my father is a police man!” to which sonya replied, “i don’t care!” sonya’s last statement angered nuezca brought the gun to her head and said “putangina, gusto mo tapusin kita ha?” (trans: “son of a bitch, do you want me to finish you?”) he then shot her and her son point blank, shooting the son twice and then shooting sonya once more after she had already hit the ground.

this all happened yesterday afternoon, sunday, december 20th, 2020, at 5:00 pm. jonel nuezca has since then turned himself and his pistol in to the police.

authorities have been claiming this shooting as an isolated case, when in fact, there have been many headlines regarding police officers shooting civilians. 

videos of the shooting have been going viral on social media. i’ve seen the video for myself, and it’s messed up how you can see that nuezca barely even FLINCHES when he brings his gun up to sonya’s head. and the fact that he did that when his daughter was right beside him and there were so many witnesses is even more messed up. it’s reported that he said “mission accomplished,” to his daughter after he shot them.

now, if nuezca could shoot these people in broad daylight with witnesses and in front of his own daughter, imagine what he could’ve done at night, with no one around. imagine all the deaths that have been unrecorded because there was no one around.

i know other people will be able to say more and say it better, because i really still can’t wrap my head around this. most people say he shot them because they were lighting fireworks, but clearly he shot them because he knew he could abuse his power. he knew he could do it because police and military officers often get praised by the president for doing things like this. 

i honestly can’t say much of my own opinions at the moment because i’m still in a state of shock, but i just wanted to post this on here because i want people to be aware of this. so many countries have been suffering because of police brutality, and it’s so unfortunate that these kind of instances often get shooed under the rug because people want to continue living in their picture perfect world where people don’t get killed and people don’t abuse their power. it’s heartbreaking to see this people die at the hands of these so-called authoritative figures.

i’m not saying what the gregorios did was right. if i’m not wrong, it’s illegal to light fireworks in your barangay/district without authority (but i could be wrong so please don’t quote me on that). still, nuezca shouldn’t have shot them. 

what happened is absolutely sickening, and it could still be happening right now as i’m typing this. somewhere out there another person is being punished by an authoritative figure for doing essentially nothing. i just hope that more light would be shed onto these kind of cases, and not shooed under the rug two days after it happened. 

may the souls of sonya gregorio and frank anthony gregorio rest in peace, and condolences to their family.

#StopTheKillings #StopPoliceBrutality

(sources: gma network, attract tour)

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I've got permission from the author to repost this here.