The documentary "A long night's journey into day" was a very emotional film. Being in this course, we have discussed many different forms of violence so far and this particular type of violence in the film was very unfortunate and we see and hear about so many cases of violence dealing with the police department. When police attacks occur, it usually seems to be justified and the police usually do not have any consequences to face for the crime they committed.
The particular story that stood out to me in the film was the part of the seven black men that were set up by the police. It was called the Guguletu 7. The men were supposed to attack a police department, but instead they were murdered by the police. This was very disturbing to me.
The mothers of the men found out about the murders over the news unfortunately. For many years, the police never took any responsibility for the murders and the mothers never got justice for their sons being killed. Out of all the police who took part in the murders, only one seemed to be sorry for the vicious crime. I could not believe how evil people could really be. How could someone murder someone else and not show any kind of remorse for the crime?
I was shocked to see that some mothers actually forgave the officers for the murders of their sons. I know that was a big step for them to do especially when it took years for the truth to come out about what really happened.
I am truly inspired by the mothers of the men because of their strength. I am not a mother, but I can only imagine that losing a child is the hardest thing that a parent has to endure but because of these women's strength, it makes me think that experiences that I've had and thought were terrible, were nothing compared to what they've endured.
About Me
- Quine
- My name is Quine and I'm a senior at Cal State Northridge majoring in Liberal Studies. The reason for this blog is for my class which is a Liberal Studies Capstone course. On these blogs we will be analyzing "The Politics of Violence" because there are so many forms of violence and by blogging it can help with different viewpoints of what violence is.
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The question you ask, "How could someone murder someone else and not show any kind of remorse for the crime?" is a good one. In the case of Apartheid violence, I believe the South African police officer, Eric Taylor, summed it up best when speaking about carrying out his duties during the Cradock 4 incident, "All the people I worked with were Christians...One of the elements of Communism is Atheism and that is the point that justified the kind of work we were doing...[my] only consideration was to ensure not to be arrested subsequently -- in other words, to commit the murder(s) and get away with it." That is to say, he believed the only way to curtail this perceived onslaught against the white Christian government was to eliminate these subversive non-believers. My question is, how can a person claims to be a Christian and not show any remorse, while in turn ask forgiveness from someone who he believes is an Atheist? Seems hypocritical to me.
ReplyDeleteEvery so often you hear of or see a case on the news that a police officer(or police officers)were videotaped harassing a homeless individual or a person of color. These events make you wonder whether the justice system in this country is truly fulfilling their duty or abusing of their power. The people that lived in South Africa were part of a struggle that was based on an unfair system of apartheid. So what allows for these crimes to occur? It seems that racism exists when there are laws that condone it and laws that condemn it. In these police cases, the officers responsible of the unlawful act usually come out of court cases with their hands clean. The true story will never be known.
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