The Bare Minimum

(O’Mike stands at the podium in front of reporters.)

My Name is Mike O’Hallahan. My friend Michael called me O’Mike from day one, and it stuck. He had a thing for knowing you better than you know yourself. And he gave you a nickname that fits. That’s how he showed his loyalty to you, how he brought you into his circle. All of us who loved Michael, who earned a nickname, will not rest in our fight for justice for him.

(grabs the podium edges)

Michael was a great person, but that has no value in a nation that deploys an occupying force against people of color. All black men are a target for police violence. Contrary to popular belief, being exceptional or innocent doesn’t matter. How we conduct ourselves doesn’t protect us. To the cops, we are all criminal by culture and melanin. We are all deserving of fear. We are all disposable bodies. That is how Michael’s murder, like countless others, will be swept under the rug as yet another necessary black man’s death to keep America safe.

(voice rising)

We demand the City Council and Mayor enforce the same justice for Michael as anyone else. For two years we’ve been waiting while the District Attorney delays the investigation. That’s two years for police to destroy and alter evidence, which has been the standard practice when shooting black and brown people. Two years for a cop to be retired as just one “bad apple.” Two years for racist killer cops to lawyer up. Two years for attorneys to strategize the best way to secure an all-white jury. Two years for the Police Commissioner to spin the narrative in the media that the victim provoked his own murder. Two years for police-funded politicians to rehash the tired story that this was an unfortunate accident. Two years for memories to fade in the public’s mind, so the next incident of police violence against a black person is accepted as a tragic episode, not a systematic pattern. Two years to forget, once again, that the police have always existed to lethally enforce racism. Well, two years is too long.

(shifts stance, changes to commanding tone)

Justice delayed is justice denied, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said. For black people, justice has never been conceived. Our friend Michael was born without the presumption of full rights. He was a man of color in a society that gives all power to the police with impunity. Michael didn’t run afoul of the law. He existed as its preternatural enemy. He wasn’t at the wrong place and at the wrong time. He was forever the target waiting to step into a policeman’s line of sight. In a nation where cops have free reign, the race of the victim is a predetermined factor of guilt. Despite what the constitution says, our government denied Michael’s right to exist.

(reaching a crescendo)

So today I stand here to affirm Michael’s humanity and his place in a civilization that rejects his inalienable right to be. State violence killed my best friend, and the state must answer for its inhumane violation. Our representative government allows their police proxies to murder over and over, year after year, generation after generation. We must have accountability, or the entire democratic system falls apart. Every American must be able to live without the threat of dying at the hands of cops. White people don’t have that daily fear.  

(calming down, turning to somber tone)

We seek justice for Michael as a basic foundation of humanity. We don’t ask that you care about black people, or acknowledge that we matter, or believe that we deserve political equality under the law. At this point, we only demand that the government stop killing us. Today, in Michael’s name, I’m asking for the bare minimum.