There aren’t many books that grab my attention as quickly as “They Can’t Kill Us All” by Wesley Lowery did. Writing about his experience as a primary journalist reporting on the police killings of men such as Michel Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray and the social/political activism that followed, Lowery provides the value of his first-person perspective as a Black journalist that goes beyond the scope of most news.
Lowery makes several points when discussing elements that contributed to Ferguson, the killing of Mike Brown, and those that followed. One of the first pieces Lowery addresses is the lack of success in what many hoped would be a transformational presidency under former President Barack Obama. “After a seemingly never-ending sea of firsts – first black mayors, first black governors, and first black senators – to have reached that ultimate electoral mountaintop, the presidency, seemed to have validated decades of struggle,” Lowery explains. “But that nation’s grappling with race and the legacy of its original sin – ongoing since the first slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619 – was and is far from over.”
What seemed to hold promise and prompt change in the way Black people would be treated by law enforcement is getting worse, something Lowery indirectly shows the reader through each story he covered. The Washington Post recounts some of the ways in which Former President Obama tried to create effective change, such as issuing a 115-page report with changes to implement in law enforcement, as well as an implementation guide to make these transitions go smoothly among their many efforts, but its difficult to make noticeable progress when the timeline is so short and the issue is so large.
Throughout the unrest outlined by each new city and victim, Lowery praises the power social media provides in raising awareness of the injustices happening across the country. Lowery emphasized that “Social media made it possible for young black people to document interactions they believed to be injustices and exposed their white friends and family members to their experiences.” Dating as far back in history to pre-Civil War America, BBC News recalls the ways in which African Americans have always tried their best to record the injustices thrown their way and hold others accountable, something author Allissa Richardson refers to as “black witnessing.” Cell phones and social media became the modern tool to continue capturing the racial unrest happening across the country in a more officially documented way.
The largest and most important message Lowery sends to his readers is that police violence against Black men and women is an ongoing and worsening issue in the United States. “It was a scene we had all, unfortunately, become familiar with,” Lowery writes. “A grieving family, with T-shirts reading REST IN PEACE, would step to the microphone to demand justice, knowing how unlikely it would be that they would get it.”
Justice is still something this whole country is waiting for, something that is taking far too long to occur. One of the most jarring statistics Lowery leaves us with discusses the ratio between police killings and the officers responsible for being convicted. Lowery writes, “Out of what was likely more than ten thousand fatal police shootings by on-duty police officers between 2004 and 2014, just fifty-four officers had been charged with a crime – and in just a handful of those cases were the officers convicted.” Lowery notes the lack of documentation on these incidents throughout his book which largely adds to the problem, one that has only grown since the book’s publication in 2016.
Since 2015, The Washington Post has created a police shootings database entitled “Fatal Force,” not only tracking how many people were shot and killed by police in the past year, but maintaining and updating information on the victim’s names, ages, the departments involved, the news channels to have reported this information, and several other filters based on each incident relating to body cam footage, race, gender, etc,. Using these filters to look at the number of Black deaths The Post has on record, they make up 27% of deaths in the data, amounting to 1,926 victims, the most recent death occurring earlier this month on March 7 involving 25-year-old Kordell Jones in Mobile, Alabama. To see this issue increase over time is enraging and you can feel the restlessness in Lowery’s tone, word choice, and sources. Throughout the book, he keeps the conversation going, forming a call to action for his audience for the change we so desperately need.
Beyond the scope of the key points Lowery makes, I admire the tireless dedication journalists like Lowery have when covering the heartbreak of a new family in another city. “A journalist’s portrait of the deceased is often used by the casual reader to decide if the tragic outcome that befell him or she could’ve happened to us, or, as is often implied to be the case in those killed by police officers, if this tragic fate was reserved for someone innately criminal who behaved in a way we never could,” Lowery says. In these tragic instances, Lowery showcases how journalists are the pathway between tragedy and the readers indirectly involved. Their words and portrayal determine people’s opinions and if they should care to do something about it.
However, Lowery doesn’t always appreciate the credit journalists are given in these scenarios, feeling their level of responsibility is misplaced. “There is a fundamental arrogance among reporters when it comes to assessing our own role in the creation of social movements – aided by the fact that we seem to have trained a generation of us to believe that we were somehow responsible for the success of the civil rights movement” he explains. I understand what Lowery is saying, but also think he needs to give himself, his colleagues, and his profession credit for tirelessly getting information to the public. While no, they didn’t play a role in starting these social movements, they certainly played a role in spreading information about them, making them grow and prosper.It’s unfathomable to me that we live in a country with biases that target the Black communities in our country. It’s heartbreaking and, the more I read about it, the less I’m able to put my feelings into words, but Halsey’s 2019 song “Nightmare” begins to touch the surface of what I and can only imagine the whole country is feeling: “I’m tired and angry, but somebody should be.” To continue to see names such as George Floyd added to the long list of undeserved deaths at the hands of law enforcement is frustrating, and exhausting, and feels like we’re yelling into a void when it comes to creating change. Reading “They Can’t Kill Us All” will inform you, fill you with rage, and motivate you to do more about the country’s crisis. It’s by far the most important book I’ve read and urge everyone else to do the same.
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