On the night of April 29, 2017, fifteen-year-old Jordan Edwards was murdered by thirty-seven-year-old Roy Oliver. Jordan Edwards was a freshman at Mesquite High School; Roy Oliver was a police officer for Balch Springs Police Department in Texas. Officers were called to investigate the reports of underage drinking and gunshots—gunshots that supposedly caused Jordan and his friends to get in a car to leave the party. Roy Oliver, seeing the fleeing car, opened fire and shot Jordan Edwards in the head.
Let’s analyze this. A bunch of police officers go to stop a party after calls of “drunk teenagers” and “gunshots”. One of them sees a car driving away and shoots at it, killing the fifteen-year-old boy inside. If the officer wanted to stop the car—for whatever reason—then he could have easily shot the tires. Instead, the man aimed at a car full of teenagers and opened fire. He aimed at a car full of innocent kids and decided, in that moment, that whatever damage done was justified and righteous.
Why did Roy Oliver think this? Why did he think that no consequences would surface from this?
It’s because of the culture that White America has created. They place police officers on this golden pedestal, far above the commoners that they’re paid to protect. Cops receive a badge and a firearm, and suddenly they’re above the law—because they’re the ones enforcing it. It is corruption at its simplest level.
And let’s not forget that, historically, police officers have repeatedly gotten away with murder. Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice . . . and now Jordan Edwards. Another name, another tally, on the blackboard of sanctioned terrorism. With standards as low as George Zimmerman, why wouldn’t any officer feel emboldened to do whatever they want? If police brutality in America is going to stop, we must end this ideology that police officers are above the law and above us.
Lastly, though, my thoughts drift towards the media and their coverage of the murder. It’s impossible for me to not notice how, whenever something like this happens, history of the victim is dug up from the inner core of the Earth. That, too, needs to stop—but anyway, with Jordan Edwards, it’s pretty clear to see that he was as typical and good a teenager as any. The media can’t find anything to demonize the fifteen-year-old with. My thoughts on the subject are characterized pretty accurately by this tweet.
idc if Jordan Edwards failed every class he was in and had disciplinary issues, that has NOTHING to do with him being killed.
— thick mama (@thejordanelyse) May 3, 2017
Why do minorities have to always prove themselves to be “up to par”? When a white teenager is killed, it’s a sad tragedy and justice is demanded by all parties. When a teenager of color is killed, however, media outlets must first determine whether that teenager was a “good student,” or if they have two parents at home, or if they were once suspended in the second grade. It doesn’t matter whether Jordan Edwards got good or bad grades; he was a teenage boy; he didn’t even get a chance to live. It’s a sickening thought to think that if we’re not the “model minority,” our deaths are justified or waved off.
The fact of the matter is that he was killed, murdered by someone who we’re supposed to place our trust and security in. That’s what the media needs to be focusing on. That’s what the problem is.
It’s rare—but hopefully, Jordan Edwards and his family can persevere and achieve justice.
