there are a lot of gospel songs about the name of jesus. type “the name of jesus” on youtube and you can listen to hours of songs about the power of the name, calling on the name, loving the name, blessing the name, etc. but last night, america chose a different name to proclaim. the moniker in question changes with time, sometimes it is “lynching” at other periods it has been “crucifixion” but it will answer to “vengeance” no matter the era. last night when america re-crucified christ through the nasty, sacrilegious practice of capital punishment, our values were revealed.

certainly, there were those who said “no”. perhaps, more people said “no” last night than have in a long long while in this country. but it wasn’t enough for troy davis and it won’t be enough for the rest of christ’s brothers and sisters sitting on death row. why is it not enough? because americans have elected men and women to office who love humans’ law more than humans’ life. americans have allowed the courts to be filled with well-paid judges who love their jobs more than justice (foolishly we believed they were one in the same). and by doing these things, this very young country has traded reconciliation, forgiveness, and community for strife, grudge, and acrimony.

so where do we go from here, now that we look more like the executioner than like christ? many people who weigh in on the death penalty are concerned with letting those who commit serious crimes live. however, there is too little said about our disturbing obsession with making anyone, regardless of guilt, pay for their indiscretion with their very life. i believe that is where we start. it is fine to state that troy is innocent. after all, he is. but that is not the reason he should not have been put to death. he should not have been murdered because it’s not the state’s place to take someone’s life. in fact, the state has no true authority to lock someone in a cage and control all their movements either. but i’ll save the rant about prison abolition for another day and say simply that we can’t continue to act like the death penalty makes sense. no person of conscience should support it. of course, no christian can support it (theologically or morally; see substitutionary atonement, the lords prayer, the gospels). so let’s stop the death dealing now. let’s fill our mouths with the call for life and forgiveness, with the name of the world’s most famous victim of the death penalty. when we do this, surely there will be no room for the name of vengeance on our lips.

troy davis as a child

police sgt. john brock thinks queer people are more violent than their heterosexual counterparts. in fact, he said “they’re very violent” and “when they get mad, they get really mad”. i bring up brock’s comments about the queer community not just because they are unsettling and unfair stereotypes but because they are part of the reason given for why an atlanta gay bar was raided in 2009.

the eagle was raided in september of 2009 by a vice squad that was known as the red dog unit. this unit, founded in the 1980s to deal with drug crime, was notorious for illegal searches and aggressive tactics. partly due to the unlawful nature of the eagle raid and the lawsuit the city faced as a result, red dog was disbanded in february. but just because the unit was no more did not mean that the investigation of the raid and the involved officers ended. the final report, of what has aptly been viewed by the queer community as an antiquated, stonewall-esque bust, was finally released just days ago.

going through every minor detail of the raid is not really of interest to me. the synopsis of the what happened in september goes like this: dressed in black fatigues, cops busted into the bar; kicked down doors; handcuffed patrons and made them lay face-down on the floor; illegally searched and falsely imprisoned people from the bar; and yelled anti-gay slurs.

in the 349 page report, there are certainly highlights. the comments about violence don’t stop with brock, the raid leader, but are complimented by a statement made by a participating officer who said he felt for a “man [to] have sex with another man” was “very violent”. these comments were made to investigators after the raid. but during the affair, cops asked patrons to admit to being in the military so they could “call your sergeant and tell him where you’re at” (this is before the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell). cops also revealed that their cultural insensitivity went beyond the targeted minority of the moment saying within ear-shot of patrons “this is more fun than raiding n***ers with crack”.

the red dog unit was bad news, and for the people they beat, imprisoned, and humiliated for nearly thirty years this statement is most certainly not past tense. however, the problem of policing, particularly that of the queer community, is a pervasive and expanding issue. the percentage of queer identified people behind bars is disproportionately high and the number of transgender people who come forward with reports of police brutality is staggering. as angela davis put it so well, “the prison functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities…”

in this story, queer people are written off as violent. there are important questions to be asked of this situation. how is the media supporting this labeling of queer people as anti-social and aggressive? is the general public buying into this stereotype or is it just an idea that is taking hold with law enforcement? will this label further domesticate the queer community, making folks cower and keep quiet in hopes of not being lumped in with “the angry ones”? or will queer people learn that being mad, really mad is valuable when there is an injustice to be angry about?

[artwork by qteam collective entitled queers don’t make friends with the state]