Remember the “Hands up, don’t shoot” narrative that led to the creation of #BlackLivesMatter, the subsequent riots and deterioration of race relations in the United States, if not the world?

Remember what happened after the truth finally came out…?

In a speech in Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder concluded, “Michael Brown’s death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson.” Holder said that the decision “represents the sound, considered and independent judgment of the expert career prosecutors,” and that he concurred.

An 86-page report released Wednesday found that physical evidence and “credible” witnesses supported police Officer Darren Wilson’s version of an event that drew international attention and triggered repeated protests that included looting and arson in Ferguson, Dellwood, St. Louis and elsewhere.
— St. Louis Today, 3/5/15

The truth didn’t matter as “Hands up, don’t shoot” (which was never said by Michael Brown) was still a popular chant then and still is to this day.

Now, we have the George Floyd incident which resulted in the reemergence of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and a renewed “discussion” on race in America which has been bolstered by the social media-driven #CancelCulture to the destruction of anyone in their path.

We were again assured that justice would be served and as Americans, we expect to see all the facts so we can make informed decisions.

It’s sad it took a British publication to give Americans pertinent information, months after the fact.

It’s kinda’ scary to think an elected official could withhold possibly exonerating evidence, but we’re not surprised.

It’s kinda’ scary to think the crazies would be allowed to believe one version of events and not see everything so all involved might have taken a step back, but we’re not surprised.

It’s kinda’ scary to think a politician would be willing to see private and public property be vandalized and/or destroyed, citizens and police officers be injured and/or killed, just to win a prosecution… but we’re not surprised.

It’s kinda scary to think Keith Ellison may be on a short list for Attorney General of the United States should Joe Biden win the presidency in November, but it looks like he’s dressing up his resume.

What we can again take from this, as we did going back as far as Trayon Martin, is that we clearly can’t trust what we see when it comes to what is cherry-picked and presented to the public. Had the public been able to see the video preceding the famous punch, Ray Rice might have been able to end his football career on the field, on his terms. Had the public been able to hear all of the audio and not just a selective clip blown up by the media, Donald Sterling might still own the Los Angeles Clippers.

And had the State of Minnesota released all of the body cam video in the George Floyd incident early on, who knows how many lives and property may have been spared from the ignorant mob and we probably wouldn’t be dealing with #DefundThePolice foolishness.

But as long as the elected get what they want, who are we (and the truth) to stand in their way?

Elite law students want their finals postponed because of grand jury decisions. Not everyone is sympathetic.

Their opening remarks are weak, to say the least.

We have been traumatized over and again by the devaluation of Black and Brown lives. We are falling apart.

Recent events have unsettled our lives as students. We have struggled to compartmentalize our trauma as we sit and make fruitless attempts to focus on exam preparation.

Our trauma will be present with us on exam day, our trauma is inhibiting us from sleeping at night, and our trauma is ever-present among the words in our textbooks. Moreover, the violence that the law has done to Mike Brown and now Eric Garner is a legal violence that affects and implicates us all. We are now asked to use the same legal maneuvers and language on our exams this Monday that was used to deny justice to so many Black and Brown bodies. In being asked to prepare for and take our exams in this moment, we are being asked to perform incredible acts of disassociation that have led us to question our place in this school community and the legal community at large.

We need time to process and breathe. We need your support. We need it now.

We expect the following:

1. 1. 1. That faculty and administration recognize our trauma as legitimate and worthy of a response
      2. That students who have been deeply affected by recent events be allowed to postpone exams
      3. That an emergency event occur on Monday, December 8, 2015 for the administration, faculty, and students to discuss the concerns of students of color in the wake of recent events

Signed,

The Columbia Law School Coalition of Concerned Students of Color

What a bunch of “people of color”, self-centered, privileged, victim wannabes.

Using the Brown and Garner tragedies to get out of taking finals is lame and as the sentiments of resentment flood in, this latest attempt of victimization will further inhibit “people of color” from gaining employment in many of our nation’s law firms; not because they are “people of color” but because of their potential of wanting special treatment based on sympathy and exhibited weakness.

The law is all about precedent and being able to have total recall of precedent.

When the final verdict of the UVA rape incident end in a result female students don’t like, will they be too “traumatized” to take their finals? We could be talking discrimination…? When a gay incident happens, will they be too “traumatized” to take a final? Precedent will have been set.

Let’s be real; most of us wanted a reason to not take a final. We just didn’t think exploiting a national tragedy was the best way to do it. We just studied up and took the fucking exam. These “students of color” are lazy, wanted an excuse to get out of something all other students had to do, and #blacklivesmatter was convenient.

No one will want this crop of lawyers to represent them, and their future whining will not fall on deaf ears.

They’ll be taken as a joke and deservedly so.