April 2, 2019
Los Angeles and the broader hip-hop community were left reeling by the senseless, cold-blooded execution of rapper and entrepreneur, Nipsey Hussle, on Sunday. Hussle was killed outside of his Marathon Clothing store in broad daylight, (Source: “Grammy-Nominated Rapper Nipsey Hussle Shot and Killed at 33,” by the Associated Press, The New York Times, 3/31/19). Hussle, born Ermias Asghedom, was a loving father of two and a loving partner to Lauren London, mother of his youngest child, (Source: “Rest In Power, Neighborhood Nip,” by Panama Jackson, Verysmartbrothas.theroot.com, 4/1/19).
Article after article showcased Hussle’s entrepreneurial spirit, detailing how he sold limited edition mixtapes for $100, rather than sign with a major label. Just last year, Hussle opened up Vector 90, a co-working space and STEM center in South Central. In Hussle’s words, “In our culture, there’s a narrative that says, ‘Follow the athletes, follow the entertainers.’ And that’s cool, but there should be something that says, ‘follow Elon Musk, follow Zuckerberg,” (Source: “With a new STEM Center and a revolutionary marketing strategy, Nipsey Hussle is music’s biggest disruptor,” by Sonaiya Kelley, The Los Angeles Times, 3/16/18).
Being widely and justifiably revered by his community didn’t protect Nipsey Hussle from being savagely cut down in his prime. A 29 year old Black man who allegedly had a personal grudge is now in custody. We are left wondering how someone could believe that the appropriate response to a perceived slight was to snuff out the life of a father, an artist, an entrepreneur and community pillar?
The intellectually lazy will succumb to the temptation to shoehorn this into a “cautionary tale” that one “can’t escape the streets,” given Hussle’s long ago past as a gang member; or they will point to it as some proof of the ineluctable persistence of “Black on Black” crime. Yet those who are eager to default to shopworn tropes need to spend some time reading the Supreme Court’s truly appalling decision yesterday in Bucklew v. Precythe. In Bucklew, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the 5-4 majority, contorted the clear prohibition in the 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment to only prohibit actions “intended” to “intensif[y] the sentence of death with a (cruel) ‘superaddition’ of ‘terror, pain or disgrace,” (Bucklew at 15, quoting Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion in Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35, at 48).
As Mark Joseph Stern points out in a blistering analysis of this decision, Gorsuch effectively upended sixty years of 8th Amendment jurisprudence and, “converted a once fringe view… imperiling decisions protecting the rights of death row inmates, as well as juvenile offenders,” (Source: “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Just Legalized Torture,” by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, 4/1/19). Read Stern’s piece in full and you will fully understand the level of barbarity the Bucklew decision has the potential to unleash.
So when you read the inevitable takes on the culture of gang violence in South Central L.A., remember the Bucklew decision. Remember that no community, no race and no class of people has a monopoly on evil. The only difference is whether the weapon you wield is an illegal Glock or a majority on the highest court in the land. That, alone, is what dictates how many lives you can destroy.
#RIPNipseyHussle
#Endcapitalpunishment