No Lines Left To Cross

This piece is directly in response to the initial reports and images from Bucha, Ukraine as Russia retreated and the first atrocities of Bucha were being realized. The full extent is still being revealed as more atrocities and evidence are being uncovered everyday. Drone images confirm Russian troops were the ones in fact committing these atrocities and will be instrumental as evidence in later hearings in international court for war crimes. While these satellite and drone images show the sheer extent and numbers of people killed, offering qualitative data confirming lives lost to a time and place, journalists on the ground photograph the unidentified individuals where they lay, murdered amidst a daily life upended by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and occupation of Bucha. While many of these bodies being found remain unidentified and are buried in graves with no name, the objects of their daily life remain as beacons to their individual human identities amidst the sheer numbers. Each individual life brutally taken is an open wound in the soil and soul of Ukraine, felt individually and collectively. The immediate response to stop the bleeding and stitch the wound closed ties these lives to the place they were found. These wounds will not begin to heal until identities are known, their families can grieve, and justice is brought. Even then, the scars will remain. On April 4th, around the same time the atrocities of Bucha were first being uncovered, in our own locality of Grand Rapids, Patrick Lyoya was murdered by GRPD officer Christopher Schurr execution style. Attorney Ben Crump, representing the Lyoya family, has drawn the comparison to national outrage over human rights violations concerning unarmed civilians in Ukraine versus unarmed black civilians right here in America, asking how we can condemn one but not the other; he reiterates that the violation of human life, locally or internationally, deserves justice, saying “​​This is not just an issue that affects Grand Rapids. This is not just an issue that affects the state of Michigan. This is not just an issue that affects the United States of America. This is not just an issue that affects the Congo. This is not just an issue that affects Africa. But this is an issue that affects all humanity because Patrick was a human being. And Patrick’s life mattered. His black life mattered. His African life mattered. His human life mattered.” Patrick Lyoya’s murder is an open wound on the soil and soul of Grand Rapids, of Michigan, and of the United States, surrounded by countless others. Healing cannot begin until justice is served for Patrick Lyoya and systematic changes are made to prevent the continuing violations of Black American human rights in the United States. We cannot condemn murder abroad without condemning murder at home. Ben Crump, Funeral for Patrick Lyoya, 22 April 2022, Renaissance Church of God in Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan.