With the wave of two coinciding incidents involving Americans abroad (for yes, A$AP Rocky is, at the end of the day, just another American)–namely, Europe, a tame in comparison to other places an American might be incarcerated milieu–it has to be said that, in addition to their penchant for gun violence, they have an uncanny knack for acting in ways they never would in their own homeland without expecting the severe consequences that come with the stereotype of police brutality in the U.S.
For whatever reason, the idea that seems to creep into their head is that their very Americanism is what will save them from a normal comeuppance that anyone else in the same country would have to face when, in fact, it is precisely because of that Americanism that they put themselves at greater risk. In the face of blatant anti-American sentiment not just in the present but for decades since the post-war era, Americans seem to remain in blithe denial about how their kind is perceived by the majority of other countries who look on at their excess with disgust (try as Americans might to say that said disgust is coming from a place of “jealousy,” it is still disgust nonetheless). An excess more than partly responsible for the squandering of nature’s resources that will undeniably cause food shortages in the future. But what does that matter to the privileged American type so unaccustomed to 1) not getting his way and 2) the consequences that come when he forces his way?
In the case of A$AP Rocky, whose “incident” preceded the one we’ll get to eventually, his arrest in Stockholm followed a long stream of assault charges that took place in the U.S. (and then New Zealand and then Toronto). Perhaps feeling emboldened by the power of celebrity in America (regardless of playing the black victim of systemic discrimination or not) after ultimately settling these charges with money, Mayers (that is his Christian last name, in case you didn’t know) saw fit to encourage his bodyguard to beat the shit out of nineteen-year-old Mustafa Jafari, himself an Afghan immigrant to Sweden with his own assault rap sheet (this very fact at the center of a “Keep Sweden Swedish” nationalistic sentiment at the moment). So no, no one is excusing him of being a “pure soul” not guilty of provocation and wrongdoing. At the same time, the reaction to that provocation doesn’t come across as equitable to the affront committed.
In the wake of the smackdown, reports of Mayers’ “unjust” treatment could only make one roll their eyes. Even if it were true and not merely some hyperbolic complaint from a pussy American, what the fuck do you expect? You cannot come into another country and act a fucking fool and then expect to be branded as the victim when you didn’t use any remaining part of your brain to reason out your actions–or “reactions,” as these men are deeming it. What’s more, you are rich, call a fucking car and run back to your posh hotel to save yourself from harassment rather than engaging in violence. Passive resistance. A term many Americans have appeared to have forgotten from their requisite study of the civil rights movement.
To compound the perception of American goonery, while Trump is nonplussed by the plight of most non-white suffering, his sudden decision to get involved after a nudge from his “bestie” Kanye seemed to be merely a chance to tweet beneath all the subtext, “See? I’m not racist. I’m helping a ni$$@.” Even going so far as to the presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Robert C. O’Brien, to monitor the trial. Because that’s the power of celebrity in the United States that only seems to be reiterated time and time again. Particularly to those fans so blinded by their “loyalty” that their view becomes too myopic to see anything from another standpoint–because that would be the “wrong” one, as emphasized by the fascist liberalism that has made it unacceptable to say anything that’s not expressly laid out in the script of “tolerance.” And because Mayers is black, we will throw out all visual aids to the contrary that suggest he is not innocent in the matter, guilty only of being too dark-skinned in a country of lilies.
As though to further taunt his ability to get away with acting so flagrantly in violation of the law in any country, he Instagrammed a video of Jafari and captioned it, “SO A FEW DRUG ADDICTS ARE NOT MY FANS, WE DONT KNOW THESE GUYS AND WE DIDNT WANT TROUBLE, THEY FOLLOWED US FOR 4 BLOCKS , AND THEY WERE SLAPPING GIRLS BUTTS WHO PASSED, GIVE ME A BREAK.” It is additionally interesting to note Mayers sudden ease in vilifying a man who “slaps girls’ butts” without their permission when he himself slapped a girl’s face back in 2013 at the Budweiser Made in America Festival. Yes, made in America indeed. Just like eighteen and nineteen-year-olds Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, “accused” of stabbing an Italian police officer named Mario Cerciello Rega. For added tragedian flair as only Southern Italy could deliver, thirty-five-year-old Cerciello Rega had just returned to work from his honeymoon. And oh how he picked the wrong plainclothes beat to be on that night when Elder and Natale-Hjorth, naive in their thinking that a drug dealer would actually sell them cocaine instead of crushed up aspirin, decided to steal the dealer’s bag and extort him for their clearly much “needed” drugs. Anathema though it may be to Americans, Cerciello Rega was not armed with a gun, as he had simply forgotten it that morning, therefore was unable to engage in any “self-defense” of his own the way Elder saw fit to.
Because, as one is wont to do, Elder packed a seven-inch military-grade combat knife with him for his journey to Italy (there are also numerous photographs of him with the beloved murder weapon on social media), he clearly wasn’t going to leave the hotel room without it for extra security. Obviously meaning he had intent to get into some shady shit. Like trying to tango with an Italian drug dealer and then extorting him. And maybe it’s true what Elder says, that he only stabbed Cerciello Rega motherfucking eleven times because he thought he was one of the “dangerous” drug dealers in question. But shouldn’t true self-defense–the kind that smacks of someone genuinely being the terrified party simply trying to flee the scene–consist of a quick slash and run, not a violent paroxysm that results in murder? For Natale-Hjorth’s “friend” (though some friend Elder turned out to be for dragging him into his category of murderer, as that’s how Italian law deems any accomplice), the almost immediate admission to the crime has somehow been mitigated by the release of an image of Elder tied to an office chair and blinded. Suddenly, the outrage has been flipped on Italians for treating an American citizen “with rights” so cruelly? Um, are you fucking kidding me? Americans are getting up in arms about that but not the fact that a teen with a violent and drug-riddled past arbitrarily decided to kill a man. Even barring the fact that this man turned out to be a police officer and not a drug dealer, what would make this behavior excusable regardless?
What both of these coinciding instances of the abuse of what Americans appear to think is their God-given superiority and, hence, immunity to “the rules” of fellow nations is that maybe they should just experience other countries through Google’s Oculus Rift. Then they could stab and punch and shoot to their heart’s content, and no one would actually have to incur injuries or die over it. Moreover, true martyrdom, as these American men seem to want to spin themselves into the category of, requires, let’s call it…a more Gandhian approach of nonviolence. Of using peace as a means to protest the antagonists of this world. If they are, in fact, antagonists and not merely sufferers of being at the wrong place at the wrong time by simply being near a congenitally psychotic with megalomania American. And yes, doesn’t it seem strange that every time someone is at the center of a violent international imbroglio, it just so “happens” to be an American? So accustomed are they to Veruca Salt expectations and no associated ramifications the way they expect other non-Americans to experience.
