Portraits

They always used a mugshot if they could find one
failing that a photo with a menacing sneer or brandishing a gun
(“Brandishing” always sounded scarier than “playing”)

Never ever a smile
a proud graduation photo
hugging their mother
anything to show that this was a human being cut down by bullets or a baton

What was so difficult about acknowledging the humanity lost?

Why was saying a life mattered  a revolutionary act?

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