This week America suffered two tragedies back to back, within the short time span of 24 hours. Tuesday night the killing of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old African-American man in Baton Rouge was captured on video and quickly went viral. The viral video featured Sterling being forced to the ground by two police officers and then once he was pinned to the ground, shows an officer shooting Sterling within a foot's range. This tragic video was met with several #AltonSterling

posts all over social media and brought the #blacklivesmatter movement and

police brutality back to the forefront. As tragic as this event was people could not fully grieve this loss or cover this story as Wednesday night another tragic police brutality killing occurred. #PhilandoCastile.

Thirty-two-year-old African-American nutrition services supervisor Philando Castile was killed by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota Wednesday night during a traffic stop. Both incidents were similar as both men were armed, in states that have carry and conceal laws and were gunned down and ultimately killed by police. Sterling was wrestled to the ground and killed after a homeless man called the police after Sterling showed the man the gun that he was carrying when he refused to give the man any money. Castile was

shot and killed after a routine traffic stop went wrong. Castile told the officer he had a gun, which he was able to legally have under the conceal and carry law, as he had a permit. These incidents are not new; there have been several incidents of police brutality against African-Americans. These incidents have recently gained lots of media and national attention and helped inspire the #Blacklivesmatter movement which focuses on bringing attention to police brutality against African Americans with several protests and marches. While the Black Lives Matter movement has recently brought attention to the issue, it is not a new issue. African-Americans being brutalized by police is not a new concept, the vast coverage and cell phones that cover the events are the only things that are new. With the large amount of police attacks happening they are no longer as “news breaking” and as surprising as they were when the movement first began. This is very bad. As these events occur more and more frequently people become more and more decentralized to the behavior until it becomes common place. These shootings and incidents, as tragic as they are, were not the first and unfortunately will most likely not be the last.

While they did gain vast media attention and protests, how long will it before they are yesterday’s news and we are mourning the loss of someone else? Something has to be done and action needs to be taken. When these incidents occur, many like to blame the victim and say that the victim should have acted differently to prevent the occurrence or try to dig in the victims background to vilify the victim as a way to justify the actions, however it does not justify anything. But, would African-Americans no longer

wearing hoodies, selling CDs, or trying to receive fair treatment from police during traffic stops from police stop these incidents from occurring? There is very little African-Americans can do to avoid these situations as most African-American victims of police brutality have not done anything violent to provoke police. Meaning that this is not something that African-Americans can change and instead police need to reflect on these incidents and figure out how to prevent them, and soon. Because this week it was #AltonSterling and #PhilandoCastile. Who will it be next week?