Last week, seven Americans lost their lives for absolutely no reason. The lives of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, were senselessly taken by irrational police officers, and the lives of five Dallas police officers, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa and Brent Thompson, were senselessly taken by irrational protestors. Blood has been shed on both fronts and no matter which side you are on, this is what has happened.
After the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I witnessed a surge of "#BlackLivesMatter" posts on social media that mourned their deaths. After the shootings in Dallas, I witnessed a surge of "#BlueLivesMatter" posts (by others) that mourned the deaths of the officers. This is the issue: black lives are not more important than blue lives, and blue lives are not more important than black lives, they are equally important. "All lives matter, but black lives are the ones being threatened," is the general argument made regarding this issue. But, with the tragedy in Dallas, it is important that we recognize that blue lives are also being put into danger.
"Parks and Recreation" actress, Rashida Jones, had the perfect response to the tragedy in Dallas on Twitter. The morning following the attack, she wrote, "It's OK [to] mourn the senseless death of the officers and still want respect for black lives. Both are important. Humans are capable of both." There are no sides when it comes to life and death; as humans, we should mourn the deaths of anyone, regardless of their skin color and we should also protect the lives of all humans, regardless of their skin color.
If you disregard the "Black Lives Matter" movement, then you are blind to the harsh reality that our law enforcement system is racially biased. This is not an opinion or an inference, it is a fact. If you refuse to believe that, then please get informed.
I was once assigned to read "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander and it completely opened my eyes to the corruption that is going on in our government. For example, although studies show that people of all races use and sell drugs at almost the same rates, black men are twenty to fifty times more likely to actually be charged and imprisoned than white men (Alexander 73).
Then, as a result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, those charged for a first time drug offense must serve a mandatory minimum of sentence of five to 10 years, whereas similar charges in other developed countries generally only result in a maximum of six months in jail, which is remarkably less than in our country (87). Also a part of this legislation is the hundred-to-one ratio, which states that the legalized punishment for possession of 100 grams of powder cocaine is the same as the punishment for possession of one gram of crack cocaine (112). What is the problem here? The problem is that both forms of the drug have the same chemical makeup, but powder cocaine is predominately used by whites and crack cocaine is predominately used by blacks. Therefore, if a white person and a black person both have one gram of cocaine, the black offender will be subject to the mandatory minimum sentence and the white offender will not.
These are only a few examples on a long list of the legalized racial discrimination that exists in our country today. This legislation combined with the fact that police officers have the discretion to do whatever they deem right or necessary when responding to situations just creates a recipe for disaster. Philando Castile was pulled over for a broken taillight and was shot and killed when reaching for his license and registration as he was instructed to, with a four-year-old child in the backseat. Yes, Castile had a gun on him, but he was licensed. If Castile were white, then there would have been one less death in our country. This is just another example of a cop being ruthless and abusing his power.
However, if you disregard the "Blue Lives Matter" movement, then you are making a generalization about all cops based on the cruel acts of just a few police officers. People generally have a misconception of cops because the media mostly publishes stories and releases videos of the few cops that act in negative ways. However, it is important to remember that there are millions of other cops out there who not only do their jobs right, but exceed expectations and go out of their way to ensure our safety. Police officers put their lives on the line to protect us every single day and to direct hatred towards all police officers is just wrong.
Instead, you should be discontented with our government because the cops that do commit heinous acts do not receive justified punishments for their actions. Just as our government is racially biased against blacks, it is racially biased toward whites, generally letting them off easy for the crimes they commit. This then places a target on all cops because our government protects the few that act out of line, like Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death in 2014, but was not indicted, or Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, but was also not indicted.
The only way to end this legalized racial discrimination is through government reform. Mandatory minimum sentences need to be changed. Charges for drug offenses need to be changed. Treatment in courts based on race needs to be changed. Just like the issue with mass shootings, how many more lives have to be taken or forever changed before our government decides to take action?
Last week, seven Americans lost their lives for absolutely no reason. Will our government finally do something to stop this madness?
