You've probably heard about the recent killings of two young black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Both incidents have gone viral including graphic video recordings of both. Both incidents involved white police officers and black victims. Both incidents are yet another horrific example of systematic racism.
To begin, let's discuss the unprofessional manner and either lack of appropriate training or incompetence of the officers that led to these murders.
In the case of Philando Castile, Diamond Reynolds, his fiancee, live streamed what happened following her fiance being shot. In the video (http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/falcon-heights-sh...), the officer is shown with his firearm still drawn and aimed at Castile even after Castile has been shot four times in his arm. I have handled an actual gun maybe once in my life and even I know that you should never ever wave a gun around like that. Also, Castile is gasping for air and the officer is still aimed at him as if Castile was even able to put up a fight at that point.
Alton Sterling was pinned on the ground by two officers (Video: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/baton-rouge-alton...). While he was slightly struggling, there was no way he was going to be able to get back up and somehow fatally injure those officers. Sterling was essentially executed. There is no denying that. I refuse to believe that taser could not have subdued Sterling at the most. Sterling had committed a crime that was not punishable by death. According to Jeralyn Merritt, a lawyer from Colorado, Sterling's crime would only have gotten him three to five years. Instead, this man's entire life has been taken.
The most important thing now is our reaction as country to this situation. There will be separation of those who shout #BlueLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter and those who know that the issue is #BlackLivesMatter. While it is of course true that #AllLivesMatter, that is only a way to minimize the issue at hand. A friend of mine shared a political cartoon that perfectly shows how ridiculous #AllLivesMatter is. In the cartoon, there is a character who says "Well I think that all lives matter. We should care exactly equally at all times about everything." They then proceeds to spray water on perfectly fine house while the house next door burns down. It ends with the character saying, "All houses matter."
Since the creation of this country, blacks have been treated as if they are less than whites. Slavery, Jim Crow, police brutality. To think that police brutality is no longer existent is nothing less than ignorance. These murders were a result of fear. Fear that has been taught to these officers through profiling. Fear of those that they believe are "thugs" and "delinquents" simply because of the color of their skin. Philando Castile was a cafeteria supervisor who worked with children. He was with his fiancee and her four year old daughter. Reynolds said about Castile, "Nothing within his body language said intimidation. Nothing within his body said 'Shoot me.' Nothing within his body language said 'Kill me. I want to be dead.'" Do you really think that Castile would have told the officer that he was carrying a licensed firearm if he was going to shoot that officer?
To those who believe that "all cops are racist" and "all of these young black men deserved it," you are the main issue here. You enable this constant argument over whether or not white supremacy is to blame. You enable these men to continue having their lives take. You enable these riots. You enable the murdering and injuring of eleven Dallas police officers. Stop separating and start unifying.
