Disclaimer: Just to let all of my readers know, I am a white male from an upper middle class family. Because of my background, there is a slight chance that I may say something that could be deemed offensive. If this does happen (even though I doubt it will), I just want to say that it is 100 percent unintentional and apologize. Thank you.
Here we go again. The first article that I wrote for The Odyssey Online dealt with the innocent people attending the Pulse Orlando club losing their lives for no apparent reason. Sadly it has to be spoken about again, because it happened again. Except this time it is happening at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect us.
Last Tuesday (7/5) and Wednesday (7/6) Alton Sterling and Philando Castile where fatally shot by police officers. This is not the first time where people of color, who have not deserved to die, died at the hands of police officers. It reaches all the way back to August 9, 2014 where the 18 year old unarmed Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Soon other people of color became victims to police brutality. Eric Garner, Dontre Hamilton, Tamir Rice, Rumain Brisbon, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland and others, who we may not even know of, have died at the hands of police when they didn’t deserve it. Most of these victims didn’t do anything illegal, and if they did (such as Eric Gardner selling loose cigarettes) it is barely deserves getting a ticket never mind losing your life. But yet once again no matter how many times this happens nothing is being done to prevent it from happening again.
We have a serious problem in our police departments that needs to be fixed. There some (not all) officers that abuse their power and have racist tendencies, and it is clear that this percentage is too large because people of color keep on getting killed. And what makes this even worse is that there are no consequences for a large chunk of these officers. Most are sent home for a few weeks without pay, essentially a slap on the wrist for killing a human being. It is absolutely insane.
Similar to all political and social movements this necessary change can only happen with us. The peaceful protests that happen around the country need to continue. And yes I know that protesting right now can be a touching subject with five police officers being killed in Dallas, Texas, but that’s why protesting needs to be peaceful. Violence such as what happened in Dallas only makes the division between the black lives matter movement and the police worse. If you can’t attend a protest or would prefer to help in another way then please start and sign petitions to government officials telling them that change needs to happen now.
I feel like there is one last thing to say on this subject, the all lives matter movement in opposition to the black lives matter movement. I think the initial point behind this was not meant to be in opposition to the black lives matter movement, I think it was meant to say that all lives are precious, but there is a problem with saying this.
I think this analogy explains it best. There is a street with five houses on it. If one of the houses all of a sudden bursts into flames what would you do? I think the logical answer would be to put out the fire. But saying all lives matter is saying that these houses need to be treated exactly the same, so all of the houses need to be sprayed with water. I think if you walk down a street and see that happening you would think these firefighters are nuts. I would. Of course all of these houses (and lives) matter, but right now one house, the black population of America, needs some extra special attention, because right now they are on fire, and as we all know fire is bad. So, don’t think the black lives matter movement is saying your life doesn’t matter, it’s just saying that the black lives need to be kept safe.
Links to petitions on Change.org.
