A young, black male of no immediate threat is shot by a white police officer who faces no legal consequences. Regardless of what you would like to think is the cause, African-American men are about 21 times more likely to be shot by police. This isn't a coincidence. Race is a factor and trying to ignore that is taking an enormous element away from the issue. The fact of the matter is that in the eyes of a lot of cops, young black men are seen as a threat, even when they're doing nothing illegal. The grieving Rice family learned at Christmas that Timothy Loehmann, the man who shot and killed their little boy Tamir, is not facing any sort of legal consequence for his actions. Santa brought injustice this year.
But we can't end the discussion at “cops are racist, stop being racist.” Being a police officer is a risky job where life or death is a split-second decision. When faced with someone who might be a threat, eliminating that threat is the number one priority. It's safer to assume the worst and to make the first move. But obviously, this isn't working out because innocent people are being killed and race is playing a major role.
The stereotype of the “black thug” is a prevalent one, and any time you talk about the issue someone will inevitably say “if black people just listened to police they wouldn't get shot!” Ignoring the inherent racism in calling out an entire race for a certain behavior, that's still putting blame on the victim for being victim. Challenging the authority of the police like when they attempt to arrest you for no reason is not justification for being shot. We do not live in a police state where refusing to get out of your desk gives an officer legal obligation to attack you.
And so we grieve for the loss of Tamir Rice, a young man who was shot and killed for reaching for an airsoft gun by an officer who gets off scot-free. It becomes apparent that carrying a gun in an open-carry state will get you shot in about two seconds by the police if you have committed the heinous crime of being black. I guarantee you that this will not be the last time in the next few months. When it happens, the victim will be blamed by people who claim not to be racist, protests will happen and the same people will complain about it, and people who feel threatened by “black lives matter” will use the phrase “all lives matter” to shut them up. As it has happened the last few hundred times. So how many times are we going to go through this cycle before something is done to stop it?
It just keeps happening.
