Sniper kills 5 police officers and wounds 7 in Dallas, Philando Castile shot dead 4 times in his car in front of his fiancé and daughter, Alton Sterling shot dead in front of a convenience store, 84 people dead after the terrorist attack in Nice, France and now three officers dead and several injured in Baton Rouge…aren’t you tired of hearing horrible news day after day? When you hear about another shooting do you think about what this means for the world and for your future children? I do.
On a Thursday night a sniper gunned down four Dallas police officers and killed another officer. All of these officers were white. Micah Xavier Johnson sang and laughed at the police. He threatened more deaths with explosives and he left a cryptic message: the letters “RB” scribbled twice on a wall with his own blood. The officers negotiated with Johnson but that was just a waste of their time. Johnson was never going to surrender he was armed and dangerous. He had tools that would’ve brought great harm to Dallas and everyone living there.
Philando Castile and his fiancé were pulled over for a broken tail light that they were not aware of. The cop said, “to put their hands up” which they did but Philando expresses to the cop that he has a licensed fire arm in the vehicle. The cop still says “keep your hands in the air where I can see them” but Philando reaches in his back pocket for his wallet and the cop shoots him four times in front of his fiancé, taped the whole thing and in front of his own daughter.
Alton Sterling 37 year old black man was selling CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge where a homeless man approached Sterling and asked him for money. Sources said the man was persistent and when the man wouldn’t leave Sterling alone he showed him his gun to scare him away. The homeless man calls 911 and before Sterling knew it two cops were at the scene wrestling him to the ground with a gun in his face and then shots went off and Sterling was dead.
Thousands of people came to Nice, France over the weekend to celebrate Bastille Day. Everyone was enjoying themselves and while they were watching fire works a 20 ton white truck zig zags down the route of the event shooting at anyone in sight causing everyone to scatter and get out of sight soon as possible. The police were on the scene of the mass shooting and shot the driver dead. The end result of this terrible attack was 84 people were dead.
I do not know what it feels like to be a cop. I do not know why Johnson was so messed in his head to commit a horrible crime. I do not know what was going through the cops head when he decided to draw his gun onto Philando. I do not know why the cop didn’t just restrain and handcuff Sterling instead of shooting him dead. I do not know what was going through Mohamed Lahouaiej Boudlel’s mind when he released shot after shot out of his gun at innocent people. I do not know why these tragedy’s have happened one after the other.
However, there is something I do know. You can make a difference. I do not mean go make some signs and protest outside your police department. I do not to disrespect the authority figures who are risking their lives everyday to keep us safe. I mean get involved. If you really want change and really want to make our world better and safer then put down the signs and put on the badge. Just like David Brown Chief of Dallas Police said, “put down the signs and put on the badge”. If you want real change and want to make an impact on this world then get out there on the force and step in a police officers shoes to witness and live how extremely hard it is for them. I do agree there are good and bad cops but there are certainly most definitely good and genuine cops out there who are there to protect us and serve us whenever we call for help more than bad cops. I know I keep repeating myself but I’ll say it again. If you want change then take some action. Get out there and put on the blue uniform.
