I know six days have passed since the shooting of Alton Sterling, and I wrote a response letter of sorts in my personal journal, thinking it would make me feel better, but it didn't. Nothing will make me feel better because a black man was shot by two police officers.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/06/black-leaders-demand-state-probe-fatal-shooting-baton-rouge-police/86745562/
I tried to pretend it didn't effect me as much and continue with my studies, but I can no longer just sit back and continue with my life while numerous black men and women have been murdered -- yes murdered -- by the select few bad police officers out there to whom "sensitivity training" is a joke.
I'm not good with words -- unless I'm writing fiction -- or responses to a crisis, but since I'm not putting my life on the line by being a bad-ass activist, I'm going to show my solidarity and support the best way I know how. And to all those who do put their lives on the line, I commend you. You're far braver than I could even imagine to be.
It saddens me that this is the kind of world that future black children will be born into. One where a black man is seen as terrifying just because of the color of his skin, or a black woman is treated like a criminal only because she is questioning what she did to deserve police scrutiny. It could be worse, or could get better, but there will still be that divide and the potential that a trigger happy officer would decide to take my son's life because of the way he looked.
I'm not excusing bad behavior. No. In fact, straight laced black boys who are minding their own business or make the simple mistake of having a broken tail-light are approached by those bad police officers and given a hard time. If you doubt me, ask any black man, woman, or teen. It doesn't happen all the time, not for us who are blessed to cross the good cops who actually do wonderful jobs, but it does occur.
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2014/08/13/cnn-tonight-pkg-elam-raising-black-sons.cnn/video/playlists/philando-castile-shot-in-minnesota/
This is not the same as black on black on latino crime, not at all. This is very different. This is an officer that is in a position of power who is sworn to protect everybody regardless of race. When a black man kills another black man or another minority (as fox likes to point out), that shit is personal... or because they're a douchebag with no concept of morals. They're not officers. Serve and protect.
“A drug dealer, a thug, somebody that is pissed off about something that happened in traffic, they are not duty bound, nor sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States of America,” Godbee said. But police officers, “they are sworn to uphold the city ordinances, the state laws, U.S. codes and United States Constitution. They are sworn to serve and to protect. Not to infiltrate and to kill.”http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/07/09/detroit-police-officers-shootings/86884234/
http://work.chron.com/role-police-officer-8056.html
Shouldn't a police officer's aim to de-escelate and arrest, not just shoot and kill? I don't know, -- I'm not an officer -- but... it kinda sounds like that's what it should be based on the link below. Whether it be a black man or a white man, tensions rise because you don't know what this crazy ass is gonna do with a gun and you're scared for your life, I get that... then these people would have been shot too.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/8-white-people-who-pointed-guns-police-officers-and-managed-not-get-killed
http://www.guns.com/2016/07/08/the-young-turks-white-people-with-guns-not-killed-by-cops-video/
Plus, we can't get angry at someone questioning why they are being persecuted by the police when they have done nothing wrong. The worst thing would be to sit there and silently take it, when you know it's an injustice.
In truth, all lives matter; it's completely and utterly ridiculous to claim that one group of lives is superior to the other -- Hitler, slavery, segregation? But the movement is called Black Lives Matter because there is a pattern of BLACK LIVES being expunged by BAD cops... and not just bad cops, but it seems the whole system just chalks up white on black crime as self defense. Come on!
Dear white people -- the few that are unsympathetic to our plight -- think of it this way. What if Alton Sterling were a white man, selling CDs and carrying a gun for protection? Two black cops come over and shoot him. How would you and your community feel? If Trayvon Martin were a sweet little cherub faced white boy? Eric Garner? Sandra Bland? Every black man or woman who has lot his or her life. You get the picture. What if they were white and the officer/shooter were black? How would you feel when we come up with a counter-group to your White Lives Matter?
Hows about not making generalizations about us and we won't make generalizations about y'all. Cool?
Cool.
