So, I’m sure everyone has seen the news report of yet another unarmed black man killed by those who are hired to protect and serve. I’m sure everyone has also already seen the video that will surely get these officers paid administrative leave and acquitted of all charges. I’m sure we’ll all hear the excuses levied therein: he was a bad person, the officers feared for their lives, his hands were raised in a threatening manner as he was walking towards the officers.
Whatever.
Meanwhile, the Broward County Sheriffs Union wants to end police escorts for the Miami Dolphins because some of the players knelt for the anthem, and they want to withhold those services until the team owner goes against his own beliefs and force them to stand. Remember: Stephen Ross is in favor of what those players are doing, and he is putting his own money behind advancing race relations and driving social progress. Also, the largest police union in the nation has endorsed a racist, sexist, misogynistic fraud of a human being for president. So, I guess not all unions are bad, huh?
Detractors to both the Black Lives Matter movement and the silent protest started by Colin Kaepernick like to say there’s a time and a place for protesting, but they want to dictate that time and place, missing the entire point of a protest in the first place. Protests are not supposed to be off to the side; protests are open and messy. Protests are supposed to inconvenience, and they are supposed to be a starting point to a dialogue. That dialogue may be unpleasant, but it’s one that has to be done. Or, have people forgotten their history: the Boston Tea Party wasn’t some dainty little sit-down; it was one of the starting points to the Revolution that helped form this country. Also, don’t forget the first person to die for this country: Crispus Attucks.
If you don’t listen to people when they say they’re hurting, this is what you get. And, this is what you’ll continue to get until you stop plugging your ears and going “la-la-la” and actually LISTEN to what is being said. Listen, emphasize, and think. Maybe then, you’ll see where we’re coming from.
If you don’t, then you’re being intransigent. And, intransigence is never good.
Listen…
I’ve got no problem with the protests, I just don’t think that police shooting is as big of a threat as it’s being made out to be by Kaepernick and BLM. I’d easily rank BoB crime, poor family formation, marginal respect for education and mass incarceration as more important issues.
More over, this ‘problem’ is relatively easily to solve. If the communities in question don’t feel as if the cops can do their jobs without racial bias, then they can simply demand that the police go unarmed or that they don’t patrol said neighborhoods. With it NAACP stating that black officer in question become ‘blue’ when they put on the badge, it’s clearly the only solution left at this point.
I disagree with it not being as big of a threat, because I could easily be next. I’m the most compliant person you’ll ever run into, but if some officer considers me to be a danger, then my life is in their hands. Philando Castile wasn’t a threat, and he got killed. Terrence Crutcher wasn’t a threat, and he got killed as well. Keith Scott wasn’t a threat, and he got killed. Castile had a permit for his gun, let them know, and he died as a result. Crutcher had no weapons, and his hands were in the air as he was walking away, and he died as a result as well. Scott didn’t have a gun, but the officers felt he did, so he had to die – even though North Carolina is an open-carry state.
There are plenty of Black people who have respect for education, and there are plenty of people who aren’t incarcerated. There are plenty of two-parent families as well; you just don’t hear about those. As far as “black-on-black” crime is concerned, that doesn’t exist. Crime is intraracial; you never hear anything about white-on-white crime, or Asian-on-Asian crime, or Mexican-on-Mexican crime. Crime is crime is crime is crime.
If this were an issue only in the communities, then your solution would be valid. But, when John Crawford was murdered in Wal-Mart while looking to buy a gun legally, he wasn’t in his community. Better training is the solution, and it has to cross the spectrum; they can easily talk down a white shooter. Dylan Roof was taken alive, and he assassinated a state senator. James Holmes shot up the theater in Colorado, and he’s still alive. He’s in jail for the rest of his life, but he’s still alive. That’s why it’s a problem; with the exception of the NY-NJ pipe bomber, most PoC have been killed instead of taken in or helped if there’s a serious issue.