The Persistence of Racism in America
In 2015, 28-year-old Sandra Bland was found hung in her jail cell which she had been taken to for failure to adhere to a basic traffic law. Her death was ruled a suicide. There was a line of evidence suggesting police brutality, including the fact that Sandra was not alive in her mugshot. In 2019, it was brought to light that Sandra Bland had recorded her arrest on her cell phone, which showed police officer Brian Encinia drawing his gun and saying ‘I will light you up, get out, now’. Despite this, her murderers walk free.
Sandra Bland’s case and the accumulation of others brought about the #BlackLivesMatter movement. African-American people have been facing injustice on American soil since the very beginning, from slavery to segregation to the exonerated five. The number of cases of police brutality against African-American people is too high to be considered a coincidence, or for people to believe the police authorities when they say their victims had been a threat or violent because Philando Castile was pulled over for a brake light issue and informed the officer that he had a firearm in his possession and had fulfilled the legalities to own one. Travyon Martin was a minor and was walking down the street before he was shot by police patrols that were present in his neighborhood as he was walking home from a convenience store. Alton Sterling was just selling CD’s before police approached him, he questioned the police as to what he had done to be approached.
Earlier this year, George Floyd was suffocated to death by police authorities over an alleged counterfeit 20 dollar bill. Much like the other cases, his death was filmed and so were his final words. This sparked a range of protests all over the world advocating for #BlackLivesMatter, these protests were quick to become violent within The United States with people rioting and looting this began with Target and continued on to almost any store/brand in the area of protests. Videos posted by protesters onto social media display police using excessive force and abuse on protesters, from tear gas to rubber bullets to literally attempting to run protesters over.
While violence tends to be the very last resort, police have been using violence over African American people as almost the first thing when they are approached. This is evident in every police brutality case when the victim’s perspective appears through cell phone videos.
Protesters plastered George Floyd’s last words on placards and have so far gotten all officers involved in his wrongful death to be arrested, while highlighting this progress this also brought about the opportunity to re-open cases where murderers have walked free. Which brings forth the Breonna Taylor case who was shot in her own home while she was asleep by police officers who were investigating a narcotics case that had absolutely nothing to do with Breonna.
While protesters have absolutely every right to assert their anger through their marches, rioting and looting should have been kept to minimum as it affects the message that is being passed. Black and immigrant owned businesses have suffered at the hands of looters, which affects the very population that is protesting the injustice in the first place. However there is a grey area between being outraged about just rioting and being outraged about the situation holistically.
While there is a string of cases and so much more needs to be done to abolish racism all over the world, the response to the #BlackLivesMatter has caused controversy, rightfully so, when people respond with #AllLivesMatter. This takes away the urgency of the movement and how all lives truly cannot matter until black lives do too. It’s an obvious attempt to shift focus from the conversation and share the platform, while this sounds beneficial it is done to purely stuff African-American stories of injustice to the backseat.
Another aspect of the protests is to de-fund the police and help fund educational and health-recovery facilities mainly as the annual police funding comes to 115B Dollars, whereas children are served close to nothing appetizing for lunch at public schools. However, the importance of police departments is still highlighted and very much needed but with better training. Lawyers are known to spend close to a decade learning the law yet police officers spend a couple months in an academy to enforce the law which indicates the flaw in the system.
Although the #BlackLivesMatter movement was established to seek justice to those who have suffered at the hands of the police, the hashtag has become much more than that. It has become the face of revolution in the time of change and re-evaluating who we put in places of power and protection. De-funding the police does not benefit just the African-American population within America but absolutely everybody, considering where all police funds should be divided and distributed.
