Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a loosely‐coordinated, nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality that rose to prominence in late 2014. It takes its name from a hashtag started by three Black feminist activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi but the movement and the hashtag are not identical (Freelon, McIlwain, & Clark, 2016). BLM has achieved national reputation through their online and offline organizing, obtaining extensive news media coverage and glowing references in music and entertainment television. Based on a horrendous incident that sparked a concern for a lot of Black people across the world, the sudden need for a social movement was born called BLM. Black Lives Matter is a national organization working for the validity of Black life and also working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter broadens the conversation and highlight the incidents around state violence to include the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. This referring to the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. According to the article The Murder of Walter Scott, which talks about race and class, “African Americans are less than 13% of the U.S. population yet they are nearly 50% of those killed by the police. North Charleston has a population of 104,000, 47% Black and the police force is 80% white (Miah, 2015)”.

policies that are currently in place to reduce tension between police officers and the minority groups that they serveLaw enforcement officers and the community have been disconnected. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police who here to protect and serve our communities. When Ferguson, Missouri exploded after the police shot an unarmed black teenager, the tension between the community and its protectors was laid bare. Ferguson is not the first and certainly not the last community forced to bridge that chasm. In South Carolina a policeman shot an unarmed black male who was stopped for a seat belt violation. The cop asked the male for ID, who then reached under his seat to retrieve his wallet, but was shot in the leg by the cop before he could take out his ID. When the body cam video was reviewed it shows that the trigger happy cop probably was in fear of his life, however it is also obvious that the cop shouldn’t have felt threaten as the behavior of the black male involved nothing unusual. Many would say if the driver was white the cop would have not reacted the way he did.

In today’s news there has been an ongoing battle between the “Blue Lives,” “Black Lives,” and “All Lives” movements. There have been several articles written on each topic, explaining the validity of these movements. On the one hand, “Blue Lives Matter too,” by Jack Kelly argues that the support and safety of policemen needs to increase. On the other hand, “All Lives Matter and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ supporters miss the point,” by R.E. Stubblefield argues that the supporters of both movements are contradicting themselves. If each movement ultimately believes that all lives matter, then there is no contradiction in saying black lives and blue lives matter. Stubblefield’s central claim is more effective because he uses compelling statistics and

Imagine the idea of living in a society where you are segregated from your peers as a result of the colour of your skin. Envision living in a place that you no longer wish to call home because the people around you are being eradicated left right and center.

Because of this, we would see people with different backgrounds getting shot and arrested for no reason. Whenever we go on social media, we would see that people are living in a state of fear whenever a police is nearby because they don’t know whether something bad will happen to them. In the article, “Something’s wrong when the law-abiding are afraid of police,” it talks about how a black woman was fearing for her life because a police officer pulled her over. The police officer didn’t arrest or shoot her, but instead asked her if she was feeling fine since she was driving under the speed limit. People started commenting that this black woman wouldn’t need to fear the police officer if she obeyed him. Perhaps that’s true for someone else, but African Americans are living a different truth. The problem with this is that no one should fear a police officer because they are suppose to serve and protect the community. When someone is fearing a police officer then we know that something isn’t right. We see that many different ethnic people are getting killed by police officers because they don’t seem to trust them but white people. That is why as a community, we should train police officers to become more comfortable with residents of a different racial background. Police officers are required to make our society safe but it turns out that they are the one that are causing us to live in a state of perturbation. For that reason, we know that our police officers are

This article is explaining how the misconduct of police is different big cities like New York City and Los Angeles. It also brought up when a police shooting happens, what do other races think of the police, with that being said, this is also talking about 2 shootings of Patrick dorismond in New York and Amadou Diall, the author tracks public attitudes toward the police before and after each incident, and they also examine the similarities and the opinions of whites, blacks, and Mexican. For example, they were a few police shootings that happened in the 90s, first was the Rodney King beating which was caught on video tape, but no convictions also numerous police scandal that was reported from 1999 to 2000 in the Los Angeles police department. After each incident the most impactful one was the Rodney King beating of African Americans, which after that the trust in police went down drastically because of that image that was seen worldwide. This article is relevant to my research because it talks about police brutality and cases that has happened over the years, this also gives actual statatics about how many African Americans and Mexicans are more likely to be encountered a police brutality.

People don’t see police this way, we all just judge them for thinking a black person was going to pull a gun out and fire at the police officer. I think that this needs to be seen from two angles – one, people see police as racist for shooting colored people, and two, people need to understand that they weren’t in that police officers shoes at the time and situation. Since these police retaliations have increased, some states have made new laws to protect police. Meyerson wrote, “New York State Senate passed a so-called ‘Blue Lives Matter’ bill – a law that makes offenses against police and first responders a hate crime.” (par. 1).

The article then explains how police in Meridian/other cities are getting an angry backlash from the public after all the police killings of unarmed African-Americans. The community thinks it’s a time for officers to do some soul-searching and revamp training, but many officers think they’re being stereotyped as racist or brutal. Officers and their families are worried that they could

Some Black-Lives-Matter activists were trying to push the government to not have police officers mostly white, and to place more African American officers into the police force. “Studies showed in 2007 that African American police officers were treating the blacks harsher than what the white cops were” (Craven 2016). When most African American citizens see black cops, they feel like they are being betrayed because one of their own kind is going against them. Black officers felt that they weren’t accepted in their societies because they were cops trying to help better their city and

Instead of addressing real issues of racism, the activists focus on a few incidents where a black person has gotten into a deadly confrontation with law enforcement — but where there doesn’t appear to have been any racism.In many of the incidents, the officers themselves were black or Hispanic. The high-profile accusations and scrutiny have resulted in ruining the careers and reputations of many law enforcement officers, who are often forced to resign, subsequently facing civil lawsuits and even criminal charges.” (Alexander 1). Black Lives Matter is still new to history it has only been going on a few years, and Police shootings have been a major “help” for Black Lives Matter so that the media will expand the Black Lives Matter voice/movement. The Black Lives Matter movement say that police are only shooting the black people committing the crime just because they are black, and this is a major reason why these people are hypersensitive. They say these things to draw attention to themselves and say that what happened, but they over dramatise the occasion of what happened. This is gold to the media, so the media helps the people affected by the police shootings by helping over dramatise the situation that

In April 28 in city of Baltimore, protestors gathered together to demand justice for Freddie Gray’s death after finding out that he died in custody of the police. Instead of equally protecting all races, police are repressing the black community. Moreover, technology has made accessible for people to record atrocities and exposed them to broad audience gaining empathy and support. Social media has been fundamental for the news to spread around the world quickly. Social media is a tool that social movements can use to increase their growth. Consequently, civil rights activists have been using the slogan “Black Lives Matters” to get awareness for the atrocities being committed against blacks. Thus, advocates have been exposing police brutally such as Freddie Gray’s death, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and many more blacks. Even though the protest led to property damage same as Huntington Beach, the government responded by implemented curfew in the city. Compare to the Huntington Beach’s approach, this is a hard approach. Even though the majority of Americans consider that Blacks protesting is extreme, the general public needs to understand that not all government policies are moral. For instance, the government supported until the end of the Civil War. For years, slavery was

The articles I chose are from The Guardian and the Washington Post, and essentially combined they are an overview of what caused the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the community response to it, and how large of a problem police violence is. The argument put forth in the Guardian article is that the reason why black men are killed by white police officers is not due to an atmosphere of tension and mistrust between minorities and police officers or police in general, that atmosphere is merely a manifestation of the institutional racism that exists within police forces throughout America. And in turn the government has been essentially inactive when it comes to real reforms of the structure of police departments and their policies

It is a proven fact that if you are born black that you're a minority to the society. Being a black /african american means everyone is depending on you to fail in life . They don't get the higher end of the stick, it's always harder. For an example, one in three black men are expected to go to prison for a lifetime. Sixty percent of the people that are in jail are black /african-american. Also students of color race harsher punishments in school than white peers , leading to a higher number of colored youth incarcerated .

“Black Lives Matter” —an intended progression in society without a hierarchy, merely marching forward by spur of the people. Started by three sisters who continue to keep the organization a chapter-based, left wing social justice operation, it can best be described as “Not a moment, but a movement” by those that follow it. The case that began this outcry involved a man —George Zimmerman— whom, according to Lizette Alvarez and Cara Buckley (2013), “was found not guilty [of] second-degree murder [and] was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge.” (para. 1). Since its initial start in 2013, the movement follows and protests against police brutality and civil injustice towards individuals of the Black minority; however, this is a prime example of hate breeding hate as the movement, has opened a new floodgate full of antipathy aimed towards the White-community and Law Enforcement Officials. In short, the initial idea of “Black Lives Matter” —which is to bring civil justice to the Black-community— is a good concept, but the execution by its adherents are, ironically, bigoted; the movement needs to either evolve its state of thought or disperse before it further segregates America.

In an age when the statement “Black Lives Matter” breeds controversy, to love one’s self is almost an act of protest for a Black person.