“As long as [an officer is] out there always doing the right thing, [officers] shouldn’t have to worry if someone is out there videotaping or recording [them, ]” Tabor said.
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“While we may think that because we are not in America these issues don’t affect us, the truth is, this happens in the United Kingdom as well”, Sasha Blair, of Black Lives Matter Leeds, the organisers of the event, told The Voice. “No violence and no weapons”.
That’s a reality, and gets underlined every time there is a police-involved shooting involving someone who is black, as we saw most recently with the deaths of motorist Philando Castile in Minneapolis, Minn., and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. Webb Elvington of Savannah echoed the sentiment, stating “All lives do matter, whether they are black, white, red, yellow, brown”.
The movement has been a heated topic lately as two black men were shot and killed in Minnesota and Louisiana, prompting protests across the country.
“I believe people are now letting their emotions take over, and now they’re being angry a lot more than positive”, Scurlock said.
“Going forward, I want to hear ideas from even more Americans about how we can address these challenges together as one nation”. Black Lives Matter is about…people wanting real equality.
Obama expressed optimism, however, and said the participants – who included members of the Black Lives Matter movement – agreed such conversations need to continue despite emotions running raw. We owe it to each other to listen to each other’s experiences and, even if we’ve not had them ourselves, understand that your neighbor’s truth may be different from your own.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters: “At a time when our country is feeling so divided I think it is important that the country’s leadership come together across party lines, despite significant differences to emphasise our shared desire to unify the country”. Taylor said in the video (via NME).
There have been around 10 similar shootings in recent years, culminating in what may have been an unrelated shooting in Dallas.
It’s not wrong to want them to be held to a higher standard. Rather than brand someone as a thug and simply comply with the notion that “he got what was coming to him”, we need to examine what brings individuals to pursue a life of crime and fix it to create a better life for all Americans.
While the lives of law officials do matter, it seems we are missing the point.
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In his view, the problem is black gangs, murderous black children, the refusal of black protesters to look in the mirror at their “racist” selves, and black parents’ failure to teach their children to respect the police.
