Those attending the meeting included Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana and Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Minnesota, the two locations where police shootings sparked protests around the country. That’s because black Americans are five times as likely as unarmed white Americans to be shot and killed by a police officer. “However, that is going to be one of our last options if we can’t get what we need to get done”, the President of the Greater Atlanta Black Lives Matter, Sir Maejor.
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Racism in America is not a concept that exists only in history books – it’s an issue that still affects people on a daily basis. Because of how our society exists, I am given “special privilege” because I am white and male.
I live with this fear every day they wake and step out into the world. I don’t know how y’all did it?
“There’s lots of blacks here in Quebec that have been a part of that police brutality and have been a part of the discrimination here”, said protester Venetta-Solena Gordon.
“I’m not trying to defend officers who do bad things”.
I don’t know what it’s like to have these thoughts, these worries, these experiences.
“I think it’s an incredible thing to do. We’ve got to stop the rhetoric of painting people with broad brushes”.
Quebec’s Public Security Minister, Martin Coiteux, said he believes the situation in Quebec is much different than what is happening to black communities south of the border.
But this movement is about us. Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripi, and Brent Thompson were members of an exemplary big city police department that had won many awards for its diversity and interaction with minority neighborhoods.
President Obama addressed the growing tensions between Black communities and law enforcement officials head-on during last night’s frank and honest town hall meeting.
As they marched, they read off names off dozens of unarmed black men and women who were killed in 2015 by police officers. In the wake of these black deaths, people once again filled the streets to make a simple, sadly radical assertion: Sterling and Castile’s black lives mattered.
Melissa Urbina of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office said Friday morning that they’re still unsure whether or not the protest is happening later.
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“That’s not to say that not everybody’s lives matter”, explains Brown, “but it’s the black lives that are getting taken!” That’s right, the great country that brought you the electric light bulb, the Internet and a manned moon landing can not see that supporting black and brown people in stopping excessive police force does not stop you from supporting police.
