A group of demonstrators gathered on a downtown sidewalk Thursday evening, holding signs that said “Justice = Peace”, “White Silence is Violence” and “Black Lives Matter”.
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“At the same time, we strongly object to a public banner sponsored by the City that impliedly paints police officers as the killers of innocent citizens of color when there is no evidence whatsoever that the police officers in the City are in anyway using their police powers in a discriminatory or unlawful way”, they wrote. This, of course, does not justify the murder of the police officers, and Black Lives Matter activists would not tell you it does.
Black Lives Matter activists march during a protest outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016.
“The vast majority of police officers across this country are tasked with shielding, protecting, and assisting elements of the protest movement that loathe them, spit on them, intentionally injure them, and wish death upon them”, the letter said.
“The police are a reflection of the community that they serve”, he said. “The automatic feeling that I get is afraid because it’s happening so often now”, she said.
The confrontations highlighted Obama’s struggle to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, a diffuse group unlike established civil rights organizations that have deep relationships at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
Earlier on Thursday, five black local elected officials said they planned to hold neighborhood listening sessions with the aim of improving police-community relations, but also with the goal of addressing other problems. One of the movement’s guiding principles is the idea of restorative justice.
Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. That year, 1,134 African-Americans were killed by law enforcement officers. “Here we are pretty peaceful…but I can understand how the black people feel they are being killed off in other parts of the country by the police”. “We need to be a community together, not apart”. “Someone actually spoke out”, said the young man who did not wish to be identified. “I’m not sure if they were asked before the letter went out, their feelings on it”, he said.
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Editor’s note: Amoy Brown, 18, is a recent graduate of Hempstead High School and participant in the Hofstra University High School Summer Journalism Institute.
