I sat down with activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Louisville Chanelle Helm before the vigil took place to get her take on the relationship between police and marginalized communities in Louisville.
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Trump framed that issue in largely economic terms, blaming the mood of the nation’s black community on high unemployment and low wages. It’s not racist to say black lives matter, so goes the argument, because the statement isn’t meant to imply that other lives don’t matter. They are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.
“He’s told me that the words that come out of leaders are important and we’ve got to always believe we can do better”, Rawlings said.
Instead he said they promote peace. “So ‘Black Lives Matter” is not an exclusionary statement.
Numerous protesters said they are hopeful that by using their voices and standing together against violence, they will see change in community and police relations.
A U.S. Army veteran shot and killed five police officers and wounded five others Thursday night at a Black Lives Matter in Dallas, which had been organized to protest the police killings of two black men last week in Louisiana and Minnesota.
“I don’t understand why black men die in custody and they’re forgotten the next day”, Williams said.
Ty Hardaway, another Black Lives Matter protester, explained how he hoped things would go forward.
In an emotional plea to end police violence against African-Americans, Black Lives Matter demonstrators blocked the intersection of North Ashley Drive and Tyler Street Monday evening as they memorialized those killed by police across the country.
Organizer Daniel Mendes said after the rallies in cities like Boston and Providence, he wanted to bring the protests to the suburbs. The officer who was guarding both sides also joined them.
Since then Black Lives Matter has developed into a network of local chapters who mostly operate independently.
“My solution to the tension between the police and the people which I recognize as my own inner tension is to seek unity, not find division”, he wrote, adding that community education and police reforms are also needed. There has certainly been a lack of media coverage over the tragic loss of Black British lives at the hands of those who were meant to protect them: Sheku Bayo, Sarah Reed, Oluseni Lewis and Jermaine Baker, to name a few.
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Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
