Amid anger and anxiety over two fatal police shootings in the United States, Black Lives Matter protests have erupted in Britain, where police patrol unarmed and have fatally shot very few people over the years.
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The almost three dozen people invited to the White House included some police organisations that have little regard for Black Lives Matter, a group they blame for inciting violence against police officers.
Another one from the day after five police officers died in an ambush in Dallas showed a meme with a sketch of President Obama captioned, “Dallas authorities release sketch of man who helped facilitate the slaughter of Dallas Police Officers!” This disconnect is something the rally organisers seem to be trying to reconcile with their strong emphasis on expressing solidarity with both the black community in the USA and the Indigenous community in Australia.
Tabor will attend a conference in Washington D.C. on July 22, where the White House will host a 21st Century Policing Briefing. Black Lives Matter is about…people wanting real equality.
“People have asked me before, ‘Well, is Black Lives Matter a legitimate saying or do all lives matter?’, and my first is all life matters”. If we can reform our police force and eliminate cops who misuse their authority, then people are less prone to anger, and future incidents such as the Dallas shooting could be prevented. “We thought it was going to be just our friends and stuff getting ready for the protest”, said Garcia.
All this got us wondering, where do Houstonians think we need to start?
Another organizer told the crowd, “As you know the climate that’s going on in America right now, we’re at war with each other”. They chanted, “I believe that we will win”, and were similarly arrested. “And of course we want to preserve our model here of peaceful coexistence”, said Coiteux. “He made race an issue”, Savage said.
Williams said she recognizes there is a problem between police and minority communities. “We’re not for violence”. “He does it in such a way you don’t even hear it, you don’t see it, you can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t touch it. The man is the most awesome agitator I’ve ever seen in my entire life”.
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The barbecue is an opportunity for police and citizens to interact and have “positive contact, not face-to-face on a skirmish line”, Ramsay said.
