Kaylin Luces found herself in a hard position last week: In one moment, she was texting her sister, a police officer, telling her, “Be careful out there. Cops are getting shot”. Two suspects were taken into custody and a third was killed by police.
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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.
After some Black Lives Matter supporters and their counter protesters spent a few minutes together and realized they’re bonded by peace. A proliferation of videos documenting the murders of unarmed black men and women – by the very people charged with their safety – has given rise to a whole movement defined by three words and a hashtag: #BlackLivesMatter.
But outside of that nonsense is a growing picture of police being openly supportive of efforts to ensure the horrific killing of blacks by some rogue officers is stopped.
The protest comes after the recent fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. “I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem”.
“It was a partnership between protesters and police officers”, says Pastor Fisher. It is said to be the deadliest attack on police since 9/11.
“I don’t believe in a Blue Lives Matter movement in the same way that I don’t believe in a White Lives Matter movement or a Men’s Lives Matter movement”, she said.
But lost in the discussion is a sense of what Black Lives Matter is and what it stands for.
Hundreds of people have gathered in Wichita for a peaceful protest against recent fatal police shootings.
The trauma surgeon is vocalizing the struggle many people feel between supporting police officers and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. “And it pits two equally important interests against each other that weren’t against each other”. “They tend to instigate rather than heal and find solutions to the problem”.
Indeed, they do. So do the lives of people of color – and police lives, too.
Neither side should stereotype the other, said Gregory Thomas, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. This time it was the police, however, who had fallen foul of the explosive cocktail of racial tension and guns when on Thursday black army veteran Micah Johnson killed five officers in retribution for police killings of black people.
Police groups and activists emerged from the meeting saying they didn’t always agree with each other on the issues, but they did agree the meeting was productive and could lead to building trust and improving accountability in police departments.
Larry Elder is a black writer and syndicated talk radio host who was born and bred in South Central Los Angeles. “This is where we’re stuck….”
“I think it’s an incredible thing to do”.
Errin Haines Whack covers urban affairs for The Associated Press.
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Whack reported from Philadelphia. Contact him at [email protected], on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jessejholland.
