Alton Sterling, a husband and a father of five, was shot down and killed. No, not killed, but murdered by a police officer. The police, the ones who we give guns and our trust to. The ones we call for in need of help. Alton Sterling, another hashtag, another black man murdered by the police.
For what? What was he doing so wrong that made these officers believe that he was a threat to their lives? Selling CDs? Was that "crime" worth his life? He wasn't even resisting arrest. They already had him on the ground.
Why?
I keep asking myself this. I keep picturing his family waiting for him to come home just to discover that they will never see him again. I can't imagine the pain, anger and hurt they are going through right now.
I am so tired of the same thing happening over and over and OVER again.
A black person is murdered AND caught on camera and the media makes it out to be the victim's fault. The officer is left with no conviction whatsoever.
"He was a thug. He used to do drugs. He used to do this and that."
That's the excuses that I constantly hear when I watch the news or go on social media.
I'm sick and tired of people justifying the actions of these officers when it is clear as day that what happened was murder.
Murder- To kill someone unlawfully. That is the Webster dictionary definition of murder. Was the killing of Alton Sterling lawful?
No. You can't tell me that is was lawful. What the world witnessed watching that video was a man being MURDERED. Point blank period.
So don't sit here and tell me that All Lives Matter when my people are the ones being gunned down.
Don't tell me that racism doesn't exist because if this had been a white man he would have gotten off with a warning.
Don't tell me that we should respect authority when they are the main ones killing us for no damn reason but only because the can.
Don't tell me that it has nothing to do with race because it has EVERYTHING to do with race.
Alton Sterling was the 114th black male to be killed in America in 2016. That is unacceptable. It's disgusting.
Remember their names. The names of victims who were killed by police. None of these victims have received justice. Remember their names:
Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Kathryn Johnston. Sean Bell. Eric Garner. Rekia Boyd. Amadou Diallo. Mike Brown. Kimani Gray. Kenneth Chamberlain. Travares McGil. Tamir Rice. Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Freddie Gray.
Alton Sterling.
Who's next? My father? My mother? My sister?
Me?
Am I the next hashtag? I mean, I'm one (or six) bullet(s) away from being one. So when will it stop? Because I am so tired of watching my people be murdered and nothing being done to stop it.
#Justicefor________. I'm leaving it blank because I'm probably going to be writing another article like this soon...
UPDATE: July 7th 2016
Philando Castile
It hasn't even been 48 hours.
