“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful words are, sadly, still applicable today. It seems like every time we turn on the news or check Facebook, another black life has been taken senselessly. Rarely, however, do we get to see anyone put away for that murder. And I use the word murder because that’s what it is. Some of those same people who fight daily to put away murderers need to take a good, hard look in the mirror.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the police officers who put their lives on the line to keep us safe. My message is directed at those few who use their gun to do the unnecessary and who, with one swift action, make themselves no better than the very people they have sworn to protect us from. Because if the very people who are supposed to protect us can get away with murder, then are any of us really safe after all?

It all comes down to prejudice. No one wants to admit that they feel more uncomfortable around a person of a different colored skin than them. Our ancestors set up this separation generations before we were even born, so we can blame some of that on them. Yes, we can blame this discord on them, but we cannot use them to excuse our behavior. Old habits die hard, but prejudice is one old habit that has to die. Because if it doesn’t, people will continue to die instead.

Slavery, as most people think of it today, refers to the physical enslavement that people of color faced centuries ago. But slavery is not limited to physical enslavement. Today, people of color are facing enslavement through fear. As long as police officers treat them as guilty until proven innocent (even when no crime was committed), they are not free. A person of color can rise above gang culture and make an honest living but they can still be shot outside a convenience store or in their car at a traffic stop.

The bottom line is that there is no room for prejudice in the law. I’ll repeat that again for those in the back who couldn’t hear me: THERE IS NO ROOM FOR PREJUDICE IN THE LAW. We cannot outfit officers with guns if they don’t understand the limitations and implications of their actions. In so many of these tragic situations, the officers could have deescalated without using force or, at most, they could have shot to subdue instead of shooting to kill. In none of these situations was there a need to shoot multiple times at vital organs.

Yes, people make mistakes. I have a job and I’ve made mistakes, but the difference is that my mistakes don’t kill people. Innocent people. And cops banding together at times like these doesn’t help the situation. Officers who disagree with the actions of a fellow officer should be the first ones to speak out against it. Protecting murderers just makes them an accessory to the crime.

The only good thing to come out of incidences like these is the conversations that they start. I urge you, don’t let that conversation die down until there is change. Don’t get distracted when the new trending topic on Facebook is about the Kardashians’ latest look. Be fierce and unapologetic in effecting this change. Because if we aren’t, the next time we’ll be talking about this is when the headline is about another black life cut short.