There is something cancerous infecting this country that we live in and it starts with our justice system. In just this past two years I have seen that our justice system was designed in a way to help some and destroy the others. I have seen how the media will do everything in its power to justify murder as well as defend some criminals. I have witnessed every way possible that the country we live in and our justice system contradict itself. Even though we say the words “…With liberty, and Justice for all” with our hands over our hearts, not everyone in this country receives the justice they deserve.
In recent events, Alton Sterling was unjustly murdered by two Baton Rouge police officers outside of a convenient store while selling CDs. As media outlets began covering the story it was only a matter of time before they released his rap sheet. It was only a matter of time before the world started using his past as justification. We heard the typical response “he should have complied”, even though eyewitnesses (one being the store owner and good friend of Sterling) said that he did indeed comply. He only asked what he did wrong. The cops stated that he had a gun, but as you can see in the graphic videos that surfaced on the internet, Sterling is pinned to the ground and so are both of his arms. At the end of the video, after shooting him 6 times the police pulls an object out of Sterling’s pocket and the police department refuse to state whether or not it was a gun, but if it was, you can see during the altercation that there was no physical way that he was a physical threat.
A day later in Minnesota, there was another graphic video that surfaced on the internet. A woman recorded a police officer pointing his gun at her already shot and dying boyfriend. Philando Castile was a licensed to carry gun owner who was pulled over with his girlfriend in the passenger seat and his four-year-old daughter in the backseat. Castile did everything right, he informed the police officer that he was licensed and that his gun was in his possession at that moment. When the officer asked for his license, he reaches for his wallet and is shot four times in the arm. He complied. He didn’t have a record. The officer is just another case of a trigger-happy cop.
There are people that refuse to acknowledge the fact that white privilege is real. There are people that refuse to acknowledge that racism still plagues this country. There are people that refuse to acknowledge the fact that our justice system is crooked and corrupt. There are people that refuse to acknowledge the fact that there are indeed crooked and corrupt cops that wear the uniform. So many contradictions. When a white person owns a gun, he is a citizen of the United States exercising his rights. When a black person owns a gun, he is a thug with intentions of terrorizing his community. When a white person commits a crime, he is portrayed in the media as someone you should pity (Brock Turner). When a black man is even suspected of committing a crime, you get a former mugshot if he has one. You get a rap sheet if he has one. If he doesn’t have either one of those, you’ll get a discrediting photo of him from when he was a young teenager hanging out with friends. You say it’s not about race but it is.
