The past week has been one of heart break and sorrow all over the the United States. With the shooting of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and now the recent shooting of several police officers in Dallas, TX has left us all with the constant feeling of unrest and caution. We are between two sides, those who support our police and justice system that mourn the loss of our fallen officers, and those who are taking a stand for the wrongful shooting of innocent civilians loosing their lives when they could still be here.
But, if you're like this writer, you stand with both. It is possible, yes, to mourn the lives lost regardless of 'who's side' is right or wrong. The fact of the matter is that no one wishes to see people being gunned down, loosing their lives when there is always a way to solve our problems peacefully. It's 2016 and the fact that we still have racially based violence is beyond our thoughts, we all believed that as a society that so called prides ourselves on acceptance and tolerance, seem to have a tendency to turn our backs on this belief.
As of July 10th, 2016, 569 innocent people have been killed by law enforcement. (See Source: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/07/these_are_...)
Black Lives Matter, a racial equality based group, was formed in 2013. Since then, the media's blindness towards the murders and shootings, be it at the hand of police or not, have been over turned and made aware. The group, who in my opinion, does an amazing job at what they do. From Picketing to protesting, rallying, raising money for those who have been affect towards violence and their cause, they have made amazing strides in only three short years. Three short years that, unfortunately, have been plagued with violence against those in the colored community, the hate movement All Lives Matter (that was formed solely to silence BLM) have stayed silent when it comes to the lives of the officers being killed and non-colored people being killed by the police force.
In fact BLM had stepped up back when Zachary Hammond, a white teen, was shot and killed while in his car twice by police back in 2015. Hammond was unarmed and was caught in between an under cover narcotics operation that was targeted, not at himself, but the passenger in his car. BLM trended his name and brought awareness to the wrongful killing of the teen while the ALM crowd stayed silent, only proving their true intention that is to silence BLM and their allies.
Black Lives Matter is not the enemy of police, and police are not the enemy of Black Lives Matter. Corruption, immorality and violence are the enemy of us all. Saying Black Lives Matter doesn't mean that white, Asian, Hispanic or any other race's lives don't matter. It doesn't mean that cop's lives don't. In fact BLM does in itself means that everyone's lives matter, it just happens to be that the focus as of now is on them and the radical and racial injustice that they face.
It is up to us, be it an individual or us as a society, to end the violence in our country, Our world. Gunning people down, violence, and hate will only create more violence and hate in the world. A corrupt system benefits no person on this earth, not a single one of us who cherish life and the safety of our fellow human beings. Its up to us to bring the useless spilling of blood. To stop destroying families, taking away someone's life and ending the person that they are or could have been is not for us to choose.
