Isn’t it funny how only certain things make the news? Isn’t it strange how the media will gear the actual news towards what boosts their views? The news has been flooded with reports and updates about Philando Castile and Alton Sterling lately. But what about the other nineteen people who have been killed by police since the start of July, or even the 569 people that have been killed in the year of 2016 (as of July 8th)? Rage, anger, and sadness have filled the country as a result of the police brutality towards mostly innocent people or people that could have simply done jail time instead of dying. Also as a result of this, the fatal shooting in Dallas occurred, shooting 12 and killing five of our men in blue. This country is being torn apart. With all this violence, people are scared. People's hearts grow heavy every morning they open up Twitter to see that another person, or even persons, have died due to a shooting.
Trevor Noah, the host of Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show", released a video giving his opinion on recent events. He states how with topics such as police brutality, when you take a stand for something, you are automatically against something else, and it should not be this way. He states that if one is to support Black Lives Matter, they are assumed to be anti-police. In contrast, when one supports police, they are assumed to hate black people. However, in reality, it should not be like this. He states “you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we should be aiming for.” However, people are still neglecting the fact that police brutality is existent.
People are denying the fact that America has a problem with its law enforcement. In videos where people are unarmed and you can see full-throttle the violence that is taking place, police come back with statements saying things like “what you can’t see in the video is…” It is crazy to think how negligent the system is. Not to spoil anything, but in the most recent season of Orange is the New Black, when one of the inmates gets killed by one of the correctional officers, MCC (the Management & Correction Corporation) comes in to see how they can spin the situation, at first trying to put the blame on the victim, in order to get minimum response from the public. The warden then makes an announcement where he puts the blame on the correctional officer, but then proceeds to say that he will keep his job all without even saying the victims name. Police brutality situations are just like this. Of course, a police department is not going to admit that their officer killed someone intentionally with no actual cause or motive.
Noah also brings up the fact that police will only ever disregard what happened in a video when they are the ones on camera. Whenever you are the one committing a crime, such as a robbery, they don’t say things like “how do we even know he/she was committing robbery,” or “what you don’t see from this angle is…,” etc. One huge thing Noah states is these videos from secondary sources do not seem to be enough. Yet, when it comes to the officers body camera’s, they will become “dislodged” even though people use their cameras while skydiving, surfing, motor biking, etc., and those cameras never become “dislodged.”
One of the biggest points Noah brings up is about Harambe, the gorilla who got shot when a child fell into the pit at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Not only was there more outrage for this gorilla than most police brutality deaths, but the organization that was responsible for the gorilla admitted that there was a problem that needed to be fixed. The zoo ended up making changes all for one gorilla. Yet, Americans sit back and ignore these fatal problems facing our country with the police force. In 2011, the Las Vegas Police Department admitted that there was a problem in the way officers interacted with suspects and by acknowledging that and training their officers’ on better ways to assess a situation, wait for it, they decreased police shootings by 36 percent! Yes, 36 percent is not even close to one-hundred, but because they acknowledged the fact that they had a problem, they were able to make change for their community.
We can sit here, live our lives, and hashtag and tweet all day, but that does not create change. It is hard for us citizens, who do not have a whole lot of say in government procedures to create massive change, which is why we cry, we tweet, we update our cover photos on Facebook to honor the lost, but overall, we lose hope. We try to stand tall, we try to move forward, but we break, we crumble, and we fall. There is only so much we can do but we need to stand united. This is not a black problem or a white problem, this is an American problem. Once we have the capability to admit that, change will start. My heart goes out to all the victims of police brutality but also to the law enforcement officers who were brutally attacked in Dallas when they were doing their job, protecting citizens during peaceful protests. As Americans, we stand together and help each other through these tough times because we live in the land of the free, and the home of the BRAVE. In the meantime, let's promote love. Show love to anyone and everyone, make a positive change because everything you do matters.
Here is the link to the Trevor Noah video mentioned in the article:
