Movement justified, time for change

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is incredibly critical to modern society. It encompasses values of equality, justice and freedom for which has been recognized across the world. This is majorly because of the extensive role social media plays in contemporary society. In the digital age, if an individual or a movement is made public, they can no longer hide anything. All of their flaws, insecurities and mistakes are out on the table for the whole world to see. Again, this can be an advantage and a downfall.

No movement is going to be perfect. Furthermore, no individual is going to be perfect. If everyone knows this, why are people so quick to judge and immediately discredit every single thing an individual or a group has worked for because of one mistake?

In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman who was eventually acquitted. From this, #BlackLivesMatter was formed. Ever since 2012, people of all backgrounds have banded together to protest the systematic dehumanization of black people. The fact that instances of racially motivated crimes by the police force in America has only caused #BlackLivesMatter to grow and become even more relevant.

In the matter of the movement, a vast majority of their protests are peaceful, but there are some branches of the movement who do participate in violent behavior. Because bad news is more exciting than good news, the media tends to twist and exploit the violent branches of Black Lives Matter. Subsequently, an entire group of people – an entire race – is generalized.

Violence is not the way execute a message, but why focus on the bad? Why not focus on the ongoing struggle of racism that is somehow still prevalent in today’s society?

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is about bringing an end to deep-rooted racism in this country. It is about reaching equilibrium between white people and people of color. Most importantly, it is simply about equality.

It is not about black people being better than white people, God forbid. It is not saying that Hispanic or Latino or white people don’t matter. #BlackLivesMatter is saying that black lives matter too. They are saying that all people should be equal, no matter what skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender or socio-economic status.

Here are six instances, three of them within the last year, of the murder of black people by police officers:

On Sept. 16, an unarmed 40-year-old black man by the name of Terence Crutcher was shot in Tulsa, Okla. by a white female officer. Crutcher was unarmed and, and according to copious amounts of camera footage, he had both of his hands in the air before he fell to the ground with blood stains on his shirt.

On Sept. 14, a 13-year-old boy named Tyre King was shot and killed in Columbus, Ohio by police officers after King had brandished a toy gun.

On Aug. 30, an unarmed 22-year-old black man by the name of Levonia Riggins was shot and killed in Tampa, Fl. by officers who raided a home because of reports of marijuana. Police said that Riggins appeared to be an immediate threat and that he was always a trouble to the law, despite the fact that Riggins had not been arrested in over a year.

On April 12, 2015, a 25-year-old black man named Freddie Gray was arrested on a weapons charge in Baltimore. Video accounts recorded Gray screaming as police officers roughly carried him to a prison transport van. Gray was eventually moved to a trauma clinic and he goes into a coma because of a severe spinal injury. Gray dies a week later. Protests of Gray’s death in the streets of Baltimore transformed into riots, and the National Guard was called in to handle the situation. All six officers involved in the murder were acquitted.

On August 9, 2014, an unarmed 18-year-old black male by the name of Michael Brown was shot 12 times and killed in Ferguson, Missouri by Officer Darren Wilson. Consequently, around 1,000 protestors gathered and tear gas and rubber bullets were utilized by police after the protest turned violent. Wilson was never indicted.

On July 27, 2014, an unarmed 43-year-old black man named Eric Garner was choked to death by a New York police officer. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo pursued Garner because he was allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. Pantaleo was never indicted

In many of these cases, protests arose; some were synonymous with #BlackLivesMatter, and some were not. One cannot consider the #BlackLivesMatter movement to be mutually exclusive with all demonstrations protesting the murder of black people. This is an over-generalization. It is like saying that all cops are racist. Many of the people at a demonstration could be members of the movement, but not all, not unless it is specifically an organized #BlackLivesMatter protest. Furthermore, there are a great many police officers who are not racist, but there are those who do commit crimes against people of color with an ingrained racial discriminatory intent.