Most of mainstream media has failed to convey the true underlying cause for widespread national protests in recent months. Most news anchors and hosts allow guests to blame the recent killing of two NYPD officers on everything BUT police brutality.
We’ve heard blame placed on “race baiting” by Mayor de Blasio, President Obama and Eric Holder for the reason that people are protesting and even the death of the officers killed in Brooklyn (although there has been no evidence at all that the man responsible was part of any group organizing protests).
Giving credit where credit is due, the words of a few individuals don’t have the power to motivate thousands upon thousands of protesters from all walks of life and all races to passionately march in the streets, stage die-ins, risk arrest and even death by protesting at times when police have guns pointed at them, day after day. The only thing that creates that type of energy is INJUSTICE suffered and witnessed by all of those who are fighting for justice.
People of color are no longer willing to accept police brutality and people of other races are finally seeing what we’ve been trying to convey for decades; that we are NOT treated fairly and equally under the law. Issues with the justice system are only one piece of the systemic racism that works on a consistent basis to oppress people of color. That same system of oppression that creates a culture that inspires wrongdoing on the part of some police officers is the system that creates a culture of crime and violence in poor neighborhoods.
The distinction MUST be made that protesters are not ANTI-POLICE, they are ANTI-POLICE BRUTALITY. And clarification needs to be made that when injustice is acknowledged by elected or appointed officials, it is not race baiting or selling police out, but simply admitting the problem so we can work towards solutions.