Notes

Police Brutality Against Minorities, has Anything Really Changed in America?
Police brutality towards African-Americans, was an everyday “norm” in the past, but as we are in the present it is slowly becoming recurrent. I know some people will say that things today are better than they were in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, but I ask, “Are things really any better than they were?” Police brutality against minorities has been very common in the U.S. not only then but now. When will things really change for the better? To the people who think police brutality against minorities is not a real problem in America continue to read this essay because you are apart of the problem.
Police brutality is when police attack or harass anyone without probable cause or reason. Back in the late 1950s and 1960s police were extremely violent compared to today and were rarely prosecuted, if ever. The first African-American leader was Robert Williams of Monroe, North Carolina. After joining the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1955, he encouraged African-Americans to arm themselves against the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and other racist groups. In 1962, “Negroes With Guns” was published based on his story and his fight for freedom and democracy. Along with Williams, Malcom X also encouraged African-Americans to fight back against the negativity being thrown at them. In the mid 60’s, Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brow, who were apart of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, were against MLK’s nonviolent ways and started the ‘Black Power’ Movement which was a political movement in the 1960’s that involved many young African-Americans who were tired of waiting on MLK’s peaceful and patient ways to achieve their civil rights. In 1967, the Black Panther Party was created by Huey Newton and Bobby Scale, who were college students at Oakland. The Black anther Party started as a sort of “neighborhood watch” for their town, and whenever police officers would stop an African-American they would be there with their guns making sure that they respected their rights. The youngest person on record to become a victim of police brutality back then was Clifford Glover, of New York, in 1973 who was ten-years-old at the time. Clifford Glover and his stepfather were stopped by Thomas Shae, a white police officer, for “fitting the description” of recent cab robbers. Both Clifford and his step father ran away from the officer, which ultimately led to the shots fired into ten-year-old Clifford’s back, but Shae said that the boy appeared to have a gun and that was the reason why he shot the child. Afterwards, police searched Glover’s relatives homes without a warrant. Shae was the first officer in nearly 50 years to be charged with murder on duty, but the Jury that was made up of 11 white men and one African-American woman found Shae not guilty. Afterwards trial, Officer Shae, the Jury, and his lawyers went out to celebrate his freedom while the family of Clifford Glover were left with no justice or peace for the wrongful death of their child.
The youngest person, so far on record to become a victim of police brutality, was seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones when on May 16, 2010 the SRT of Detroit (Special Response Team) raided her home. Aiyana and her family lived in 4054 and Police had a warrant to arrest Chauncey Owens, who lived in 4056, which is the building right beside there’s, but had not warrant to raid 4054, Aiyana’s home. Police completely disregarded the fact that children lived in the duplex, even after a neighbor told them, and they pinned him on the ground. At 12:40 am, police raided both sides of the duplex, throwing a flashbang into the window of Aiyana’s home, which left her blanket scorched, after busting into their home, Officer Weekley fired his weapon at Aiyana, shooting her in the head. Aiyana’s parents were forced to lie in their daughter’s blood while they were being detained at the scene. Officer Weekley is not new to being in situations like this, he has shot two dogs and was known to aim guns at children. Weekly, a fourteen year vet, claimed he had “lost control of the gun” at the time of the shooting, and was ultimately dismissed of all charges! Even after breaking into a home without a warrant? Even after detaining an innocent family? Even after shooting a child in the head with no cause? What does it take for an officer to be held accountable for what they have done wrong? It doesn’t take much for a minority to be arrested and thrown in jail, so why is it that the police get to walk away with their freedom while my people are thrown in jail left an right for just looking like a suspect of a recent crime? Why are my people being killed at the hands of people who are supposed to “serve and protect” us? Questions asked by African-Americas on a daily basis today.
#BlackLivesMatter. Black Lives Matter is an organization that is working towards rebuilding the Black liberation movement. “This is Not a Moment, but a Movement”, a movement created in 2012 after seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was murdered by the gun of George Zimmerman, and he received no justice, but it goes way beyond the killings, it’s about love for all the Black lives who were made to feel like they weren’t loved, and much more. #BlackLiveMatters talks about how black people are left to feel like we have no power when it comes to the state, and how we still are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. #BlackLivesMatter is working towards a world where black lives will be able to say we are actually not systematically or intentionally targeted for demise. #AllLivesMatter. All Lives Matter, which was created to shut down #BlackLivesMatter, is a hashtag that only appears when #BlackLivesMatter show up when there’s a case of police brutality. Saying #AllLivesMatter is like saying “Oh, you have cancer? Well there’s diabetes too ! #AllDiseasesMatter !” It is just disrespectful and rude for the person or people who are going through something and you use that hashtag to shut them down, like they don’t even matter or exist. The whole purpose for #BlackLivesMatter was to say that we are being killed, we are dealing with an issue, and we matter just like any other race on this Earth, but #AllLivesMatter comes along and just shuts everything down by talking about how we’re not the only ones being killed, or we’re not the only ones struggling, or “What about white lives?”, “What about Hispanic lives?” #BlackLivesMatter understand that everyone and every race is having their own problems, but right now, we are the ones who need help, and we are the ones who are being treated like we don’t matter.