* Please watch the video at the bottom of the page. * The title is far more inflammatory than the actual interaction, as no one was schooled. It was simply an informative and respectful discussion. I think that a lot of people dont truly understand what all of the fuss is about. I say this because, just based on my Facebook feed alone, so many people are just focused on the Ferguson and NYC cases. First off, the protests that are being seen are not just about 1 or 2 cases. People say that if they would have just complied with the officer’s requests, everything could have been worked out through the judicial system. What the protestors are saying is that the judicial system is not blind or fair for all people. Now, I will shout from the rooftops that all police officers are not bad! I think that the majority are brave, selfless heroes who deserve to make it home to their families at the end of every shift. I do not dislike police officers, I do not have any hatred toward any police officers, and the majority of protesters are not saying that they hate police officers either. There is a policy problem, a systemic problem that people are trying to bring to light. While I do not agree with every victims actions before their deaths, I will say that, regardless of race or class, an unarmed person should not be killed. I would think that officers would be trained to use a variety of skills to subdue a person. They have tasers, batons, tear gas, mace, stun guns, light sources, bean bags, and I would think some martial arts/hand to hand combat type of training that could be used prior to resorting to deadly force. Also, I would like to point out that there is a difference between protesters and rioters. They are not one in the same. Just as we don’t typically refer to excited college or professional sport team’s fans as wild animals or thuggish criminals for overturning and burning cars and breaking storefront windows, we shouldn’t refer to protesters as such either. Whether we like to say it, or hear it, race is still an issue in many areas of our society. I have personally been referred to as a n#@!*#*, and I can’t count the number of times that I have been dressed as though I stepped off the cover of a high fashion magazine, and still been followed around a store. Just last year, in a crowded shoe store, a clerk LOUDly accused me of walking a barefoot 2 year old, through the intense rain storm we were having that day, into the store to steal a pair of sneakers that were currently on his feet. She threatened to call the police on me three times, even after I took the shoes off to show her the worn soles. Mind you, he’d had those sneakers for quite a few months, but she held fast that they looked like brand new sneakers straight out of the box. While I walked out of the store with my three young children, minus any shoe purchase, she still continued to tell me that if they review the videotape and catch me putting the stolen shoes on my youngest son, the cops would be sent to my house, the store will press charges, and I’ll be arrested. The point that I’m trying to make with all of this, is that this shouldn’t be about who is right and who is wrong. Nobody should be trying to make the case that anyone deserves to die. This isnt the time to make jokes about peoples pants, perpetuate stereotypes, make nasty comments about President Obama, call people stupid if they dont agree with you, and on and on. If you haven’t walked a mile in someone elses shoes, you can’t judge them. You shouldn’t judge them. Love your neighbor as yourself, whether they be a few feet away, a few hundred miles away, or all the way on the other side of the world. I don’t know what it’s like to live in a poor neighborhood. I don’t know what it’s like to be a young black man. I don’t know what it’s like to be harassed by police on a weekly or daily basis as an innocent person. I don’t know what it’s like to be a police officer. I don’t know what it’s like to have to confront potentially dangerous people on a daily basis. I don’t know what it’s like to patrol a neighborhood that scares me. I don’t know what it’s like to lose a loved one and watch the killer walk away free and clear. There are a lot of things that I don’t know. There are a lot of things that I have never, and pray to God that I will never, experience. Even if we can’t have EMPATHY for someone, we can all show some SYMPATHY. There is always HOPE. If we work together for the good of a few, we increase the greatness of the whole. With peace and love to all.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 04:55:13 +0000
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