Kim New York

How can we make sure black and Latino lives are not taken for granted?

In the Declaration of Independence, it says that “All men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The Founding Fathers mentioned that years ago, and yet we are still living in a country where people can’t accept each other’s diversity. And a certain group of people can’t have their trust in the police who are supposed to protect us.

Dear President,

I am Kimarah Charleus, a young girl that was born and raised in a black country Haiti. I immigrated to the U.S about 4 years ago. I am currently a senior at Brooklyn International High School. As a person of color and this generation’s future, with all my respect I believe racial profiling by police is a big problem that you should address because this country is diverse where everyone should feel equal. People of color have been fighting for equal rights for decades and it’s sad to see we are in 2016 and people still have to march raising their voices up to stop police brutality against people of color. I want you to take action on racial profiling right away because race shouldn’t stop anybody from being successful. I believe police body cameras should be a solution in order that the people of color will have some faith in justice and their innocence will be seen.

The problems are the police officers are too quick using their guns instead of the taser or choke hold. They don’t have the patience to communicate with the person without being oppressed especially, black men. There should be a mixture of police officers in each police department instead of a group of race dominating this part of the department. In an article called "Opinion: New sense of urgency gives rise to many ideas for better policing," this article is about the black community trusting the police officers? Violence keeps going back and forth between those two groups, the police and the black people. They are killing each other. Police brutality keeps getting increased. The police should use tasers or the choke-hold if it’s necessary instead of shooting like black men are devils. Police should carry a body camera because we don’t know how many people the police have killed or if they are still using stop and frisk. Plus it will help the black community to gain some trust with the police. The police themselves should try and interfere with the black community. The Justice Department needs police from different races and also they should train the police in a way that they will be less violent. And not act like they are in wars. Black and Latinos are most likely to get stopped by the police, and that isn't fair. A person shouldn’t be judged by its cover.     

In an article called "Issue Overview: Racial Profiling" it's stated that the community believes that racial profiling is taking the trust of the people and change their perspective about the police. It shouldn’t be fair for Black and Latinos men to be arrested for no reason or warrant but because of their race and their skin color. Just like the Stop and Frisk method that was used in New York years ago, but again the black and Latinos were mostly to be stopped by the police just because they are walking in the street. 

It is not okay for the Black Lives Matter to be categorized as a hatred movement, just because 3 out 10 protesters In Charlotte were violent shouldn’t turn on to everybody that was protesting. In an article titled "State of emergency in North Carolina as protests turn violent," this article specifically talking about on how the people that live in Charlotte are furious over the police. The reasons are because the police killed a black man and people have enough of the police brutality so they raised up and protested. Some of the people were violent but the majority of the people were calm and stronger together.

I want you to take action on racial profiling right away because race shouldn’t stop anybody from being successful. I believe police body cameras are a solution to the problem in order that the people of color will have some faith in justice and their innocence will be seen. Also, try to train the police with love and patience. If All Lives Matter so much, blacks and Latinos should not be stopped or killed because of their background ethnicity and history.

Sincerely,

Kimarah Charleus


References

https://newsela.com/articles/overview-racial-profiling/id/20944/

https://newsela.com/articles/how-to-fix-american-policing/id/20243/

https://newsela.com/articles/charlotte-protests/id/21990/

Brooklyn International High School

BIHS Seniors 2016-17

Brooklyn International High School, in New York City, is a public school for recent immigrants to the U.S.

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