Dear Madam/Mr. President,

Racism is an issue that hasn’t been necessarily solved over the last few years. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re not even fazed once we hear about a public shooting. Police officers and African-American individuals have had a bad connection in the last couple years, ever since the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on the night of February 26th, 2012. Two years after this incident, Eric Garner was killed in Staten Island, New York City, on the afternoon of July 17th, 2014.

To make matters worse, Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, on the afternoon of August 9th, 2014. This sparked lots of unrest in the community, and led to the rise of the activist movement, Black Lives Matter. The citizens of Ferguson held a protest and rioted on the streets for two weeks, and two days. The situation became bad enough to the point where the police had to deploy riot squads and tear gas. The events of these two weeks gave enough evidence to support the point that America’s law enforcement tends to go too far. Even the world commented on our rash decision-making, with Germany even stating, “... the situation of African-Americans has barely improved since Martin Luther King.” and Iran stating, “violence has become institutionalized in the U.S. in recent years, but since President Obama, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, came to the White House, the violence has intensified, and now it has erupted against blacks in Ferguson.”  Madame/Mr. President, how do you feel about this? The message we’re currently broadcasting to the world is that we can’t live with one another. We’re saying that we’d rather just go and kill people, instead of attempting to reason with them. Whether it’s innocent people, or potential suspects, our “law enforcement” system is still pretty screwed up. Madame/Mr. President, what’s your take on this?

Freddie Gray was killed by spinal cord injury, on the morning of April 19th, 2015. He was arrested a week prior, on April 12th, 2015, for an alleged possession of an illegal switchblade. Two days after his death, police officers were charged with crimes, from manslaughter to illegal arrest. However, on July 27th, 2016, four officers were cleared of any charges.

As you can see, America’s police force isn’t really known for serving and protecting at the moment. If anything, they’re looked down upon, and people will try their best to sabotage their operations. I just detailed many cases of African-Americans being murdered without proper reason, but there’s a flip side. I’ve also seen some dash cam footage, from a civilian’s perspective, where the cops are reassuring and don’t appear to have any intention of harming someone. One more thing I’ve noticed is that most of the police violence seems to happen on the East Coast of the United States.

Madam/Mr. President, why do you think this is happening? Of course, we have our own ideals and beliefs depending on which part of the country we live in, but there have been so many incidents over on the East. What’s your take on it? Considering that you’re going to run our country, how will you deal with this matter? That’s just my take on this whole situation.

Sincerely,

Allen Phu