Dear future President or to whom reads this,

Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, and Blue Lives Matter; all have something in common and that is Life matters. I believe that Black Lives Matter is a good cause, but has the wrong approach. Violence does not fix violence -  it just causes more anger and hatred. I myself hope to go into law enforcement one day, and I don’t hope to be thrown into a race war.

Police brutality is a thing and the police face consequences for their actions; everyone should face the consequences of their actions. Groups such as Black Lives Matter along with a good population claim they hate cops and say such things as “f --- the police”. But the police are here to protect and serve, what good are we if people go around shooting and killing them, who will be there to protect us but ourselves? It’d be chaos amongst ourselves.

If you claim all cops are racist, aren’t you stereotyping cops just the way they stereotype others? That would be pretty ironic for them, or just being hypocrites.

Violence is not the solution to acts of violence. Like for example the Dallas shooting that took place over the summer, there were 5 officers killed and 9 injured. He was specific in that he wanted to kill as many white officers as he could. Along with these riots going on, people clearly aren’t trying to get support for their cause, which is a good cause, if some are just going around breaking, looting, burning things and threatening white people they come across. A group in Baltimore I observed on Social Media over the summer, went around to random cars and if they saw a white person inside, tried to attack them. Civil unrest continued with at least twenty police officers injured, at least 250 people arrested, 285 to 350 businesses damaged, 150 vehicle fires, 60 structure fires, 27 drugstores looted, thousands of police and Maryland National Guard troops deployed, and with a state of emergency declared in the city limits of Baltimore. How at all does that get back at the police? Going around terrorizing the innocent?

In some cases, it’s not even police brutality. It’s just a police officer doing their job, being provoked, and the edited clip of police bringing a man down leaving the rest out. An example would be the arrest of John Harrison, a black man seemingly violently arrested by two white police officers. Yet the video taken by his friend only showed him being pinned to the car, and not what had transpired beforehand. The police dashboard and body cams came into play. John Harrison’s car smelt of marijuana, and had several warrants out for his arrest. The police bring him to their vehicle, where he proceeds to throw a punch and, is then detained with force (which is the only part the video shows).  We must be cautious with what we see and also what we don't see on social media.  There might be more to a story than meets the eye.

I think we need to work together to solve this problem. Not just go around killing and hurting each other just because we’re getting back at each other. I ultimately believe there are some crooked cops out there who need to be dealt with, but groups going around just doing pointless things need to be put down. Black Lives Matter is a very noble cause, I hope to one day see equality in this messed up world we live in, but they should try to further their motives through peaceful means. Major examples would be Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Both great men who achieved more equality through peaceful means towards their causes, even though they were faced with violence towards them and overcame it to reach their goals. I would like to see some more nobles, we all know we have more than enough violence in the world.

Be the change you wish to see in the world,

Manny

Work Cited

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438992/milwaukee-riot-black-lives-matter-police-homicide-rate-khalif-rainey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_shooting_of_Dallas_police_officers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garry-rodgers/whats-considered-police-b_b_8865792.html

http://www.mediaite.com/online/car-dash-camera-helps-clear-up-accusation-of-police-brutality/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Baltimore_protests

https://youtu.be/bN5TWQa17MA