To the next president of the United States of America:

Imagine if a lifelong friend was killed because of the color of his skin. Think about if that friend was killed because of the badge he wears to work. Both of these should be unacceptable today, and both sides need to hear the other perspective. Although not a minority or a police officer myself, I believe I can still provide opinion on the topic. Racism has been present throughout much of history, and only relatively recently have we started to combat it. Due to the nature of most minorities’ situation, many live in troubled areas, where crime rates are high. Due to this, police naturally jump to conclusions based on the fact that crime seems to follow minorities, but in reality it happens to be how our cities were populated. If white people were in a similar situation, they would be victims of racial profiling as well, as crime relates to circumstance. Some of the conclusions the police make can not just be inconvenient but deadly, as normal objects could be mistaken for weapons, devastating families who have done nothing wrong. This shows that police need to be trained to use nonlethal solutions when jumping to conclusions, and only use a weapon if the danger is certain. At the same time, thanks to the actions of certain police officers, minorities are making a stand, and this too can be deadly. Racial profiling has incited riots and killed police who did nothing wrong, devastating their families. To stop this useless murder, stronger police training needs to be put in place, giving them the tools they need to win back their respect in the community and stop deaths of innocent minorities, which has to accept police as a protector, not a predator, which together should stop this madness.