Dear Mr/Mrs. President,

I am aware that you are familiar with the movement Black Lives Matter and the victims of many racial police shootings. Most statistics and studies would show that more white people are killed than black people, but how many of those whites were killed for questionable reasoning? Did you know that even though white people are shown to be more active in drug offenses, blacks are arrested and imprisoned 10 times more often than whites? This has to be addressed now. These numbers will increase unless something is done. From what I see, our police officers are getting lazy in their morals, and our safety is at risk. I suggest we take a closer look at our officers.

In recent years, we have seen many videos of the police doing questionable things. You may have heard of Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, or the man who was arrested for trespassing at a place he worked in 2013. Earl Sampson, a 28-year-old clerk at QuikStop in Miami, Florida, was arrested over 60 times, searched over 100 times, and stopped for over 250 times for “trespassing” in a 4-year span of time. According to Raw Story, Alex Saleh installed 16 cameras in his business, not in fear of theft or safety, but to catch the police harassing his employees. He states that he has a “year’s worth of harassment from police” toward himself and his employees like Earl Sampson. After being informed that Alex will file a civil rights suit, the officers allegedly stopped. Quite suspicious right? Well, don’t forget that most of the employees are black.

Furthermore, evidence shows that many police officers are racist toward blacks are drug arrests. Statistics shows that although whites are more involved in drug offenses, blacks are arrested, stopped, searched, and jailed more than whites, according to the ACLU. As stated, “Sentencing disparities and selective enforcement of drug laws mean that there are more black people under the control of prison and corrections departments today than were ever enslaved by this country.” ACLU and statistics show that more blacks are jailed and harassed by whites than there were slaves in early US. Why is this? Maybe because blacks are caught more often than whites? Or maybe because 80% of our police are white? We all know the history between whites and blacks in our American past.

Philando Castile was another recent victim of racist police stops. The video of his death was captured by his girlfriend, who sat next to him during the event. She streamed the confrontation by a white officer and Castile. When the officer asked for his license, Castile went into his pocket to retrieve it, but the officer pulled the trigger 4 times into his arm and chest. He died later in the hospital. The officer said Castile was reaching for a gun, but there are no official records of Castile having a gun at the scene, noted The Washington Post. However, his girlfriend said that Philando had prematurely warned the officer that he a firearm with him.

To conclude these sad facts, I would like to share my thoughts on our police. I do not believe that our whole police force is corrupt. I believe that there are many good officers, however, their good deeds are being overshadowed by the corruption of a few bad cops in our country. To make sure that our police force represents safety, protection, order, and most of all, trust within our society and in social media; we have to build the trust within ourselves, especially interracial trust. Being more mindful or what our officers do on post, making sure their actions fall in line with what our nation is designed to be. We don’t need another Earl Sampson or Philando Castile situation, so please, do something about this Mr/Mrs. President.

                                                                                     Yours Truly,

                                                                                                 Andrew Nate De Guzman

@ACLU. "Race and Criminal Justice." American Liberties Union. N.p., 6 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

"Police Shootings 2016 Database." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

"Miami Gardens Store Owner Films a Year’s worth of Outrageous Behavior by Local Cops." Raw Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.