Dear Next President,

I am not here to lecture you on how to run the country. I am just a fellow concerned citizen who wants our country to continue succeed without killing each other in the process. Serious changes need to be made throughout the United States. I want to ensure our next president is able to to pull through in making these changes happen and stick. There are so many concerns that I would like to express to you but the one that I feel is affecting us the ABSOLUTE most is police brutality against African Americans. Young black men are 9 times more likely to be killed than any other American by a police officer in 2015. According to the Guardian study, there has been nearly 1,134 deaths of Americans due to police brutality. And right now it seems as though 2016 will be no different. Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age. However I am happy to say that in October of 2015, the Department of Justice announced that they would launch “The Pilot” program to track killings nationwide. Along with the FBI revamping their data collecting as well. I’m just hurt that it took this many lives lost to make it happen. I also don’t want to make it seem as though I only care about black men a women dying. I care about every life that is lost due to the mistreatment of guns and power.I don’t want our country to be like the Department of Justice, I don’t want to wait for another 1,000 people to die before we take action. I want the next President to take action NOW. One thing that I would suggest to the next president is for them to put themselves in a specific situation. With all honesty, I truly feel as though they take priority in the things that THEY deem important themselves. Or even if they plan to make something happen, they take their time with it because it doesn’t affect them directly. If Donald Trump becomes president, I think that he will make things happen based on his personal self. When you’re running a county, you have to think about EVERYBODY in it.

Sincerely,

Haniah Jones