Dear Future President,

I’d like to bring to light an issue that has been a significant for a couple years now. The enforcing authorities, the people who were hired to protect us, are becoming some of our worse enemies. Now, I'm not white, and when I say us, I don't mean the general population of America or anyone who comes in contact with the cops. I'm referring to people of color. Black people, brown people, anyone but white people. I myself am Indian, and I can't say I've personally been a victim of police brutality but the cause of the brutality is the discrimination of the populous based on the color of our skins, our looks.

My dad is a traveling man. He goes all over the country for business, going to different branches of his company by plane. I really cannot tell you how many times my father has texted me and told me he, yet again, got “randomly” selected for a security check at the airport. Now, people could argue and say that he flies a lot, so that creates a bigger probability of him getting selected, but he constantly tells me how he sees dozens of people in front of him pass through with ease every time they walks up to those security guards. Now, this isn't even the big issue at hand, but discrimination is the root of the problem, and I just cannot find any valid reason to why anyone has the right to judge to whether or not someone “looks” threatening solely based on the color of their skin or the clothes things wear.

Let me take you not even six days ago, when a black man named Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma was shot by the police when he was pulled over in his SUV in the middle of the road. He was unarmed and had his hands on his head when he got those bullets in his lungs. The police officer claims he reached inside his car window for something when the shots were fired, but the SUV shows blood streaks on the window, meaning the window was rolled up when the wounds were inflicted. Not only is the fact that an unarmed man who was cooperating with the police was shot when he committed no crimes, there were recordings from police radio were the suspect officer said, “Yeah, he looks like a pretty bad dude.”. A claim like that cannot simply be made about someone, especially by an officer of the law, who like the law, should be unbiased and fair. The right to judge by appearance, and to be threatened by that appearance which may lead to injury or a fatality, is simply unacceptable.

Sir or Ma'am, I plead that you resolve this issue, whether it is you enforce the police policy of “shoot to wound” unless told otherwise, or you simply help get justice for the countless families of these black victims, it needs to be stopped. It's been an issue for far too long, and it seems that no one is doing anything about it.

Sincerely,

a concerned American Indian teenager,

Abel Palathuruthil