Dear President,

Too many reports of brutality have been on the news. Most of the people murdered were black males between the ages of 16 to 21. This is not acceptable. Police officers have 2 other weapons besides from a gun. They have a Taser and pepper spray, at least! Sometimes they may have a baton. They can just use those. Instead of using a Taser they just shoot. People say that their plan is to shoot first and think later.

I understand that the police officers are probably scared for their lives, but they are supposed to be trained for these situations. Officers should never be forced to use their guns unless they are in a shoot-out. Guns are supposed to be a last resort for them, but I’m starting to think that it is a first resort. Most deaths that are caused by police officers involve either a gun or a baton (a kind of bat). The people who die are either beaten to death or shot.

The citizens are responding to this brutality with riots! They are also posting hashtags like #BLM (Black Lives Matter) on Instagram, Facebook, and other media sources. It is pretty much a never ending circle, because the more deaths caused by police officers, then the more riots are being held on the streets. And if there are even more riots, than there will be even more deaths! So this is like a riddle for the police department, but this time the riddle is impossible to solve.

So unless we re-teach our police force new and safer methods to handle criminals, they will be completely useless to us. Also we need to show them more real life situations so that the next encounter they have will end in a good way. Lastly we need to deal with some of the corrupt police officers that are in our country. Corrupt officers are the worst part though. Corrupt officers are the reason why people do not trust the government (And the fact that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are running for President)! It’s like having a traitor in our country. This cannot go on any longer!

All we need to do is start with educating the police more. That will get rid of the brutality and riots. After that (and the election) everything will start getting better by itself. After both of those we will have a great nation again. It’s not too late to change our ways before we all regret it in the future.

By: Samuel 8th Grade