Given the context of America’s history with racism, race does matter. However, I don’t think people are as racist as the media would lead us to believe though. They just want to cause more divide. Police officers kill citizens at an alarming rate in general. They protect and serve the law, not us. They have zero obligation to protect people.
Honestly, I don't really care if people are racist. To me, racist is someone thinking negatively about a race of people. If someone thinks negatively about x race of people, I don't really care.
My problem is the police terrorizing people. My problem is stuff like... I remember walking with this 8-year-old kid. I think he was someone's nephew or something. I remember me and a friend had to take him to a school function. I forget where his mom was. Anyways, I'm friends with the family and we take him to his school function. We walk back and we happen to see the police and this little boy gets scared. This little 8 year old boy looks up at me and I can see he's scared half to death of these police and he's telling me how scared he is.
I could go on and on with examples. But I knew the kid, I'm friends with the family and that's something that really bothers me. The kid happened to be black but that's not particularly important to me. Race is not a big deal to me. Whether he was white or whatever it would be a problem.
The thing is... if an 8-year-old boy, regardless of whatever color or whatever- if he sees the police, he should feel protected and safe- knowing they're there to protect him. A little 8 year old kid shouldn't have to see them and feel scared.
I mean that's just one example. I could go on and on. I could talk about when I myself got targeted when I was walking down the street minding my business.
My thing is... I should be able to walk down the street, see the police and not have to feel concerned.
The whole paranoia of the police that exists with certain neighborhoods and communities... it's not just people hallucinating. There's reasons why people are paranoid of them. You probably know.
And my thing is... the United States is becoming more and more of a police state. It's only getting worse.
And as it becomes more of a police state- I think black men will be the most targeted group. But... it's not like only black men will have to worry about the police. They'll go after all races and genders.
So to me... I have an issue with police going around and terrorizing people, police not being held accountable, the development of a police state, etc. And police state is a relevant issue for everyone. It's not like they won't go after white people or anything like that. If we sit back and say "well, it's not my problem"... if the problem grows, it could end up being everyone's problem. And I'm thinking the US is moving more towards fascism, so I'm expecting this sort of thing to grow. Black men will probably be some of the most targeted sure but it potentially could end up impacting everyone. It's not like police state apparatus won't get turned against everyone.
So I post this sort of thread out of frustration with police targeting minorities and out of frustration with the growth of a police state. If the minorities angle is not that important to people (and I don't mean you Violette, as I assume you're sensitive to such issues)- the police state aspect should be. That can affect everyone. So whatever our background... it's in our interest to be concerned with out of control cops.
And as for the thread title... that's just the title from the video. I would be disturbed no matter what the person's skin tone was... if I understand correctly, this dude got shot 20 times for no justifiable reason. Bullets don't discriminate.