A Moment or a Movement?

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“Black Lives Matter” movement
The black people in America have endlessly faced discrimination. This started during the colonialism period in many states. Since then, there has been open segregation in transport facilities, educational sector, public and political offices and without the society as a whole. Although the hashtag ‘black live matter’ has gained a profound publicity of late, it is just a recap of many other slogans used by the blacks while seeking recognition and freedom from continuous oppression. Some of the adversities that the people of color and the minority groups face include police brutality, racism and segregation, and systematic oppression including denial of some constitutional rights. Quite some black people have fallen prey of the police cruelty for offenses that are not justifiable and legally recognized by the state laws. However, the police enjoy complete immune from these malpractices while the blacks continue to suffer in incarceration, injuries and at times killed. It has been reported that despite the blacks being a minority group in the US, are marked as the terrorists, drug addicts and are associated with all types of faults (Kelley 3). The “Black Live Matter” has come out as a reuniting movement to criticize the collapse of justice for the people of color. This paper assesses the history of the movement, the major and current event and the controversy that comes with it.
Official data indicate that more than half of those killed by police over the past are blacks and Latinos.

However, the officers who have been involved have rarely been convicted for using excessive force and murder. Many cases go unnoticed especially when the victim dies within the juvenile or incarceration facilities. According to reports, the criminal justice department has a significant record of contact with blacks, and this is the primary cause of uncontrolled rate of fatal encounters with the officers (Burch 2). Further, there is an outbound perception that the people of color are naturally evil and bound to violate the laws. The policies used by the police like the ‘broken windows’ and stopping, questioning and frisking every other person of color have caused a disproportionate impact on the African-Americans and Latinos. Further, there are uncalled for plea bargain guidelines that instigate further disparity between the police officers, the justice system, and the blacks. This is a fraction of what led to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
After shooting Trayvon Martin, the officer, George Zimmerman was acquitted on the basis of self-defense. The shooting happened on the 26th of February 2012 in Sanford Florida. The victim was a teenage high school student and an African-American but unarmed during the fateful day. Then, Zimmerman was an insurance fraud investigator and a neighborhood gated community watches coordinator where the victim was living and the scene where the killing occurred. It is reported that the shooting ensued after the two had some altercation. Although the department of justice reviewed the case after the acquittal, there were no additional charges pressed as the department cited insufficiency of evidence. During the trial, there were direct omissions that enraged the people even more. First, according to the laws of Florida, in a case of capital offense where the offender has a high probability of facing a death penalty, the panel should consist of 12 jurors. Zimmerman’s case only consisted of six and four alternatives. One African-American juror was banned from the hearing upon the allegations that her pastor had backed Martin. Further anther potential juror, a black American and a gun owner, was struck because he watched Fox News. He was presumably the best defense favorite. The ‘Black lives matter’ movement was a bid to seek justice for Martin. However, it was not that strong until two other high-profile killing by the police officers occurred in 2014. These were the killings of Eric Garner of Staten Island in New York and Michal Brown of Ferguson, MO. The duo was African Americans. Garner was a native of Staten Island and earned a living by hawking untaxed cigarettes. He and the plain cloth officers knew each other pretty well. As the officers, Domico and Pantaleo, they struggled to arrest Garner, employed a chokehold that blocked the victim from breathing and later succumbed from lack of oxygen. This happened amid many pleas for the officer to release his grip so that he could breathe. Even though the police noticed that he needed air, they neither gave the first aid and nor called for external assistance in time. The responding emergency did not also give him oxygen for minutes upon arriving at the scene. This was regarded as a strategy to put down Garner and the like disorder he represented. This started a succession of other killings by the police officers beginning with the murder of Michael Brown, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray all of them Afro-Americans. Even after a firsthand recorded showed the unobstructed view of the officer’s chokehold and the compression of the victim’s chest by the second officer, there has not been a conclusion on the case and the police a free.
For about two years now, what started as a media insurgency has transformed to a broad movement that has traversed the nation. The statewide membership was triggered by the killing of Brow in the August 2014. As it holds currently, the police officers are the primary threat to the people of color and minority groups in the US. This has triggered a campaign to eliminate the grand jury in situations where the police use extreme force and cause injury or death, and a thorough task force on community policing. As a result of the retaliating to the direct venom directed at them, the police officers have resulted in proactive policing methods that are just but increasing the cases of violence in the state.
According to Donald, the obligation of the officer is to safeguard people from violence and enforce laws with courtesy and order. However, their attitudes have been obnoxious and hardened, infuriating as well as humiliating for the people of color. Given the history of racism, police shootings of the black people are particularly and understandably fraught. It is reported that about 6,000 African-Americans are murdered every other year, a number that is greater than the Hispanic and white homicides are combined. The homicide for the black males aged between 14-17 years is ten times that of the whites and Hispanic counterparts combined. In 2015 alone, the police killed about 987 civilians as reported in Washington’s database post. Whites formed 50% of the number while blacks formed 26%. However, the blacks killed were mostly innocent and unnamed individuals, unlike the whites who were gang groups (Ghandnoosh 5). It occurs that officers rarely receive descriptions of white suspect homicides as opposed to those of the blacks.
Due to the movement, the police brutality, and related killings have reduced significantly in some states such as New York. For some time now, the NYPD have stepped up their patronage in criminal cases. Over the past decade, department heads have been held accountable for police homicides and crimes that happen within their jurisdiction. They also initiated the Compstat sessions where every commander is supposed to be entirely informed of every crime outbreak and the strategies he intends to take towards mitigating the crimes. However, over the last two years, the security has been in jeopardy thanks to the publicity of the “Black Lives Matter” hashtag.
Although the movement is aimed at fighting for the rights of the black people, there is a widened revolt against the police than before. Currently, the officers are facing more objections from the public, bystanders, and onlookers. Even when they attempt to arrest a lawful offender, the public has turned against then by jeering at the officers and engaging them in any form of objection available. They are recorded and even beaten up. What may have started as a freedom movement is turning out to be a fight against the white cops by the people of color. Of late, the officers are turning a blind eye to the push-backs in the streets and not pulling off to question people hanging out on insecure points and drug corners. They are more worried about their safety and that of their careers. It should be understood that jeering the police officers to back off crime activities is by no means representing the Afro-Americans and the future of the state at large. Rather, the crime rate is increasing, and even the very lives of the blacks the white cops try to safeguard are also in jeopardy.
When the police surrender their efforts to enforcing the laws when and where they experience offenses then crime will become the law. This is turning out to be true in that murders have increased by 17% across the largest cities in the US in 2015. It was higher in states where the blacks are the larger population. Homicides have risen by 90% in Cleveland, 83% in Chicago and 54% in Washington DC. This owes to the ‘Ferguson effect’ that resulted immediately after the killing of the mentioned in 2015. Since then, there have been rising campaigns against the cops by the black communities. The rising crimes, however, has seen more blacks incarcerated although officers are under attack as well. One attack n police happened in Alabama where the officer was beaten unconscious after he hesitated to use force against a criminal in the worry of not being termed as the next racist. This is bound to increase as the media continues to amplify their ‘black life matters’ slogans and supporting the dreadful operations against the police forces. According to reports, the cases of police officers shot have more than doubled in 2016 hence putting them at a higher risk than the unarmed blacks. Noticeably, an officer is currently 18.5 times prone to be killed by a black person that it is for a cop to shot the later.
Just days after the principal parties (Republican and Democrat) held national conventions to present their visions for the future of America, the “Black lives matter” movement released their platform on August 1, 2016. Their vision, according to Rankin, is “policy demands for black power, and freedom of justice.” This followed a union by all the organizations representing black people in the entire America to articulate a shared vision and agenda. Some of their demands were and the end of racism, reparations for harm inflicted on their people from the colonial era, and economic justice so that the Afro-Americans have equal ownership rights. Further, they require the government to divest in criminology, incarcerating and killing the blacks and instead invest in their education, health, and safety.
According to Foran, the movement has reached into the colleges and campuses and is currently on the campaign trail. This is referred as the most active political group in the states. The challenge has presented a force worth meeting the group’s ambitions that are to stem the wave of violence against women and black man while seeking to fix the activism. It is now targeting politicians who are against the union. However, it seems that the members are missing the mark that believing and rioting may not necessarily change the status quo. The activism is undoubtedly closely linked to the mainstream politics. As the campaign grows, the movement is changing into a political activism that objects to nail a capitulating and compromising change for the blacks. However, there are more disparities within the movement than unity, and the agenda is bound to be obsolete if the members start up fights against the white citizens. While their vision may be clear and their movement strong, it will require a diplomatic approach than a physical fight for them to make any worthy changes.
Works Cited
Burch, Andrea M. Arrest-Related Deaths, 2003-2009 – Statistical Tables. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016. Print. U.S. Department Of Justice Office Of Justice Programs.
Donald, Heather Mac. “The Danger Of The “Black Lives Matter” Movement.” 45.4 (2016): 1-7. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Foran, Clare. “What Black Lives Matter Achieved In 2015”. The Atlantic. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Ghandnoosh, Nazgol. Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity In The Criminal Justice System. Washington DC: N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Kelley, Robin D. G. “Beyond Black Lives Matter”. Kalfou 2.2 (2015): n. pag. Web.
Rankin, Kenrya. “READ: The Movement For Black Lives’ Policy Platform”. Colorlines. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.