On July 19th, 2016, Police Captain Robert Melton of Kansas City, Kansas died of a gunshot wound he received on the job while chasing drive-by shooting suspects. Now, the details haven't emerged yet, a day later, the end result is this: dead cop.
With the recent spate of cop killings (okay 2 events don't make a spate but stick with me) I expected the news coverage to be exactly what it was. The story dominated the news with community support for John Law. People were putting blue tape on their cars, leaving flowers at the station, the mayor babbling like an idiot and blah, blah, blah. What really stuck out to me is how much it proved that we have a need for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
More on this late but first, lets talk gun control for a minute.
Did you know that nearly 100% of cops are shot by criminals with guns? I know it's an amazing statistic. Some of them shoot themselves and some get got by their spouses but we will ignore that sliver for argument's sake. It stands to reason that if there are less criminals with guns then there are less dead cops.
You know what's so great about less dead cops? Po po will be less likely to murder people out of fear. This is a point that is near and dear to my heart since I will have to deal with a police department that is all up in their feels for the next few weeks and it's too hot for that bull shit. So, It's a win-win, right? Cops don't worry about me shooting them, I don't have to be the next hashtag. So what is the hold up? The second amendment.
The Second Amendment is a 224 year old law that was designed to keep the King of England from coming over and acting like the King of England. It was a solid idea in the colonial era but it now paves the way for 30,000 shooting deaths a year in this country. Raise your hand if you think that's okay. Now, if you have your hand up, smack yourself. You might be next; especially if you're Black.
Philando Castille had a permit to carry a firearm and even told the police officer that pulled him over he had a license to carry... Philando dead. You see, a nigga with a legal gun is still a nigga with a gun and America isn't keen on that sort of nigga. With the recent outburst of niggas with guns, you are better off wearing a t-shirt with a bulls eye on it than exercising your constitutional rights. It's just another part of black life.
Now that we're back on niggas that haven't been shot yet, this what made me realize we need more people in to #BlackLivesMatter.
There once lived a 10-year old girl in Michole Stewart that was shot and killed in a drive-by in 2014. It was approximately 8 blocks from where Captain Melon was fatally wounded and within the quarantine area as the police searched for suspects. When the news reported it (I admit they at least stayed on story until the next little kid got shot) it was also classic ghetto misery porn. There was the elderly grandma with the thrown together vigil, complete with candles and teddy bears. There were the tearful cousins trying to articulate grief through teary eyes and 8th grade English and the house where little girl died, still sporting bullet holes and the pain't job it got in 1982.
It contrasts so heavily with the heroism they boast for fallen officers. As long as we champion the lives of police over the rest of us we will have two negative effects. 1) Police are going to champion themselves over the rest of us and continue behave like such and 2) Poor Black people will continue to internalize their low position in the community and perpetuate all of the depression and lack of ambition that comes with it. #BlackLivesMatter stands in opposition to this status quo and honestly, if you don't oppose these things, you're a dick. Do better.
I know that #BlackLivesMatter has a singular purpose of getting the police to behave ethically with my ethnicity but you can hardly change behavior without changing the tone of society. All this shit is related.
Another thing bothering me is that people that hate #BlackLivesMatter support #BlueLivesMatter as way to be just a little racist without going over, don't have shit to say about gun control. The insinuation is that guns are fine as long as poor brown skinned people use them on each other. Until people get it through their heads that unnecessary death is always a tragedy, none of us will be free from this scourge.
Freedom and equality used to mean something back when it applied to rich White men and now it's time to spread that shit around. When we get there, we can disband #BlackLivesMatter. Until then, know that our inability to support them will be the reason the next batch of cops gets killed.
With the recent spate of cop killings (okay 2 events don't make a spate but stick with me) I expected the news coverage to be exactly what it was. The story dominated the news with community support for John Law. People were putting blue tape on their cars, leaving flowers at the station, the mayor babbling like an idiot and blah, blah, blah. What really stuck out to me is how much it proved that we have a need for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
More on this late but first, lets talk gun control for a minute.
Did you know that nearly 100% of cops are shot by criminals with guns? I know it's an amazing statistic. Some of them shoot themselves and some get got by their spouses but we will ignore that sliver for argument's sake. It stands to reason that if there are less criminals with guns then there are less dead cops.
You know what's so great about less dead cops? Po po will be less likely to murder people out of fear. This is a point that is near and dear to my heart since I will have to deal with a police department that is all up in their feels for the next few weeks and it's too hot for that bull shit. So, It's a win-win, right? Cops don't worry about me shooting them, I don't have to be the next hashtag. So what is the hold up? The second amendment.
The Second Amendment is a 224 year old law that was designed to keep the King of England from coming over and acting like the King of England. It was a solid idea in the colonial era but it now paves the way for 30,000 shooting deaths a year in this country. Raise your hand if you think that's okay. Now, if you have your hand up, smack yourself. You might be next; especially if you're Black.
Philando Castille had a permit to carry a firearm and even told the police officer that pulled him over he had a license to carry... Philando dead. You see, a nigga with a legal gun is still a nigga with a gun and America isn't keen on that sort of nigga. With the recent outburst of niggas with guns, you are better off wearing a t-shirt with a bulls eye on it than exercising your constitutional rights. It's just another part of black life.
Now that we're back on niggas that haven't been shot yet, this what made me realize we need more people in to #BlackLivesMatter.
There once lived a 10-year old girl in Michole Stewart that was shot and killed in a drive-by in 2014. It was approximately 8 blocks from where Captain Melon was fatally wounded and within the quarantine area as the police searched for suspects. When the news reported it (I admit they at least stayed on story until the next little kid got shot) it was also classic ghetto misery porn. There was the elderly grandma with the thrown together vigil, complete with candles and teddy bears. There were the tearful cousins trying to articulate grief through teary eyes and 8th grade English and the house where little girl died, still sporting bullet holes and the pain't job it got in 1982.
It contrasts so heavily with the heroism they boast for fallen officers. As long as we champion the lives of police over the rest of us we will have two negative effects. 1) Police are going to champion themselves over the rest of us and continue behave like such and 2) Poor Black people will continue to internalize their low position in the community and perpetuate all of the depression and lack of ambition that comes with it. #BlackLivesMatter stands in opposition to this status quo and honestly, if you don't oppose these things, you're a dick. Do better.
I know that #BlackLivesMatter has a singular purpose of getting the police to behave ethically with my ethnicity but you can hardly change behavior without changing the tone of society. All this shit is related.
Another thing bothering me is that people that hate #BlackLivesMatter support #BlueLivesMatter as way to be just a little racist without going over, don't have shit to say about gun control. The insinuation is that guns are fine as long as poor brown skinned people use them on each other. Until people get it through their heads that unnecessary death is always a tragedy, none of us will be free from this scourge.
Freedom and equality used to mean something back when it applied to rich White men and now it's time to spread that shit around. When we get there, we can disband #BlackLivesMatter. Until then, know that our inability to support them will be the reason the next batch of cops gets killed.
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