This op-ed is written in response to “Black Lives Matter” – ‘Addressing hypocrisy in the movement,’ written by Scott Vogel, which was published on Monday, Sept. 26.
Police brutality is abhorrent. It is an issue that should be a primary concern for all of us. But the way to combat police brutality is not to blame Black Lives Matter for their protests, or to make excuses for cops that clearly should not have been members of the police force in the first place.
I should not need to clarify, but I will. Most cops are not racist. Most black people are not criminals. Saying that, the worst way to combat police brutality is to criticize the people who are making a difference — such as Black Lives Matter.
Covert prejudice is also not the answer to combatting police brutality and systemic racism in our society. When the topic of police brutality is brought up, too often people resort to the citing black-on-black crime statistics in Chicago, Ill. and other cities.
People who do this simply do not want to address the issue of police brutality. Instead, they want to divert attention from the issue at hand and deflect.
When people immediately question why black communities do not “instill change within [their own] communities” and protest ‘black-on-black violence’ instead of raising points about police brutality, the answer is simple – these communities do! Black people care about what happens in their communities like everyone else in the country.
Just because you have not noticed black communities’ protests against crime doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Another point that has been said, by Michael Eric Dyson, is that the majority of the time, “black people who kill black people go to jail. White people who are policemen who kill black people do not go to jail.” My overarching point is that the outrage is justifiable.
Furthermore, to question the importance of the statistics presented in last week’s editorial, I have compiled some statistics and facts that I will present:
According to an article by Gary Younge, “America is very segregated, and its criminality conforms to that fact. So the victims of most crimes are the same race as those who commit them. Eighty-four percent of white people who are killed every year are killed by white people.”
An article in Slate by Jamelle Bouie states, “In the last four years, blacks have held community protests against violence in Chicago; New York; Newark, New Jersey; Pittsburgh; Saginaw, Michigan; and Gary, Indiana.”
A UC Davis professor, Cody T. Ross, conducted a study that found “evidence of a significant bias in the killing of unarmed black Americans relative to unarmed white Americans, in that the probability of being black, unarmed, and shot by police is about 3.49 times the probability of being white, unarmed, and shot by police on average.”
Last week, I commented on Scott Vogel’s article, saying: “Instead of forming our opinions on an issue that has nothing to do with police brutality [black-on-black crime] and relating it to police brutality, why do we not objectively view the situation humanely?”
Humans in this world need to express love more, and express hatred less. Humans need to express compassion more, and vitriol less. I am expressing love and compassion on this issue, while the previous editorial was expressing hatred and vitriol.
I pose this question to Scott Vogel: How can you not at least try to understand the pain and anger African-Americans feel in the face of this blatant threat to their lives and humanity?
Noah Lessner is a second-year student majoring in psychology and women’s and gender studies. He can be reached at? NL821820@wcupa.edu.