I agree with the basic tenants of "Black Lives Matter." And Trevor Noah makes some great points in that video posted right after the opening post. Many black boys are being unwatched as their mother works two jobs and takes too long to take too many buses home, while they don't know their father who went to jail or died. Those black boys, without knowing their fathers, follow their fathers' paths in life quite often. The cycle continues.
So I don't care for trivializing "Black Lives Matter" with "ALL Lives Matter." But "Blue Lives Matter" was inevitable as people hiding behind "Black Lives Matter" became violent against police. That goes back to Ferguson, Missouri and goes right up to the killing of officers.
What happens in America is polarization. People think they have to be all the way in or all the way out, all the way left or all the way right. Isn't it possible that "Black Lives Matter" is very very much in touch with the problem, AND the violence that results in the death of police officers is way out of line?
I fully get that sometimes, only radical reaction is taken seriously. But does it have to be radical and violent against people? If traffic cameras are wrong, protesters smash traffic cameras. If blacks are being wrongfully arrested and shot too easily upon arrest, wouldn't the answer be to organize support for legal action to defend wrongfully arrested blacks and to train blacks how to respond in such a way as to minimize being shot while being detained? ...and then to sue the jurisdictions that arrest and kill them?
It isn't politically correct to say that some of the people arrested are the scum of the earth and deserve a beat-down. And because of that, insisting that police wear cameras that work will go a long way toward proving your case. And it will allow cops to feel that when they need to shoot, the camera will back them up.
I understand that it is your right to not answer questions when arrested, to challenge being unjustly detained, to be uncooperative with improper requests from police. And I understand that your average white people don't face such problems as DRIVING WHILE BLACK in a white neighborhood. DRIVING WHILE WHITE in a black neighborhood is not at all the same. I get that white collar workers can misuse cocaine or prescription drugs or get a cab home from the local drinking establishment, while blacks get arrested for similar cocaine use or misuse of prescription drugs or they wind up drinking and driving or just drinking and walking drunk on the street. But if you want to win people over to "Black Lives Matter," you have to continue the work of men like Martin Luther King, Jr. and demonstrate that black people are better than the reputation given them.
