No. The Democratic Party would rather perpetuate the grievance industry then address the real issues.
Of course, I don't expect their Kool-Aide drinkers to see that.
Actually, I do believe many of us see #blacklivesmatter as representing a very large issue in our country today. Black lives matter TOO is what this means. It means ALL lives matter. If we have any insight or empathy we can look past the hashtag slogan and into what the problems are. Starting with education and wages, and then into gun violence, justice system/jails, systemic racism, wealth gap, housing, jobs... and it even goes further into public safety and expecting our police departments to meet very high standards of policing (such as Dallas PD and many other model departments in this country). It's a very complicated thing. It isn't a grievance. It's a real thing that needs our country's attention now. It starts with looking beyond your arguments and statistics used to denigrate a certain minority race - those stats are important but they are only a slice of black life. Black on black crime? yes, it's a thing too and it's part of this whole problem.
Right now, the protestors are focusing on the frequent killings of black men by police officers. Two that just happened and were shown to the world on video. It's important to address these incidents and have police departments and people talk about what's going on. I saw black surgeons who had treated dying police officers in the ER in Dallas on that awful day. They were recently talking about their fear of the very officers that they will always be there for to save on their operating tables. One said that he will always take care of the officers but he fears them for himself and for his family. This is a terrible way to live. Maybe people can listen to a surgeon instead of a BLM protestor. Maybe.
White men are also shot and killed by officers often, I'm learning. Very often. We don't really see those videos though. I did just recently see one Does anybody care? I do.
Police have shot and killed a young black man (ages 18 to 29) — such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. —175 times since January 2015; 24 of them were unarmed. Over that same period, police have shot and killed 172 young white men, 18 of whom were unarmed. Once again, while in raw numbers there were similar totals of white and black victims, blacks were killed at rates disproportionate to their percentage of the U.S. population. Of all of the unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015, 40 percent of them were black men, even though black men make up just 6 percent of the nation’s population.
Aren’t more white people than black people killed by police? Yes, but no.
It's not an easy subject to discuss. I wish it wasn't so political or divisive. It needs real talk though. People are talking and that's good even though the ideas and beliefs are all over the place. We have a HUGE country over many miles of big and small towns all having their own unique issues.
Police Departments have a massive responsibility as public servants in charge of public safety. They pride themselves in being highly trained and prepared to protect us. As Chief Brown recently stated, the police have too much on their plates. I believe him. But, he's doing a fantastic job. These men and women in blue hold themselves accountable at a very high level - they have pride in a job well done - but they cannot do this without an outstanding department and much support getting there. I'm all behind these pubic safety heroes and would definitely hope that they are given everything needed to do their jobs starting with excellent pay.
MANY do put their heads in the sand. They are the ones who aren't willing to really consider anything beyond a hashtag. The least one could do is to acknowledge the right to a group such as Black Lives Matter to express themselves freely and peacefully. You don't have to agree with what they stand for.
