story by Jalin Ernest

Many people would say that the Black Lives Matter movement is outrageous, or a misrepresentation of what America is all about. While I understand that there are a lot of black-on-black crimes (and that has to stop), but cops killing innocent people is not okay either.

I understand situations involving a person with a weapon that could potentially harm an officer are some of the most difficult ones, but aren’t police officers taught to defend themselves in all situations? If it is a knife, doesn’t a taser work just as well? If it is a gun, maybe police can shoot and hit them in a place to disarm the suspect?

My point is there are other options, and don’t always have to end in death.

Yes, some officers have to make decisions within a certain time frame that can be as small as a second, but the excessive shooting of an unarmed man, especially those of color, and not calling for help is completely sickening. People lose their lives everyday from various crimes, but there is no need for a police officers to continue to take the lives of an innocent, unarmed African American.

Police officers are meant to keep the peace, not disturb the peace. Now with this said, not all police officers are bad, and not all are taking lives. To those of you that do not do these horrendous acts, thank you for doing your job the right way.

A huge misunderstanding in the Black Lives Matter movement is those thinking I am saying that it’s just black lives that matter. It’s not because, truly, all lives matter. However it’s becoming more and more common that it is a black man, or woman, getting killed for “allegedly” being combative.

Some people do not know what the meaning of “Black Lives Matters” really is. It is meant to represent the African Americans being killed without any guns, knives, or any other weapons that could possibly hurt the officers.

It is not a movement of African Americans being racist by saying that the lives of white, Mexican, or other races do not matter. It is saying that Americans don’t see anything being done when it comes to a police officer killing an unarmed African American, and we are tired of it.

But blind eyes continue to be turned. For example, in February of 2016, 22 African Americans were killed by the police nationwide — with 41-percent being unarmed. This means every 32 hours of a month, an African American is killed, and nearly half of them are unarmed.

We want to see some kind of consequence given to the officer, or officers, that took place in the crime, because last time I checked, murder is still a crime.