Black Lives Matter Movement/Protests

Let's start with some history. In "1619 the first African American indentured servants arrive in the American colonies. Less than a decade later, the first slaves are brought into New Amsterdam (later, New York City). By 1690, every colony has slaves." (https://www.nps.gov...). Black people were kept as slaves for over 200 years in America until "President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, announcing, "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious areas "are, and henceforward shall be free."" (https://www.ourdocuments.gov...) and "the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865... The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States," (https://www.loc.gov...). Even after they gained their freedom there were many in America who viewed black people as inferior and felt they didn't deserve equal rights. (https://www.splcenter.org...). "Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the Chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and Social Darwinists, at every educational level, buttressed the belief that blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites. Pro-segregation politicians gave eloquent speeches on the great danger of integration: the mongrelization of the white race. Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-black stereotypes. Even children's games portrayed blacks as inferior beings (see "From Hostility to Reverence: 100 Years of African-American Imagery in Games"). All major societal institutions reflected and supported the oppression of blacks." (http://www.ferris.edu...). "Jim Crow and the Black Codes made economic, and thus residential, choice nearly impossible for Blacks in the South... The 20th century brought with it social, political, and economic forces that directly led to the highly segregated housing patterns visible today... The rise of industrialization was accompanied by a migration of African Americans from farms to cities to help meet the demand for labor.[27] However, various "legal" measures were taken in response to the rising numbers of African Americans in cities. For example, a number of cities in the South adopted ordinances that established separate neighborhoods for White and African-American residents. After the Supreme Court held one city"s residential segregation law unconstitutional in 1917,[28] "racial segregation in southern cities was accomplished by the same means as in the north: through violence, collective anti-Black action, racially restrictive covenants, and discriminatory real estate practices."[29]... During the 1920s, property values became tied to race "as a means to legitimize racial exclusion and protect racial boundaries."[33]" (http://www.civilrights.org...). "Panicked by the prospect of black neighbors"and facilitated by highways and subsidized mortgage loans"countless whites left the cities for the suburbs. They were pushed along by "block-busters"; unscrupulous realtors who encouraged blacks to move into white areas (or created the appearance of transition), sparking an exodus and driving down prices. Once completed, more respectable realtors converted the homes and apartments into multi-family dwellings, cramming large groups into row houses meant for a handful of people. "In one Oakland apartment," writes Hirsch, "the space that was rented to one white family at $25 per month was able to house three black families at $100 per month." Journalist Isabelle Wilkinson describes the human side of this in her wonderful book, The Warmth of Other Suns. Block-busting inspired tremendous violence and anti-black sentiment, especially from working-class whites, who were often outbid by blacks, but couldn"t afford suburban housing outside of the city. What"s more, it"along with contract-buying and the destruction of the tax base"helped create the perception that blacks were responsible for the deterioration of a neighborhood. All of these tools and approaches were facilitated by the federal government and its partners at the state and local level. For decades, it was a project of Democrats and Republicans, who worked to appease a white supremacist majority, and often, shared their assumptions. This continued into the 1960s, and arguably, never stopped: Public housing projects, for instance, were placed in these segregated, depressed neighborhoods as a compromise with conservatives who opposed them outright. This, in turn, ensured concentrated poverty and all its attendant problems, as well as bad schools and poor public services. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was meant to tackle all of this, but as Nikole Hannah-Jones details for ProPublica, it saw sporadic enforcement, if that. After a half century (or more), it"s not hard to see how we get to here from there: When you prevent a whole class of people from building wealth, accessing capital, or leaving impoverished areas, you guarantee cultural dysfunction and deep, generational poverty. When it comes to inner-city poverty"we built that." (http://www.thedailybeast.com...). So let's keep that history in mind as we talk about statistics and crime in black communities because "poverty is the father of crime" (Aristotle) (http://www.economist.com...). Let us also keep in mind discriminatory policing practices like those uncovered in Ferguson Missouri (https://www.justice.gov...) that lead to situations like "Blacks are far more likely to be arrested for selling or possessing drugs than whites, even though whites use drugs at the same rate." (https://www.washingtonpost.com...). Also when you say "The majority of these victims had a gun or "were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force," you have to remember that is based on what the officer said in his report and after murdering a civilian an officers report doesn't always reflect what actually happened. (http://www.latimes.com...). This is why we need more transparency. If you truly believe "there is oppression against blacks and of course there are violent hate crimes that cops commit. To those cops that commit such actions, I say they can rot in hell for all eternity" then you would agree that when cops commit such crimes there should be a fair, unbiased, transparent, and thorough investigation. Then you would agree "The Blue Wall of Silence" (http://www.pri.org...) is an obstruction of justice and you would be on the picket line demanding community oversight as well. Now moving on to your main argument that "they refuse to acknowledge their own races crime against itself" because "we don't hear them protesting guns or gang violence" "and that 90% of all blacks killed are by other blacks". Actually there are protests over guns and gang violence. (https://www.dnainfo.com...) (http://www.slate.com...). But more importantly the perpetrators of gang violence are more consistently pursued to the fullest extent of the law while sadly the perpetrators of police brutality are not. Another important reason that the police killings deserve more attention is because it is a blatant violation of human rights enabled by government practices while "black on black crime" like all crime is a violation of law by one civilian against another civilian. So while they both end in a tragic loss of life one was committed by a civil servant and covered up by his colleagues and poorly prosecuted by his friends resulting in no justice while the other was committed by civilian who was prosecuted under the fullest extent of the law resulting in justice. Now to address any inflammatory rhetoric at any of the protests associated with Black Lives Matter. You must remember this is a loosely organized movement that acts as a vehicle for people to vent their frustrations with a broken criminal justice system and the inflammatory rhetoric isn't part of the movement's platform but a result of the individual frustrations of the people using the movement to call for change. So in conclusion let us not forget the history of oppression of the black community to keep in context the origins of many of the problems we face today. Let us keep in mind that racism, discrimination, and hate crimes aren't a thing of the past, they still exist today, and our fellow citizens need protection against such things. The criminal justice system is the mechanism to deliver justice in this country and when it is broken and preventing citizens of this country from obtaining justice it is the right and the duty of every American to rise up and protest these atrocities.