Whose Life Matters?

In my past three blog posts I have selected a polarizing issue within the United States, and analyzed it.  By doing so, I hope to layout the two polar ends of the spectrum, and then highlight and explain the middle ground stance that is often not covered by media or commonly discussed.  

Over the the past few years, a string of police shootings and arrests that ended in the deaths of blacks have caused significant commotion and anger within the United States.  The cases such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray have received huge media coverage and even larger controversy.  As a result of their deaths, and the deaths of others, the tactics and training of our nations' police forces has come under considerable question.  

The deaths naturally sparked outrage not only from the Black community, but also the nation at large.  As a result, large scale protests and backlash against the handling of these cases popped up quickly across the nation.  In 2012, the movement known as "Black Lives Matter" according to their website, "was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin's murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder"(black lives matter.com).

Since its' creation, the movement has been a powerful force in advocating for an increase in awareness of so called police brutality and the deaths of blacks.  In their own words, they are "an ideological and political intervention in a world where Blacks are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise" (blacklivesmatter.com).  They advocate for the equality of blacks and whites in the American society.  They spend a considerable amount of time and resources advocating against what they call police brutality and helping represent blacks in court and help with legal processes.

The rally cry "Black Lives Matter" has been echoed across the country, yet despite their prevalence and popularity, there is another segment of society that is completely agains the Black Lives matter movement.  Much of the criticism against the movement is scattered and not specific to a certain well formed group or organization.  Former presidential candidate formally rebuked the Black Lives Movement for "bullying people"(Salon.com).  Another strong opponent of the movement is Sheriff David Clarke.  According to media matters.com, he was quoted saying, "there is no police brutality in America"(media matters.org), and called the Black Lives Matter movement "garbage" that advocates, "the overthrow of our legally constituted government"(media matters.org).

Another opponent of the movement are portions of the police forces in the United States.  The quote "Blue Lives Matter" has become an oppositional slogan to combat the Black Lives Matter that many officers see as racist and misdirected.  MSNBC writes, "The 'Blue Lives Matter' campaign appears to be spreading, promoted by police unions in response to a series of ambush killings of police officers".  
The slogan "white lives matter" has also appeared in an attempt to combat the Black Lives Matter movement.

Here we see two distinct sides that generally oppose each other for a variety of different reasons.  Mainly, however, it is simply a lack of mutual understanding.  The different sides do not see the validity behind their opponents' argument.  Despite all of the chaos, hatred, and clash of protesting, there is a clear middle ground in this argument.  Oprah Winfrey was quoted saying, "What I'm looking for is some kind of leadership to come out of this to say, ''This is what we want.  This has to change, and these are the steps that we need to take to make these changes, and this is what we're willing to do to get it"' (The Washington Post).

In this middle ground that is to most common sense, all lives matter.  Each and every life is of equal worth and dignity.  Brutality is never acceptable and should be punished harshly.  While most police officers are law abiding, there is the inevitable portion that do utilize brutality.  Equally as important, police officers deserve the respect and cooperation of officers.  At the end of the day, complying with an officer will most likely prevent escalation of force for both sides.

It is difficult to see this middle ground as it is clouded by the loud protests and angry cries from both polar ends.  However the majority of the population would simply agree life matters.  No matter what, life should be valued and protected.












http://blacklivesmatter.com/guiding-principles/
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/14/ben_carson_slams_sickening_black_lives_matter_movement_for_bullying_people/
http://mediamatters.org/video/2015/10/26/fox-regular-david-clarke-black-lives-matter-is/206416
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/another-black-lives-matter-rebuttal-stirs-controversy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/24/i-was-a-civil-rights-activist-in-the-1960s-but-its-hard-for-me-to-get-behind-black-lives-matter/