Lives Matter

It is a dangerous road to travel for this country to suddenly turn against the police forces nationwide.

Starting just in New York city alone, the crime rate is far lower than it was in 1990. At least it was lower before this antagonism and threats of defunding towards the police. 

There is  no question that there is racial antipathy amongst the police as there is in the American population in general.

The black lives matter campaign is certainly a worthy cause. It is time for this country to deal with its prejudice and start by changing its attitude towards people of color. But that does not mean that our society, our nation or our people of color, or that any of us are pure as the driven snow.
There are crimes committed and there are people killed. There are shootings and useless deaths and murders caused by some amongst all of us. We cannot blame the police for all.

The police in this country do need to be trained quite differently from the way they have been until now. 

In France, Belgium, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Iceland and Norway the police do not carry guns nor do the citizens of these countries. America has more gun owners than the entire rest of the world. Anybody in America can own a gun and as a consequence almost everybody who wants a gun has one.

It is true and obvious that some members of the police forces around the country are prejudiced in some way or other so it is with a large portion of the population of the United States of America.
As cops often are faced by a person carrying a gun or having a gun pointed at them, the cops in this country are usually trained to kill, if necessary in order to defend themselves.

It is hard to believe that there are many circumstances in which a well trained police officer, who should be wearing the proper protective gear, from head to toe, should ever find himself in a position where he has to kill a suspect.
It may be that people of color are more often suspected than white people but even, that does not give the police the right to be judge, jury and executioner. They do have the right and they should have the training to be able to disarm, disable and arrest a suspect.

The extent to which racial prejudice enters into a police officer’s decision makingis a reflexion of America’s racial attitudes and prejudice.

This is the time for this country, this nation to finally address this issue. Yes, it is true that black lives matter. However, it is equally true that all lives matter. 

It is also true that in America for 150 years or more there has been a prejudicial attitude towards people of color and this attitude has denied entire segments of our society from having a proper education, proper and affordable housing, medical assistance and job opportunities. This prejudice behavior cannot be blamed on the police force alone. 

This is a societal problem and perhaps this is the moment at last when we as Americans can change these attitudes. The police will change as the society demands.

The corona virus should have opened the eyes of America to the heroism of so many Afro-Americans as well as others who put their lives on the line to save our lives.

It is time for America to embrace all Americans and to realize that all lives are meaningful and matter.

We must recognize that there are those in our society who do commit crimes. We do need the protection of a properly trained police force. We should support them as they put their lives in jeopardy for us. Nonetheless, this does not exonerate them from their obligation to treat all Americans alike. 

All of our lives matter.