That correlation is not causation? That's a truism. Pretty sure that was sarcasm on your part.
I disagree that the Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling shooting are off topic, as it's part of the chain of events that led up to the shooting.
Alba, I'm going to ask you to keep it more polite.
@Anarchy, please keep it within the broad range of:
"The greater and often excessive use of official force against people seen to be African-American within the United States; to include the causes, the broader implications, and the potential solutions."
Now.
Pointing out the flaws in the BLM movement annoys me. Why? It's as if " Well, this large group of people, with all the flaws of
any large group of people, has those flaws and doesn't ask for equality in
quite the proper and correct way.
So because some small subset of them are maybe not 100 % good people, their claims are somehow illegitimate?
...Focusing on the glaring imperfections of a bunch of very human activists ignores the very legitimate and documented complaints they have.
Law enforcement tends to negatively focus on African Americans and has a disproportionate level of contacts ending in fatality for African-Americans.
Given the current constraints of the system, what can we do about that?
Jeronimo Yanez is Filipino in ancestry, I believe? From what I have read, he was actually a very good officer. Someone who worked hard, graduated at close to the top of his class in college, tried hard to understand and get along.
My suspicion is that he overreacted in fear and shot Castile.
Blatant bigotry is fairly easy to get rid of. Subconscious fear of black people is a LOT sneakier.
Having heard the sound clip of Diamond Reynold's recording? I think Yanez realized he'd just shot and killed someone who was not a threat. He was horrified.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-the-five-officers-lost-in-dallas-shooting/
That's who we lost. :(
The police and EMS put their lives on the line to protect us. I'm not going to argue some of the police don't abuse that power, but most of them didn't get into policing for a power trip(there's a lot better power trips).
The vast majority of people are good people.
That doesn't mean they haven't been programmed to be more afraid of black people by the culture around them.
Edited to add:
Link Removed
The protesters pointed at the shooter's location, helped identify who the shooter was, handed over cellphone video. Four of the protestors covered a stroller with their bodies to protect the child.
The march had been very peaceful and even friendly, prior to the ambush.