My qualms with the Black Lives Matter movement

In recent times we've frequently seen televised cases of a black person being shot by a policeman, which has resulted in the birth of the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM).

The BLM movement seeks to address and rectify the seemingly racist behaviours of police in a fight for equality. What could be wrong with that?

Well, my issue with the BLM movement is not that I think Black Lives don't matter, but rather that I don't think police are the issue.

As we've seen with the heavily publicised cases of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, the media, as well as BLM, both have a tendency to pre-emptively inject race and segregation into what would otherwise be justified defences made by the police.

Both of the aforementioned cases were distorted in order to perpetuate a fabricated and statistically inaccurate narrative of rampant racism in America, fostering anti-white and anti-police sentiments in the process.

Indignant outcries were made, from both the BLM movement and others, repeating the phrase "hands up, don't shoot" in light of the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown, who was at the time described as an "innocent, unarmed boy", and a "gentle giant."

No apologies were sent out to the policeman responsible, or police in general, however when it was revealed that Michael Brown was in fact a 6'3 criminal adult, fresh from a robbery who then went on to assault a policeman and attempt to take his weapon. His hands were not up in desperation to survive, they were actually up and swinging into officer Darren Wilson's face.

Regardless of this fact, the Black Lives Matter movement proudly marched onward, never acknowledging the guilt which they wrongly imposed upon Darren Wilson, or the hate messages and death threats sent to him and his family as a result of the distorted narrative.

Again, The BLM movement failed to make comments when it was revealed that the shooter of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, was in fact not white, nor even a policeman. Zimmerman was actually an Hispanic insurance salesman on neighbourhood watch, who again was being barraged by Martin's fists, before unloading fire onto Martin.

And it continues. Most recently we've seen the BLM movement mourn over the death of Korryn Gaines, who was reported as a 23 year old mother shot by police for traffic violations.

What the headlines don't tell you is that Korryn Gaines, after receiving a laundry list of traffic charges, which also included disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, failed to turn up to court, which prompted a warranted visit from the police.

When the police arrived at her apartment however, they met Gaines, who held her child in one arm and shotgun in the other, threatening to kill the officers.

And yet the emphasis remains on a revision of police behaviour, with BLM activists calling for "Pigs in a blanket, we love bacon" and shouting "What do we want? Dead cops!"

Sadly enough, this is exactly what happened in Dallas, as five policemen were shot dead shortly after, with nine left wounded.

Now admittedly, 1184 people did in fact die in the US at the hands of police in 2015, which is an issue in need of increased scrutiny and a more thorough screening process for police employment.

But when looking at the statistics, this number actually represents less than 0.0004% of the US population, and within that fractional percentage, 30% is comprised of black individuals, with whites at 42%. Ironically, Caucasians appear to be the ones met most frequently with deadly force by police, despite the disproportionate crime rates within black communities, which contribute nearly 50% of the country's crime while only constituting 19% of the population.

Some attribute this misrepresentation in incarceration statistics to the increased prevalence of police within the black community, often citing that whilst black and white males may consume roughly the same amount of marijuana, a larger percentage of blacks are arrested. This is an unjust scenario, as the war on drugs ostensibly does more harm than good, and is not itself clean of racist origins.

However, this is more or less an unfortunate by-product of the increased necessity for police within those areas, as edified by the higher, more condensed rates of crime.

The number one cause of death for a young white man is a car crash, while conversely, the number one cause of death for young black men between the ages of 15-24 is homicide, more often than not at the hands of another young black man.

Having heard this fact, would you then suggest a removal of law enforcement in those areas? Would you submit the law abiding citizens in those areas to lawless anarchy and gang rule?

If one instead believed that the issue was due more specifically to Caucasian police officers, or the lack of Black police officers, an inference one could infer from the name of the Black Lives Matter movement, then we should not be ostracising or demonising law enforcement. If we wish to expand the racial diversity of police, then we must instead glorify the idea of law enforcement and attempt to strengthen the image of police held by civilians, in order to entice others into the occupation.

Of course a discussion desperately needs to be had regarding the issues felt by black communities, such as staggering rates of single parenthood, unemployment, low commitment to education and disproportionately high rates of incarceration, but these conversations must be had internally and objectively within the community, without the current digressions onto supposed police brutality or white supremacy that the Black Lives Matter movement espouses.

In fact, if one considers rates of incarceration, education and income to be valid metrics for one's position within a society, then we may see that white supremacy is not as tangible as some may have you believe. Instead, it is in fact Asians who sit atop the podium, constituting only 1.5% of US prisoners, making up 49% of the US college graduates, and having the highest median household income of any racial group at $66,000.

Now knowing that blacks make up a minority of those killed within the 0.0004% US police homicide rate despite committing a majority of the countries crime, I believe it's safe to say that the US does not have an epidemic of racially based police killings.

I think it also goes without saying, that any movement which would suggest police are targeting blacks specifically, does so at the behest of the media's sensationalised politicisation of events, ironically introducing racial segregation into a matter where it need not arise. The facts simply don't support the narrative.

Few would deny that the history of the black community is laden with tragedy, oppression and injustice, the echoes of which, may never truly disappear.

But if we wish to reform and walk beyond mere sanctimony, we cannot do so by simply exclaiming racism. And no progress toward unity can be made when the very movement which seeks to eradicate racism is predicated upon one group, whilst openly denigrating the concept of "all lives matter." This in itself, no matter how well intended, is racism.

As Martin Luther King himself said:

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

There is no doubt that racism still occurs, and some surely may be found within police departments.

However, we should wait until all the facts are laid out before making assumptions and swallowing the media's bait of a racial undertone without evidence, as it has already led to the unwarranted vilification of policemen, and now the racist, unjust murdering of the policemen we've just seen in Dallas.

If you truly wish to remove racism, go out, find laws, institutions and individuals which conduct themselves in a racist way and expose them to due process.

Do not however, simply fall into the emotional and divisive milieu of the media without first researching the facts, as all it does is create the very segregation it claims to help.