Imagine This... | Teen Ink

Imagine This...

February 1, 2018
By CJW09 BRONZE, Wilmington, Delaware
CJW09 BRONZE, Wilmington, Delaware
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Imagine walking home from a long, hard day at work. You’re hungry, exhausted and stressed, especially since you have to walk home because you missed the bus. So here you are, walking down through a nice neighborhood, hands in your pocket, minding your business, and listening to music, just trying to get home as fast as possible without any alterations or issues.  Suddenly, you see flashing red and blue lights and a car speeding towards you. Immediately, you’re confused, scared even. Why are the police here? You ask yourself. You calmly look around, searching for anything that may seem suspicious, trying to find the reason as why someone would have called the police. Nothing seemed strange, so you went back to observing the police car, noticing that the car slowed down and the car is stopped in front of you.

 

A police officer steps out of car, approaches you and starts questioning you,  asking your name, what you’re doing, and why your walking around here so late. You answer all the questions quickly, trying to respectful and get out of the  situation as fast as possible. But then the officer mentions that he got the call from one of the neighbors, stating that you were “suspiciously roaming the neighborhood.”  He asked if he could search you, and you automatically respond with why. You weren’t doing anything. You were just trying to walk home from a long day at work, you explained, yet your comment didn’t phase the officer, in fact it cause him to ask you to spread your legs so he could search you. This time when he asked, you complied, spreading your legs and holding you arms out to the side while you were searched. The officer went and patted you down, starting from your arms moving to your chest and then to your pant pockets. When he reached your pants, he felt something in your pocket so he reached in and pulled out the object. It looked like a knife, but it was a box cutter from work. The officer stopped searching you, and stepped away from you. You put your arms down, thinking the search is over and you can go home, but suddenly the officer announces that you're under arrest. Confused, you ask for what while taking a step forward, but you receive no answer, instead the officer just repeats the statement and demands you put your hands behind your back. You refuse, and your refusal causes the officer to pull a gun out of him holster, pointing it at you, telling you to put your hands in the air. You’re terrified now, so you comply, raising each hands in the air slowly. Left hand first, right hand next. You thought you were safe, you thought you would just be arrested now and just have to deal with the whole situation at the police station, but you thought wrong. Your phone was in your right hand, and the officer assumed it was weapon, and so he impulsively pulled the trigger on him gun, twice. He shot you in the stomach and then the leg, causing you to fall back on the floor, blooding slipping out of you. No, actually pouring out of you, all over the sidewalk. You laid on the ground, staring up at the black night sky, feeling the coldness of the sidewalk and the warmth of your blood on your skin. You thought about about you mom, your dad, you brothers, sisters, friends, but your last thought was, If only I hadn’t missed the bus, If ONLY I hadn’t miss


Black lives matter versus blue lives matter, a controversial topic that's been being discussed for years now. Ever since Rodney King, people have been being more attentive to police brutality, especially police brutality against blacks. In the last recent years, I’ve personally noticed that more and more African Americans are being brutalized by the people that are supposed to serve and protect them, making the whole situation extremely ironic. FOr those who don’t see the irony of it, I’ll explain. A police officer wear a badge that promises that they’ll  protect and serve everyone in the community in anyway possible, even if that means putting their life on the line. But when a police officer takes it upon himself to kill, brutalize or mistreat someone based on the color of their skin, then that's what makes the situation ironic. The irony of the situation is causing  almost every Africans Americans to be outraged and take each and every death by a police gun as if they are the ones lying dead in the street. And honestly who can blame them. These are their brothers, sisters, son and daughters and friends. Why wouldn’t they be outraged?

 

Recent police brutality killings have caused arguments, riots and even thicker racial tension between whites and blacks, for, some African Americans realized that the percentage of Africans Americans killed by police is high than the percent that they are represented of in America. You don't get it? Well let me help you. According to mappingpoliceviolence, black people were 25%  of those killed by police brutality despite only being 13% of the population. This realization has caused black to blame police for killing them because of racial discrimination. While some people believe that it’s the African American victims fault. That’s they are to blame for their death, even though most of them are unarmed and not doing anything.  I do believe that many white police officers do racial profile African Americans because of the stereotypes placed on them, but that is not, was not, and will never be a reason to take someones life.

 

Africans Americans are thought of as thugs and gangster, stereotyped as loud, uneducated, ghetto, drug dealers. Where this stereotype came from, I don’t know, but I do know that it placed upon many blacks in America. And these stereotypes are what cause people to believe that African Americans are to blame for their deaths. Well for the people that believe that the victims are to blame reread this from the beginning.


Now think:
Do you still think blacks are to blame?



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