BLACK LIVES MATTER

This is Why We Fight

How our communities have handled this situation is not black and white, clear cut morality.
There are the looters and violent criminals taking advantage of the movement. There are the destructive demonstrators. There are the peaceful protesters. There are corrupt law enforcers. There are resigned police officers. There are the silent who let the unspeakable remain unspoken. What is black and white and clear cut is the innocent blood of Black People on the hands of Police Brutality. The blood of the unarmed. The blood of the compliant. The blood of the fearful. The blood of George Floyd, of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, of David McAtee, of James Scurlock, of Tony McDade, of Ahmaud Arbery, of Breonna Taylor and the list goes on for centuries.
How do we live on "free" soil that wants us six feet under it? For the color of our skin? For who we love? For how we identify? For where we're from? For our disabilities?
How do we entrust our safety in the hands of our murderers? Of their accomplices, their acquaintances, their silent allies?
This is why police Brutality needs to stop for good. Law enforcement is not above the law or above the people. And, if your argument is blue lives matter, then answer me this: if a law enforcer can take off their uniform, then how do we take off our skin color? How do we shed our sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, and disabilities? How?
The simple answer is, we can't. And, that is the target on our body, on our livelihood, on our communities that police Brutality takes advantage of. This isn't a "good cop" or "bad cop" conversation. This is preservation of lives deemed unworthy of the same protections and free of prejudice that caucasian and passing people have that people of color do not. This is about the abuse of power every law enforcer has the ability to utilize against our communities, and it is that power that is under attack.
We are tired. We do not want more deaths at the hands of reform. We want to live and live peacefully knowing that we are not a suspect for jogging through our neighborhood. We are not a suspect for feeding and protecting our community. We are not a suspect for raising our voice or raising our hands in surrender. We are not a suspect because you see us and decided we were; and, now we've lost our life.
Law enforcer, you decide if we get to live or die, and more often than not, you have invited the grim reaper and used his scythe in the form of a gun, or your crushing our body, or however you deem "self defense".
You are not called the murderer because of a badge used as a shield in the court of law, in your court of law. You are not held accountable for our murder. That is injustice because death is not decided by your prejudice and racism, and yet we live in a country that allows it to be.
That is why we struggle. That is why we fight. That is why we plead because the body count keeps rising. When we are the dead walking, there is so much to gain. We bring light to our fears and mistreatment and murder and fight for reform to be made so we can finally breathe.