Do Black Lives Really Matter?

All around our country there are protests happening, people marching our
streets, holding signs, shouting their opinions and demanding justice. These people are
wanting a change to happen, they are asking for something that they have not been
getting and that something is justice. When we turn on the news, almost daily we are
hearing about yet another person being killed, and not just a random murder, we are
seeing innocent people being shot and killed by our own police officers. These peoples
lives are being ended senselessly and without consequence to the person behind the
trigger. These families affected by these senseless killings want change, the people of
those communities want change, and most of all America wants change. The Black
Lives Matter movement has grown rapidly since 2013, fighting for these lives that have
been taken, to matter and to mean something, to change the future and to stop the
killings via police.
On Saturday, July 9, in Salt Lake there was a protest happening, hundreds of
people marching our streets, asking to be heard. A black teenager carried a poster that
asked "Am I next?" Most shouted "hands up, don't shoot." And they all marched
together. Tanner Our people do not feel safe and this protest is a sure sign of that, the
police and government should be paying careful attention to what is being said during
these, let them hear how the people truly feel and see the fear and anger they are
experiencing. As members of the Black Lives Matter movement speak during these
rallies they make sure to tell people they are here to make a change not to target police
officers with violence. Lex Scott is a woman that is apart of the BLM movement and
during this protest in Salt Lake she made a point to say how she did not support people
killing police, "We don't shoot cops," Scott said. "That guy who shot cops can go to hell.
All that did was put a bigger target on our
backs.Tanner Scott was then referring to
the man who shot and killed five white
police officers in Dallas. When I hear
people talk about the BLM movement they
often seem very misinformed. I hear them
say that the movement is just African
American people encouraging brutality
against police officers but that is not the
case. These people are not all African
American, they are a mix of different races
all seeing the same problem, the police
officers of today need to be held
accountable for the lives they are taking.
The Black Lives Matter movement, began in 2013 after the tragic death of a
young Trayvon Martin. Though his death was not committed by a police officer, it was by
a man who was apart of a community watch program. This man, George Zimmerman,

was not held accountable for shooting this unarmed, black teenager. Instead he was
allowed to walk free and the family was left to pick up the pieces. After this, the
movement started to bring to light all of the shootings of black teenagers and young
people that were going on and nothing being done about it, many of which were video
recorded. This BLM movement has been classified by the police and public as a hate
group against police, but members of this group do not agree with that label. One
member says he reaffirms his commitment that the movement must continue but that it
must be anti-police misconduct, not anti-police. Reeves Another organizer in the group
adds to that by saying, "We could say the same things about white hate groups that
inspire xenophobia or hatred against Muslims," said Woods, of Houston. "We can't
really focus on whether people are going to cast us as at hate group when we are
working to dismantle hate. Reeves The organizer goes on to say that if these killings
via police keep happening more violence will occur and people are being pushed other
limits by the actions of police and will start retaliating.
In an article published by Nadia Crow, what I read really made me stop and think
about all that is happening here and it was one of the reasons that I decided the Black
Lives Matter movement was worth supporting. The woman in the article was a victim of
police brutality not just once but two times many years apart. Her account of the
incidents are described by her, "He had pushed me into my car. I was bruised across
my chest, bruised across my ankles, I had huge bruises on my arms, I had them on my
legs and my behind. I don't even know where they came from, but he roughed me up
pretty good," said Spencer. A complaint was filed, but official charges never came about
related to the incident Spencer described. 27-years later, in 2012, Spencer says she
was the victim of police brutality a second time when officers arrested her for a domestic
dispute in her home. "I didn't kneel down fast enough so they did a manuver. It's really
hard to see in the video of it, but i felt it. They pushed me down and my legs gave out
from under me. My slippers were gone and thrown out in the hallway and it split both of
my shins open when I hit the edge of that cement bench," said Spencer. Crow It brings
in to question why the incidents were allowed to happen without and repercussions to
the officers at fault.
As citizens, we trust the members of the police department to protect us, even
when we are at fault. But as this woman describes, she suffered extreme physical
injuries at the hands of these officers on both occasions. This woman, despite the
terrible things she was put through by the police officers went on to do something
amazing from her experience and brings to light an issue I never really thought about.
She has started a foundation for the families of the victims of police violence and
brutality. Spencer describes her non profit organization, When a police officer is killed,
he has all the resources. Or when he's involved in a shooting, he has all the resources.
The family is compensated, the funeral is paid for. If the police officer was involved in a
shooting, he gets counseling, all these things. None of these are available for victims,"
said Spencer. Crow If we cant bring justice to the victims of police involved deaths, why
can we not at least help them with expenses to bury their loved ones they lost at the
hands of these officers. Something needs to change, as a nation we like to believe that
we have come a long way since the time of slavery and Martin Luther King, but really,

the issue is still here. People arent being treated fairly, why is a police officers life any
more important than the lives of these innocent people being killed by their hands?
Within the rallies and protests for the Black Lives Matter movement, we are
hearing and reading about the speakers there and how all they are asking for is peace.
But when we listen to the news and hear what officers have to say about the killings
happening and the movement they do not seem to want to take any accountability or
recognize the movement as anything but a violent nuisance. At a separate protest than
the one discussed earlier another member of the BLM movement wanted his stance to
be known and announced it to the group behind him, Were not here to do a war
against anybody, this is not a race against a race, this is us coming together as
humans, the man said. If you have anger, if you want to do anything against anybody
else other than having a peaceful demonstration, we ask you to peacefully walk away
right now. Green It is something we all can take a lesson from, when things get hard we
need to come together as people, not just try to place blame and create more chaos.
Coming to a solution together is how this issue with police brutality can be fixed. But
when we continue to divide ourselves as people because of race, as we are seeing, this
issue is only going to get worse.

Work Cited
5chw4r7z, "Black Lives Matter" Digital Image, Flickr, 30, April 2015. Web. 12, July 2016
Crow, Nadia. "Is #BlackLivesMatter the New Civil Rights Movement?" Good4Utah, 20,
February 2015. Web. 12, July 2016.
Green, Mark. "Crowd Rallies in SLC streets to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter, call
for peace." Fox 13 News, 09, July 2016. Web. 12, July 2016.
Reeves, Jay and Whack Haines Errin. "Black Lives Matter condemns Dallas shootings,
plans protests." Deseret News, 08, July 2016. Web. 12, July 2016
Tanner, Courtney and Noble, Mariah. "Black Lives Matter protestors take to Salt Lake City
Streets." The Salt Lake Tribune, 09, June 2016. Web. 12, July 2016.