Emily McCargar 

October 4th, 2020 

English: Period 3 

There have been countless innocent black lives lost just this year. This also extends 

to any person of color. As of September 27th, 2020, there were 520 police killings of 

people of color, ​regardless​ of whether or not they were armed.* In most of these cases, the 

officer(s) involved are not ​indicted​ or charged in any way. In the book, Khalil was shot and 

killed by officer Brian Cruise because he was a black man, therefore seen as a ​threat​ to the 

white officer. While Khalil was not a danger at the time, he moved to open the car door 

checking on Starr, which set off an alarm to the officer. Witnessing this made Starr 

hesitant​ to speak out, but she did and spoke to the grand jury. Officer Cruise was not 

indicted by the grand jury.  

In the real world, a good example of this is what happened to Breonna Taylor. 

Breonna was a 26-year-old black medical worker who was shot and killed by police while 

sleeping in her home in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13th, 2020. The police were at 

Breonna’s home with a no-knock warrant looking for a suspect who wasn’t at her house 

when Breonna’s boyfriend fired a shot to get them to leave. The police returned fire, and 

in doing so, shot Breonna six times. Her boyfriend was unharmed. After 15 hours of 

deliberation, the grand jury decided not to indict the officers involved for Breonna’s 

death, but they charged one officer, Brett Hankison, on three counts of wanton 

endangerment. This only sparked more protests as the people were outraged at this 

verdict. 
 People have been responding to police brutality with protests, which often lead to 

rioting and looting, most often from people who aren’t exactly protesting. This gives 

protesters a bad name and discredits our goal. This also often leads to police dismantling 

protests with force, adding more to the need to end police brutality. In the book, protests 

started throughout Garden Heights, both in response to Khalil’s death and the verdict of 

the grand jury. Many people were destroying and looting non-black-owned businesses 

and setting police cars on fire. The police responding to the protests used tear gas and 

force to break up the ​protest​. 

In the real world, good examples of this are protests happening in places like 

Portland. These protests have gotten violent. Police have started beating protesters just 

standing there talking, they’ve tear-gassed them and shot them with rubber bullets. The 

rubber bullets were also being used incorrectly. They’re supposed to be shot at the ground 

to bounce off of it and hit protesters, but instead, officers are shooting them straight at 

people which caused a lot more damage than they were intended to. There were also 

many reports of military and police snatching people in protests off the streets and taking 

them somewhere in unmarked cars. From there, they were held for some time before they 

were taken back and dropped back on the street.  

In a lot of cases of unfair deaths like these, the media tends to focus a lot on the bad 

aspects of a person’s life, as if to justify their death to themselves and others. 

Unfortunately, doing this becomes one of the many possible reasons why most officers in 

these cases aren’t indicted, leaving the families of victims without ​justice​. In the book, 

both people and the media focused on the fact that Khalil sold drugs more than the fact 

that he was a kid with a family he needed to protect. They used this as a way to excuse the 
officer’s actions and the fact that they resulted in Khalil’s death. Regardless, even though 

Khalil sold drugs, he was a kid and he didn’t deserve to die.  

In the real world, we can go back to Breonna Taylor’s case. Many people have tried 

to justify all 32 of the shots fired into her home with the fact that her boyfriend shot first. 

When they do that, they ignore quite a few crucial facts. The police had a no-knock 

warrant with them when they came to their home. Breonna’s boyfriend fired a warning 

shot because he thought someone was breaking into their house, which they kind of were. 

The police claim they announced who they were before entering the house, but Breonna’s 

boyfriend reported not hearing anything said. All he was doing was defending his home, 

which he has a right to do, and legally owned his firearm. On top of all of that, the police 

realized later that they were at the wrong house. There are so many faults in the way this 

event played out that it’s easy for people to pick and choose what they believe, but in the 

end, Breonna Taylor suffered the consequences of other people’s mistakes. 

The media has twisted these cases even more than they already have been. 

Between biases and rumors, we can’t really be sure what’s true and what isn’t. This is yet 

another reason that the families of victims don’t get the justice they deserve. In the book, 

the media helped build and keep the image of Khalil being nothing more than a dirty drug 

dealer. A ​thug​. The media most likely had a large hand in the formation of people’s 

opinions about the case by not sharing the Khalil Garden Heights knew. Even when Starr 

did her interview, the media had shared enough of this other Khalil with the public that 

the only way they could see Khalil was as a ​felon​.  

In the real world, a good example of this is the incident surrounding George Floyd, 

probably the most well-known victim that re-ignited the Black Lives Matter movement. A 
store worker called the cops on Floyd on suspicions of a counterfeit $20 bill, which is a 

crime, therefore can warrant a 911 call if deemed necessary. The police got there and 

used excessive force when arresting Floyd. They pinned him to the ground and kept him in 

a chokehold for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd was dead. Many people have chosen to 

focus on the fact that he committed a crime as if a possible counterfeit $20, which he 

might not have even known was fake, warranted death.  

All of this is one of the reasons behind the Black Lives Matter Movement. Police 

brutality has shown time and time again to be incredibly ​racist​ towards people of color. 

One example of this could be Kyle Rittenhouse, a seventeen-year-old who shot and killed 

two and injured one other. It’s not clear why he was brandishing a weapon in public in the 

first place, but both people killed were trying to take the weapon from him when they 

were killed. The third person was walking towards him when he was shot in the arm. 

Police did not use excessive force when he was arrested. Based on this, we can ​assume 

that this fight is far from over, but the protesters show no sign of stopping for what they 

know is right.  

*Sources:  

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ 

https://apnews.com/article/shootings-police-kentucky-racial-injustice-louisville-530bf2a

8cad0eded6c7643ef77e9a384 

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/17-year-old-charged-in-kenosha-shooting-that-killed-

2-hurt-1/