All Lives Matter

Here we are again. It’s summer. Around the nation people are protesting.The problem is this time people have a legitimate reason to protest. In the last couple of weeks alone innocent people have died or been maligned. Is that really a reason for the protests we see going on around the country. Yes it is a reason because as is most often the case the victims of these acts are people of color, particular black people or African Americans. 

There is no reason for a man such as George Floyd, who was suspected of forgery, to have been murdered by those who are supposed to uphold law and order. There is no one who could watch the video of officer Kevin Chauvin’s knee pressed down on that helpless man’s neck for an extended period of time, begging for air, and not think that it was murder. You cannot fathom that there were three other officers who stood there or knelt there beside the victim and did not rescue Mr. Floyd. Are they that callous. Is the coat of blue that strong or are they so desensitized that a loss of life is meaningless to them. 

The aftermath of all of this is protests that have turned into chaos. People are outraged. When will it be enough? When will the time come that black Americans either minding their own business or even those accused of minor infractions don’t end up losing their lives needlessly? When will people like Amy Cooper stop arbitrarily accusing or pointing their fingers, literally or not, at a black person. 

For those of us looking on, how do we handle that? Do we join the protest? If and when the protests turn violent do we stay in or walk away? At this point the protest has turned to looting and extensive damage to police vehicles and while I agree that protesting is a necessary vehicle to bring issues, concerns and conditions to light, when it turns to violence, looting and property damage does it lose it’s focus? We at Handle-That don’t have the answers and can’t tell you who does but what we can’t do is look the other way. Abuse of power has to stop.