Kyle McDonnell

During my first draft I wanted to state facts and give background knowledge
on whats happening. When I transitioned to the second draft I wanted to
start giving different sides to the facts I just stated to give the reader a
different view. When doing that I changed some things like I changed the
regular factual sentence to a sentence with my opinion, I am still here to tell
you that I do not believe we are corrupt. I am not saying this because I am a
white male. I am saying this because I believe in America and I believe that
we are better then how social media and the news portrays us. Doing this
then makes it so the reader doesnt just get a cold statistical essay, they
have some warmth and feeling now. Also switched the history portion to give
them a more understanding of what I mean by history when I added Martin
Luther King jr. along with other black power leaders fought and gave their life
for the rights of African Americans, so why can we not get over the hump
and end racism once and for all. For the sake of whites, no longer targeting
African Americans, and for the sake that every time an African American is
killed it is said to be racism. I addressed my audience by first letting them
get some stats in them so they have a basis of what I am talking about. After
that I added opinions to make them question what they already knew so that
they werent only one sided. Because the topic of my essay has so many
more then just two sides. I think I should have gone a little more in-depth
with the history part do give them more knowledge about where this all
came about. Before you read this essay, I want you to have an open mind

and to consider all sides that this essay has to offer, dont just jump to
conclusion.

Kyle McDonnell
Dr. Amy Lynch
English 23
April 12th, 2016
All lives matter
After years of abuse towards African Americans and triumphs from
Martin Luther King jr and others to try and stop the cruelty, it still seems to
be a common occurrence in todays society. The civil rights movement is
probably one of the most known things in America and has made the biggest
difference. So why is it that a young black man walking on the streets of
Chicago has to be worried about being killed by none other then the people
that are supposed to protect us. Controversy over social media in the news
covers and story about a black person killed in the news by the police force.
No one searches into it enough to find out if we are getting the whole story,
or if the police force is purposely targeting African Americans. So you tell me,
what side do you believe in the story that has been going on for centuries.
For years social media and the news has been publishing stories that
give the connotation of American being a racially corrupt society. I am still

here to tell you that I do not believe we are corrupt. I am not saying this
because I am a white male. I am saying this because I believe in America and
I believe that we are better then how social media and the news portrays us.
They want conflict, they want to get under peoples skin and make them
argue. I understand racism is alive and current today in American and I think
it is absolutely terrible. The police system is supposed to be filled with people
we trust and are happy to see because we feel protected. So then why is it
that every time we see the police we become nervous and afraid. There are
many reasons, we feel like they are out to get us but they arent. The police
are trying to keep the world safe. We are humans, humans are flawed,
humans do not always do the right thing. If the media talked about every
good thing that the police did, then I promise the world would have a
completely different view on them. Sadly, the media does not do that,
instead they only talk about the bad stories which then gives off the
connotation that the police is crooked. Maybe they are, maybe they arent. At
the end of the day there are more then just two sides to every story, and we
will find all the sides.
There is a big difference between a racist cop and a violent cop, and
the grey space is what has people assuming. Kevin Hassett, author of the
national review, used the Bureau of Justice Statistics data to see the amount
of violent encounters between cops and African Americans and white
Americans. After the research was done, Hassett found out that African
Americans and white Americans have roughly the same proportion of violent

crimes to police related deaths. Both races have about the same amount of
deaths due to violent crimes. Which even surprised me because all you hear
on the news is the complete opposite. This shows that the probability of
police related deaths is about the same for each race which shows that
police bias is not apparent. Do not get me wrong this does not mean that
cops are not racist. Some probably are, but this shows that statistically police
do not intentionally target a certain group of people based on the color of
their skin. We can go back and forth all day about who is right, but statistics
show it all. In 2015 there were 385 fatal shootings by police officers. The
majority of people were carrying armed weapons and were a threat to the
officers. About 1 in every 5 of them were unarmed or carrying a toy gun. Out
of all 385 victims, 365 of them were men, 20 of them were women. Out of all
those numbers, 171 people killed were white. 100 of those people were
African American, and 54 were Hispanic. The rest were listed as other. The
black lives matter movement was empowered due to an instance of a black
male being killed and social media and the news getting a hold of the story.
That black male was wrongly killed and America had a good reason to start a
protest. We should still not turn our backs on all police men and women
because of the wrongful actions of only some. So, what does this tell us?
From a statistical stand point, whites were killed more. Does that mean the
African American cases were publicized more on the news and social media?
Which tends to give off the notation that the police force are racists. That is
only your view if you look on the surface of things. So yeah you can think

that sure mostly white people were killed but what if they had probable
cause, what happens when you dose yourself with the other side of the
statistics. When you look closer you see that demographics shifted sharply
among the unarmed victims, two-thirds of whom were black or Hispanic.
That makes you think, sure more white people were killed but they were
mostly all armed and dangerous.
Although race was a dividing line, those who died by police gunfire
mostly had a lot in common. Most were poor and had a trouble with law
enforcement previously over mostly minor crimes. You can't understand it
until you here stories of actual events. In one incident, there is a video of the
cops stopping three young African American people as they were jaywalking,
which ends in a women screaming off in the distance. In a week there were
to others just like that, coincidence? I think not. The police excuses stay the
same, I felt threatened. The officer was only doing his duty. We have
investigated and found that the officer acted properly, and that no crime was
committed by the officer. And somehow we listen to the same excuses
every time. Instead of trying to argue against it and change the system, we
have learned to expect multiple changes in the officers story, complete with
unexplained contradictions. A woman who was gassed, beaten and groped
by police, and went into convulsions, was yet charged and convicted of
assaulting an officer. Now tell me, does this make any sense at all, no. All the
power is with the police and the people have to deal with the decisions made
even if we know they are wrong. The event is always put on those attacked,

even though nothing before had been happening before the police arrived.
Videos to prove this and other cases just like this, has been why questions
are being arose. Obviously the police were in the wrong. How did they get
away with it? And why are most of the people attacked with video evidence,
African American. Answers are never given. America reels in the excuses as
the media and news keeps on reporting. Only the special few actually fight
for justice, which then is why the black lives matter movement was created.
History has set itself and now we are trying to break out of the old history
into the new era without racism.
Violence against African Americans in the context of American history
occurred during enslavement, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement. It
was at this time when the thought was that whites were inherently superior,
and that slavery was, in fact, for Blacks own good. Martin Luther King jr.
along with other black power leaders fought and gave their life for the rights
of African Americans, so why can we not get over the hump and end racism
once and for all. For the sake of whites, no longer targeting African
Americans, and for the sake that every time an African American is killed it is
said to be racism. These acts of police violence and killing are why the
notion is that Black lives do not matter. To be an African American in America
means that one must be okay with occurrences of racial and gender profiling
on multiple level, occurrences of which are not okay. America needs to come
together and realize the rights and wrongs of the system. Whether that be
fixing police standards and enforcing new protocols, whether that be not

always looking so much into what the media and news is feeding you. It is
time to look past all of the things that has happened before our time, we are
a new age of people with our own mind, it is time to use them.

Works Cited
Hassett, Kevin A. "Are The Police Biased?" National Review 66.24 (2014): 8.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
Patton, Stacy. "After Ferguson, Black Students Ask: Does A Ph.D. Still Matter?"
Chronicle Of Higher Education 61.4 (2014): A10. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
Kindy, Kimberly. "Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 Approaching 400
Nationwide." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 30 May 2015. Web. 31
Mar. 2016.
CalvinJohn Smiley, David Fakunle (2016) From brute to thug: The
demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America,
Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Web. 20 Jan. 2016
Samuel R. Aymer (2016) I cant breathe: A case studyHelping Black men
cope with race-related trauma stemming from police killing and brutality,
Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.