BY AARON MILLER
President Obama has urged the nation to confront the racism in the law enforcement. His comments came in the wake of the American police killing of Philando Castle yesterday, the second police killing of a black man in two days running.
Whilst appreciating the dangers faced by the police, he stressed the need for Americans to be troubled by the feelings of racial victimization that has dogged the nation for years.
Obama fell short of calling it racism, choosing to talk about racial disparities instead. But he means the same thing really, but can’t say so, unless he can prove it. Because it is difficult to prove racism as the cause in each case of black killing, it cannot officially be labelled as such.
However, we know there is a lot of racism in the police force, which myself as a white man has never experienced. But we know it there in many cases, but maybe not all.
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Obama stated that when incidences like these occur ” there is a big chunk of our citizenry that feel it is because of the colour of their skin they are not being treated the same.
“This is not just a black issue, not a Hispanic issue, this is an American issue we should all care about”, he said. What Obama never stated is how racial issues or racial disparities in the law enforcement should be confronted.
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Tensions between the American police and the black community has been rife to for years. The routinely armed American police are rowdy even with white people, but seem to take a much harder line with black males.
They are privately intimidated by black males, many of whom are very dangerous themselves. Dangerous men and women are plentiful in this massively dynamic country of America with individuals of varied temperaments and backgrounds.
Biases, fear, and racism may overlap in a dangerous cocktail that leads to this dangerous trend of killings. Reversal od this I’ll state will require strong action from the American government to redress this. It is awful for race relations.
Though, it is worth making reference to the officers claim he told the deceased man not to reach for his gun. Castles girlfriend insists her boyfriend was trying to reach for his driving particulars, as requested by the police.
Can she be right, and can American police be that blatantly murderous and racist with no genuine defence for their actions? If the officer truly feared for his life after being told by the man that he had a fire arm, why the multiple shots?
I have heard suggestions that even after one shot, an officer could fear for their life, believing the possibility that the man shot might still be able to reach for his gun and retaliate if he is not dead yet. All too crazy for thought.
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