The media continues to stigmatize Blacks with full force and propaganda, convincing viewers that they are corrupt and violent. Calling Blacks thugs, further implying that our days consist of gun and gang violence thus bringing to conclusion that this is what greatly contributes to the destruction of the Black community.

Yet the gun and gang violence that occurs within the Black community is mostly due to the number one gang in America: THE POLICE. It’s easy to make someone who is from an impoverished neighborhood that is Black the poster child for gang and gun violence. Knowing their environment alone, you would easily assume their fate. Yet in impoverished neighborhoods, where the government barely invests and leaders rarely bring forth any long-term progress, all Black people want to do is LIVE. Most of us could care less about killing one another because the real problem lies within the broken system and our pockets.

But the terrorism that thrives in the Black community is mostly due to the police force. They are the most present government appointed group that roam the streets of our neighborhoods. I see them every day and never truly feel safe.

The media now keeps track of the homicides and gun shootings that occur in the Black community (only to further support the need for harsher laws and incarceration), but why not the gun shootings that are done by the police? Why not bring up the sum of victims wrongfully killed or harmed by the police? What total would the result yield and what would that truly say about the government that appoints these people to “serve and protect” our communities?

We hear of tragedies and national outcries of unjustified brutality and homicide that the police so casually bring to our communities. We are further traumatized and left feeling numb or wanting to feel numb to the violence and hopelessness we feel when we find they will not be served with the justice that this country claims it executes.

We are shown the faces and names of victims that are added to the many who died by the gun and gang violence of the police. They serve and protect the government but oppress and traumatize those they do not.

How is this mentality and behavior shared by every police force in American from federal to city? How do we ALL feel this untrusting and uncomfortable emotion we get when we think about the police? If not all cops are bad, why is police brutality common?

And some may say “Well there’s black on black violence. They do it to themselves.” There’s white on white crime. There’s crime on everyone by everyone. Yet the media continues to force feed viewers of criminal prone and unruly Black people.

Years and years of studies have shown what contributes to the downfall of communities and yet instead of resolving these issues and providing the necessities to improve these communities, the government feeds these problems and contain them by inflicting black communities with poverty, lack of education and resources, and the oppression of the police. Building prisons and screaming for the National Guard does not solve the problem, it contains it. Crime wasn’t created by the Black community, it was forced upon us.

 

I remember I worked at a youth center, and unfortunately I worked under a director who had questionable interactions with the children he oversaw. There was a boy in my group who was very nice, smart, and not mischievous. Yet every time the director came in the room, he always accused or questioned what the boy was doing. I would always try to stick up for him the best way I knew how (eventually I left the job) but the director would continue to accuse the boy or involve him in another child’s mischief and punish him for it. Eventually the boy became mischievous and started to get into trouble. If you feel that no matter what you do, you will always be seen as the culprit, what reason would you have to continue to do good if you should only be punished for it?

The media points to the Black community and blames every crime on gang violence. They depict Blacks as gang members to further create this skewed view of Blacks. When in actuality the biggest gang (even bigger than the KKK) is the police force (which I’m sure some of them are KKK members). They range from federal to citywide groups that are implemented into the communities to control and enforce not only the law, but to inflict terrorism and oppression.

If you don’t think the police force is a gang:

“A gang is a group of recurrently associating individuals or close friends or family with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior.”

They all have a code, they all have uniforms or symbols of their association, territories, have performed certain duties or met certain requirements to join, but yet they’re painted as those who uphold and enforce the law with honor. There are many reasons the police commit heinous acts but the number one reason is because they are empowered to. President Obama said “Weapons of war should not be on the streets.”

Yet here we are again, watching swarms of armed people appointed BY the government run into Black communities killing and terrorizing people. Unlike the street gangs you may hear about or see in the movies or news, the police force contribute heavily to gun and gang violence (let’s not forget drugs) but are able to get away with it because they are supported by the government and media. They continue to destroy and inflict harm among Black communities.

You want to end gun and gang violence? Start with the biggest gang that have the most guns and the government that gives it to them.

Watch eye witness Dorian Johnson describe the homicide of his friend Michael Brown committed by the police and the peaceful protestors being harrassed by the police.