Arias 1

Adryanna Arias-Marquez

Professor Lawson

English 113B

May 13, 2017

Project Text

Word count: 2208

All Lives Matter

Friday, February 26th 2012 was not like any other Friday night for the civilians in

Sanford, Florida. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator was involved in a

shooting where he shot and killed a 17-year-old high school student, Trayvon Martin. The 17-

year-old child was an African American kid who was visiting his father in the gated community

in Florida. This was when the organization of BlackLivesMatter had begun. BlackLivesMatter

was an organization formed right after this incident had occurred and was organized to take

action in cases where police officers or higher authority were killing innocent black people. The

result of this incident had brought national attention to issues such as, racial injustices, police

using deadly force, and police brutality. The current political and culture movement of the

#blacklivesmatter has caused division and mistrust between law enforcement and civilians but

when celebrities are using BlackLivesMatter iconography it further advocates more problems

with this issue.

Trayvon Martin was a child when he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. The

child had already passed away once the police officers had arrived to the scene. Zimmerman was

taken into custody just minutes after the shooting. According to a writer, George Zimmerman

claims he was defending himself when he shot and killed a 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (Gray).
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Letting Zimmerman go because they had no evidence to detain him, they invested the case

realizing that Martin was unarmed the whole time. Once Zimmerman was let out is when a lot of

tension with the civilians in Sanford, Florida, had started to occur. There were many other ways

that Zimmerman could have taken action without shooting fire. Even though George Zimmerman

was not part of Law Enforcement he was still the neighborhood watch coordinator meaning that

the gated community should be able to trust and rely on him for help, not one to be afraid of.

Almost a year later, George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon

Martin, has been found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the case that has

gripped the nation (Alcindor). Trayvon Martin was just one of many cases where an unarmed

African American had been shot and killed by higher authority and got away with not being

charged for the murder. This was just the start of the movement of BlackLivesMatter because

people felt the need to start taking action into the issues that were happening.

Another incident occurred on August 9, 2014, where a young African American was shot

and killed. Michael Brown was an unarmed African American teenager who was shot and killed

be a police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson. According to New York Times, Michael Brown,

an unarmed black teenager, remained palpable across the region (Healy). Michael Brown, was

shot six times total, four times in the arm and twice in the head, also by a police officer. As soon

as the shooting happened the protests had begun. People were out protesting about the case

because they felt like the police officer was in the wrong and should not have shot him at all let

alone six times. They believed that if the officer needed to open fire the officer could have just

shot him one time in the arm or leg rather than killing him. Brown was also found unarmed but

the police officer seemed to believe that his life was in danger and that Brown was going to pull

a weapon on the officer. These shooting between police officers and unarmed African Americans
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were starting to become a major issue because African Americans were starting to believe that

police officers were targeting only them. This is when it became a major racial problem.

Philando Castile was a 36-year-old African American man who was pulled over by a

police officer on July 6, 2016 with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her daughter in the car

with him. Castile was licensed to carry a gun and when the officer asked for Castiles ID, Castile

had told the officer that he was licensed to carry and had a gun in his waistband. The officer

seemed to feel like his life was in danger and believe that Castile was going to pull the gun on

the officer so the officer shot him four times., killing Castile. While Castile is lying there dying

his girlfriend goes on Facebook to livestream everything that is happening. Reynolds is

explaining on Facebook live that, He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was

reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm. Reynolds also is saying to the

officer, please don't tell me this, Lord. Please, Jesus, don't tell me that he's gone. Please, officer,

don't tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting

his license and registration, sir (McLaughlin). Since Castile had let the officer know that he was

armed the officer should have handled it differently rather than shooting him. If the officer felt

like his life was in danger, he could have just shot him once in the arm or he could have even

used the police taser or ever pepper spray so it would not have killed Castile. Also Castiles

girlfriend should have tried to stop the bleeding that was coming from her boyfriend rather than

grabbing her phone and livestreamed everything that was happening. Maybe if she would have

helped her boyfriend he would not have lost so much blood but the officer still could have

handled this situation in a way where Castile would still be alive. After the police officer

Jeronimo Yanez went to court for this incident he was later found not guilty.
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Once these shootings had been coming up more on the media is when the division and

mistrust between police officers and civilians was becoming a major issue to the society. Protests

where starting and hatred against police officers were beginning. Once people where becoming

more aware that it was becoming an issue more people wanted to get involved and show their

rights and the rights of African Americans. Recently there has been a major social issue between

police officers and their community. A major part of pop culture has been responding to these

police shootings. For example, this last football season certain football players like Colin

Kaepernick decided that he was going to kneel for the National Anthem to protest for the rights

of African Americans. This caused many other players to join him in kneeling for our National

Anthem. Once these players started doing this is caused a lot of tension with millennials. College

students and even high school students from all over the country started to do this in protest

against police officers and this caused many people to start showing disrespect towards police

officers. These people like Colin Kaepernick have a huge impact on millennials right now and

since he is doing it they want to follow his footsteps. Kaepernick states his opinion, "I am not

going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of

color" (Wyche). Kaepernick is just one of the many celebrities who have been responding to this

recent movement.

There were also many other celebrities such as, Macklemore, Olivia Wilde, Beyonc,

and a few others boldly used their voices to stand up for injustice creating a prototype for how

celebrities can use their voices to make a difference. Once the famous singer, Beyonce started

taking action into the issue is when everything was really getting out to the fans. Beyonce started

to take action right after the Castile shooting, she urges her fans to, turn anger into action

(Grant). This was not the way to get people to start taken action this was just causing more
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problems between civilians and police officers because so many people look up to Beyonce. On

February 11, 2016 Beyonce was the performer for the half time show for Super Bowl 50. For the

half time show, the pop star performed a full-scale tribute to Black Lives Matter and the

militant, anti-law enforcement Black Panthers, with her backup dancers clad in Panther uniforms

with fists raised in the black power salute (Nussbaum). Beyonce was showing disrespect

towards police officers but then at the same time these celebrities still want to be escorted by

cops. Most of the cops that are around are here to help people and showing disrespect towards all

police officers will not help the issue at all. There has to be a change to how these celebrities are

responding to these issues because they do have a lot of fans and they can be a big influence if

they do it the right way, not bashing police officers.

While it is true that some of these cases have been not treated correctly and innocent

African Americans are being shot by police officers, there is still another issue that is occurring

because of these police shootings. Cops are now being targeted and shot and killed. Last year

there was an incident that had occurred in Lancaster, California, where a sergeant was shot and

killed by an African American was recently let out of parolee for good behavior. Sergeant

Steve Owen was responding to a burglary call when he was face to face with Trenton Trevon

Lovell. Lovell shot Owen multiple times to make sure that Owen was dead. Sergeant Steve

Owen was pronounced dead later on in the day at the Antelope Valley Hospital. One of the

captains, Steve Katz has stated, This has been a very dark day for the Sheriffs Department

(Rocha). This was just one of the cases where an officer was shot and killed for no reason at all.

Another incident occurred in Dallas, Texas. This time not only one officer was shot and killed

but five officers were shot and killed by an armed sniper. According to the New York Times

article the sniper was, set out to kill as many white officers as he could. This shooter felt the
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need to target only white police officers and had an objective to kill as many as them as he could

have. This is not the answer to solving any of the problems. Police officers are here to protect us

and now they are being targeted because some officers shot and killed African Americans. The

killing of five police officers had a huge effect on the communities, The shooting was the kind

of retaliatory violence that people have feared through two years of protests around the country

against deaths in police custody, forcing yet another wrenching shift in debates over race and

criminal justice that had already deeply divided the nation (Fernandez). This is just an example

of two cases were white police officers were shot by African Americans. This is not helping any

issues but causing more racial injustice issues.

The key aspect discussed here is that the political and cultural movement,

BlackLivesMatter, has been causing a lot more mistrust with law enforcement and civilians in

the past few years. There have been many police shootings were an African American was shot

and killed by a white police officer. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Philando Castile are

just some of the few listed as examples but there are many more cases where the officer was

acquitted for these murders. Celebrities such as the famous football star Colin Kaepernick and

the singer/actor Beyonce think that they are helping the racial cause of innocent black men being

shot and killed by white police officers but actually there are not. They are causing more conflict

between law enforcement and civilians because they are just bashing all of police officers and

they are not doing anything about the innocent police officers being shot and killed by African

Americans. There is an issue on both sides that we all need to contribute to and try to fix. The

issue is just getting more and more out of hand, something has to change. Not only do

BlackLivesMatter and BlueLivesMatter, but AllLivesMatter.

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Works Cited

Alcindor, Yamiche. George Zimmerman found not guilty. Usatoday.com, 13 July 2013. Web.

18 April 2017.

Fernandez, Manny. Five Dallas Officers Were Killed as Payback, Police Chief Says.

NYtimes.com, 8 July 2016. Web. 21 April 2017.

Grant, Jasmine. These 1o Celebrities Knew Exactly What To Say About #BlackLivesMatter.

Refinery29.com, 14 July 2016. Web. 21 April 2017.

Gray, Madison. Trayvon Martins Killing: Was the Motive Self-Defense or Racism?

Newsfeed.time.com, 19 March 2012. Web. 18 April 2017.

Healy, Jack. Ferguson, Still Tense, Grows Calmer. Nytimes.com, 26 Nov. 2014 Web. 19 April

2017.

McLaughlin, Eliott. Woman streams aftermath of fatal officer-involved shooting. CNN.com, 8

July 2016. Web. 19 April 2017.

Nussbaum, Daniel. Beyonce Bashes Cops in Half-Time Show After Getting Police Escort to the

Game. Breitbart.com, 8 Feb. 2016. Web. 15 April 2017.

Rocha, Veronica. L.A. County sheriffs sergeant is killed in Lancaster shooting; suspect is in

custody. LAtimes.co, 5 Oct. 2016. Web. 21 April 2017.

Wyche, Steve. Colin Kaepernick Explains Why He Sat During the National Anthem.

NFL.com, 27 Aug. 2016. Web. 10 April 2017.