Capital Punishment Memo

Dear, Mr. Lowry I am student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, but before all of that I am a black male. I was born in raised in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. I remember being in Ferguson, Missouri just days before the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. When civilians, law enforcers, or anyone else in a position of authority commits a crime, I think the punishment should fit crime. One's social status, income, or job title should become irrelevant. Often as a nation we hold people to different standards. I believe understanding real life statistics is important when it comes to discrediting a group that points fingers at the justice system. Also, it is important to fully understand a groups movement before conducting a counter

In the article David French mentioned "that 82 percent of all gun deaths in the black community are from homicides". I totally agree that this is a situation that needs to be tamed. I realize it hard to be taken serious when the actions of the people that are being represented are counterintuitive to the fight. He also states that "Criminals are overwhelmingly male and violent criminals are disproportionately black". This does gives law enforcers a reason to police the black communities harder than other communities. Until these numbers dwindle there will be zero change in the rate that black people interact with

The most common misconception is that the Black Lives Matter movement is an attack on the police. Black Lives Matter was created in 2012 after the death of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon was not gunned down by an official of the Law. His killer was a white civilian who was acquitted of murder. Trayvon had not committed a crime on the day he was executed, yet his killer remained a free man. This is not a rare case in the United States judicial system. In 1955 Emmett Till was a black kid killed by two white males who were later acquitted of murder. In 1991 six cops were caught on camera giving Rodney King the beating of a lifetime, yet they did no jail time. Autopsy confirmed that Eric Garner died due to the chokehold he was put in by a police officer in 2014. Is this the penalty that should be given out for selling a cigarette on the street? This is what Black Lives Matter is about. When it comes to the harming of black lives it seems as if white people get a pass. I am not a fan of hypotheticals, but I do challenge you to think what if these victims were white and the suspect were black? Would there have been a different outcome in these court