WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?? Another black man being killed by a white police officer is nothing new to the WORLD.
Alton Sterling, a 37 year old man, was selling CDs outside of a local Baton Rogue market when he was approached by two white officers. The police got a call saying that Alton was outside of the market, threatening people with a gun. There is footage of the incident circulating around social media. In the video, you can see the officers tackled him to the round and one officer yelling “gun” (but there was no gun in sit from the victim” and then you hear and see the office fire 6 shots into Alton’s chest. Talk about GRAPHIC.
The store owner, who was a witness to the crime said that the police tazed Alton and pushed him on the silver car. Then they tackled him to the ground.He says that Alton didn’t reach for a gun and it was not visible when he was on the ground. The store owner says that the gun was only visible when the police officer reached in Alton’s pocket and got it out, AFTER he had been shot. He adds that, from what he saw, the police didn’t have to shoot Alton and the police could have handled it differently. All Alton was trying to do was find out why he was being arrested.
Celebrities have expressed their concerns about the incident. Cardi B from Love and Hip Hop New York went on a rant saying “If you fucking scared of a black man laying on the floor, you shouldn’t be a cop, you a coward.” Actor Jesse Williams had a series of tweets on how he felt about the incident. Even rapper The Game shared a long post on Instagram saying that we need to do more than create hashtags on social media; we need to take action!
Alton’s family spoke out about the crime of their loved one and you can see his 15 year-old son breaking down on television. It was heartbreaking to see him cry and even sadder to see the mother of his son try to hold back her tears while talking about the crime.
Alton Sterling Family Breaking Down (Video Credit CNN.COM)
In my opinion, this is getting ridiculous. By “this” I mean the killing of our black people by police officer AND by other black men. It seems that since black people are killing black people, the police see that it’s okay to kill them/us as well. These killings have spiraled out of control and now that there is footage supporting the injustice, justice is still not being served. When will it stop? Will it ever stop?
Featured image credit: heavy.com
Danii Gold 