[BLack Lives Matter]

"Black Lives Matter" started out as simply a hashtag on Facebook posts made by activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the outrageous acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer. This is just one of countless failures in the justice system, as well as one of countless examples of racially-motivated murder of an unarmed person. #BlackLivesMatter was an idea and a movement--and still is--but since 2013, loosely-associated organizations calling themselves Black Lives Matter have been popping up all over the country.

The organizations, as well as the movement itself all have many things in common: Non-violent, peaceful protests of police brutality--and not just police brutality against blacks, but all races. One example of BLM organizations getting involved in such an instance is when they protested the no-knock raid of a white family's home that ended with officers throwing a flash-bang grenade into a baby crib and permanently disfiguring the baby. It turned out to be the wrong house, by the way.

BLM organizations advocate for decarceration in the United States (reducing the number of those in prison, especially for non-violent drug offences,) an end to mass surveillance (the CIA, NSA, and FBI, etc. are all violating our 4th amendment rights and spying on all of us,)

investment in public education, and community control of the police.

Other police-reform movements want to reduce police funding (cities nowadays tend to spend almost their entire budget on the police, taking away from things such as education, public housing, and other social service,) as well as demilitarization of the police (militarization of the police are when the police are armed and trained to treat citizens as enemy combatants, demilitarization means to end that.)

"Black lives matter" never meant "only black lives matter." It was meant to call attention to the fact that, in the United States, black lives were never considered to matter--at least not by the system, or the government. In fact the country is quite intentionally designed to uphold white supremacy.

[All Lives Matter]

The phrase "all lives matter" has been, since the beginning of the BLM movement, used as a rebuttal to "black lives matter," something meant to argue against and shut down the movement. It incorrectly implies that "Black Lives Matter" means "only black lives matter." It was used cynically, intentionally, and knowingly in this way first by actual racists that just wanted to shut down or undermine the movement, but many people who use the phrase simply don't know that.

[White Lives Matter.]

Hoo-boy, where even to begin with this one? There's racism, and then there's systemic racism. The kind of racism you're probably more familiar with is the kind that anyone can have, and anyone can experience. Racial bias is probably a spectrum, and it may be one that we're all on (and if we were, we wouldn't know it.) Many tests have been done on human psychology involving racial bias, and they show that more often than not people tend to have certain biases in favor of those that are more like themselves, and against those that aren't. The vast majority of these test subjects have no idea it's even possible for them to have these biases; it's subconscious, effecting judgement in very small ways under the surface.

This could be a hold-over from our days as cavemen 200,000 years ago, as strangers from a different tribes were often an actual threat, leading to our brains to evolve this irrational fear of outsiders, or "the other." This mindset is called "tribalism."

Systemic racism is different; rather than pertaining to the irrational side of actual people's brains and their own personal racism, systemic racism is a bias of the system. it can be caused or helped along by the collective racial biases of everyone in the country, but it can also exist without anyone being racist at all so long as the laws and criminal justice system is rigged in some way against a particular ethnic group--which often happens when another race has held all the power for centuries and holds an elective majority (such as the fact that the country is made up of 61% white people, and 13% black)

It's a statistical fact that a black person is four times as likely to be incarcerated by drug offences despite fairly equal use of drugs across the races, and the sentences are generally much more severe for black people than for white people. Politicians are aware of this and often use it to their advantage; politicians generally only want to protect the ruling class--that is, billionaires. Since the majority of black people vote in alignment with the poor and working classes, making more laws that incentivize the incarceration of as many people as possible is one way of tipping the scales in favor of the ruling class. Richard Nixon's illegalization of pot, George H.W. Bush's "war on drugs," Bill Clinton and Joe Biden's 1994 crime bill--all of these were designed to keep as many black people in jail as possible. And not because of anything like blacks actually committing more crimes than whites, but because they know the system will come down on them much harder.

You and I can experience discrimination from a racist black person. We cannot, however, face systemic racism. While the system is rigged against all poor people, it's doubly rigged for minority races. We can't experience that systemic racial bias because we're part of the majority race which has most of the power--and had that power since the formation of the country. The country was designed to be white supremacist, by hypocrites who claimed "All men are created equal."

While white people can be murdered by the police--and it does happen--it's, per capita, far worse for minority races. There's even good evidence to suggest that white supremacists groups like the KKK have actually infiltrated the police departments of cities all over the United States. It's important to keep in mind that since white people make up 61% of the population, and black people make up 13% of it, an equal amount of murders by police would be 61% of the murder victims being white, and 13% being black--and a quick look at the statistics of deaths caused by the police by race will show this isn't the case at all.

There is no need to go around saying "white lives matter." White lives aren't the ones in danger. It's just a white supremacist rebuttal.

As a side note, some people like to talk about pride in their "white heritage," and they'll defend this by pointing out that black people often talk about pride in their "black heritage." Here's the thing about that, though: While I don't really give a damn about my ancestors or my heritage, if I did care I could trace it back to specific parts of Europe, mostly Scotland and Germany. Black people can't do that because our ancestors took that from them. They don't know specifically where in Africa their bloodlines are from. "Black heritage" is ALL they have. There is only one way that all these known different European origins could be stuffed into one "white" box, and that's celebrating "heritage" of genocide, slavery, and segregation. "White heritage" is actually just "white supremacy."

[Black on black crime.]

People often cite "black on black crime" as a rebuttal to the protests of police brutality. here's the thing though: white people kill other white people. In fact, if you look at ANY ethnic group, the majority of murders among them would normally be members of their own race. This makes sense because ethnic groups tend to clump together, and it's easier to get into altercations with and kill those who live closer to you or among you. The race of a serial kiler is often the first thing to be figured out because they consistently tend to target members of their own race. Easier to get to. It's not always the case, but it's a rule that tends to hold up quite a lot.

Now, don't get me wrong, anyone murdering anyone is a problem, but it's NOT a rebuttal to addressing police brutality. They're just different problems. And addressing police brutality is a far simpler and doable task than simply trying to end murder period (but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that the police themselves exacerbate crime, as does the drug war, and poverty--and those are other issues that can be addressed.)

[ACAB, Not all cops]

"Not all cops" is an often-used rebuttal any time police reform is brought up. Just like "All lives matter," it's meant to shut down any conversation of police reform. Labeling all cops as "bad" is not one of the goals of the overall BLM movement, or any other movement for police and criminal justice reform. The need for this reform doesn't have anything to do with whether or not all cops are "bastards."

Plenty of people do use the phrase "ACAB"--"All Cops Are Bastards." Most people don't mean it seriously, it would of course be absurd to paint all cops as evil. It's more of a rallying cry, red meat for angry and passionate activists. However, it's not without its small grain of truth. Many of the laws in the country--particularly drug prohibition--is unjust. Therefore, the police unavoidably uphold injustice.

Then there's the Stanford Prison Experiment to consider. This was a social psychology experiment conducted at Stanford University in 1971. A group of twenty-four students were separated into two groups; twelve prisoners, and twelve corrections officers. Long story short, while the prisoners were in solidarity with each other--such as one prisoner refusing special treatment for good behavior as long as his fellow prisoners were treated poorly, the "guards" attempts to keep the prisoners in line became increasingly cruel and deranged, causing the experiment to have to end early after only six days. Like any good experiment, this is one that can be repeated by others and produce the same results. The takeaway here is that the actual permanent role of authority--that uniform, badge, and gun--has an effect on the mind. There's a saying "power corrupts absolutely." We can see that in revolutionaries of the past that turned dictator once they were in power, we can see it in politicians that were initially idealistic and passionate about changing society for the better only to later pursue power only for power's sake, and we can see it in police that become authoritarian and abusive.

Speaking of abuse, 40% of cops are domestic abusers (at least out of the ones who are in a relationship,) and that's just the ones we know about it. Domestic abuse is an under-reported crime, so the real percentage is likely higher than that.

When one person dies, people tend to have an emotional response to that, but when a thousand people die something about our brains not being able to comprehend those kinds of numbers shuts down that compassion aspect. This goes along with a saying, "one death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic) So while I'd like to bring up a plethora of examples of murders of unarmed citizens by the police (which in itself would only be a tiny sliver of the overall killings by police per year in this country,) I'll only bring up one example.

On July 17, 2014 in New York, a man named Eric Garner was suspected of selling loose (untaxed) cigarettes. Garner's only resistance was to pull away after the cops put his hands on him after he said he wasn't selling cigarettes. He was then tackled and put in an illegal chokehold. He said eleven times "I can't breathe," until he died from strangulation. During the anniversary of Garner's death, the NYPD held a rally and a barbecue where they all wore a shirt saying "I can breathe," mocking Garner's last words.

Police violence isn't as much of a problem in rural areas as it is in most urban areas. At most we might get that one asshole cop who's bored and wants to harass you over swerving slightly, and be a dick on a power trip about it while he's at it. If your only cop for miles is a local sheriff, that's better because he (or she) is an elected official. It would do the sheriff no favors to act like an asshole.

Cities are often policed by thousands of un-elected cops (in New York City there's over 55,000,) sent to patrol neighborhoods that they often have no connection with whatsoever. These cites spend half to almost all of their budgets on the police, taking funds away from social programs only to outfit the police in military gear and turn them into an invading force rather than the public servants they're supposed to be. Police training is also often an issue. In fact, Derek Chauvin--the cop that murdered George Floyd in cold blood--was training rookie cops. Ideas like "Your number one job is to come home safe" rather than "your number one job is to make sure other people are safe" gets ingrained in the minds of many urban police officers.

There's a saying, "A few bad apples spoil the bunch." Some people defending the cops do so by reciting part of the saying, "There's only a few bad apples"--and I would disagree with that, there's clearly millions of bad apples--and they never finish the phrase: "spoils the bunch." If it's just a few bad apples, why aren't the good apples turning them in? In fact there have been cops who try, but this always ends in the cop being ostracized, harassed, threatened, and/or fired. One cop was even fired for disobeying orders to fire upon an unarmed, non-violent suspect. Not all cops are bastards, but most of them are, and the system is designed to make them that way. That's why the system needs reform.

Police violence and the corrupt criminal justice system is a problem specifically in the United States above any other industrialized nation. In Germany the annual number of killings carried out by police are mostly in the single digits, and haven't exceeded twenty in over fifty-seven years. In Iraq, 2019, it was somewhere a little over 176. In Mexico, 2017, it was 371. In Canada, 2017, it was 36. In France, 2018, it was 26. In Norway--a country with one of the least punitive criminal justice systems in the world--one person died at the hands of police in 2016. In the United States? It was 1,536 in 2019 alone. And these numbers don't change much on a year by year basis; police in the United States routinely kill 1500+ people every year. I hope I don't need to emphasize how insane that is when compared with other countries.

The United States also has the largest prison population in the world. 2.1 million people are in prison right now in the U.S. In China, it's 1.7 million--and keep in mind there are over three times the amount of people in China than there are in the United States. In Brazil it's 773 thousand. In Russia it's 511 thousand. And China, Brazil, and Russia are all run by ultra-authoritarian governments that keep political prisoners. High prison populations are a common feature in countries run by authoritarian governments.

The high number of people in prison in this country is due to for-profit prisons. Originally the idea of letting corporations run-for-profit prisons is that it would be cheaper. However, the corporations that run these prisons have a nefarious business model. The government pays them an amount that changes depending on how many prisoners the prison has. This gives the corporation incentive to get more prisoners for profits sake, and they can use the corrupted campaign finance system to lobby politicians to make laws favorable to putting as many people in prison for anything at all, and keep them there as long as possible. And, as I pointed out before, the system is designed to come down much harder on minority races than whites--though, may no mistake; it affects us, too.

Reforming the police and criminal justice wouldn't help just black people, but all working-class people. We may not be as statistically likely to be killed or otherwise persecuted by the police, but authoritarians oppress us ALL. The BLM movement has never shied away from defending the rights and freedom of anyone of any race. Meanwhile, the "all lives matter" crowd are too busy licking cop boot to see any problems at all.

Ever heard of civil asset forfeiture? Basically, the police can assume that any valuables on you are going to be used for a crime. Your possessions don't have the same "rights" as you do, and are guilty until proven innocent. The cops can then take the valuables--including a stack of cash found in your glove box, for instance--and they can use it for themselves. In Missouri (I forget the city, but it wasn't St. Louis, maybe Joplin,) civil asset forfeiture was used by the police to buy a cappuccino machine for a police station.

So we can see that there's a problem, but what do we do about that problem? The website "Campaign Zero," a police reform website, has some pretty good ideas. One idea is to end so-called "Broken Window policing." It's a 1980's-era hypothesis that maintaining order by cracking down on minor-level offences and disturbances can prevent more serious crimes. In practice, this isn't working as intended; instead it's resulted in aggressive over-policing of minority communities, causing more problems than it solves. In 2018, only 5% of the arrests made in the United States involved alleged violent crimes, and only 4% of what the police spent their time doing overall involved enforcing violent crime.

Another idea put out by Campaign Zero is community oversight. Normally the police are in charge of alleged crimes and misconduct by police officers. There's a lot of details that go into community oversight, though the gist is that civilian-populated organizations would be in charge of investigating the police. Another idea is community policing--appointing cops to their own communities. Demilitarization, and end to for-profit policing. Lots of good ideas here. Body cams are a product of the BLM movement, and now the BLM movement is pushing to make it so that if a cop turns off their body cam, their testimony for that time period is thrown out and their intentions are assumed to be malicious.

Racism will probably never go away, and because one population that's held all the power for centuries is larger than other populations in the country, maybe systemic racism will never go away either. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't address it, or the plethora of problems it caused. And as I stated before, this is about more than addressing the oppression of a particular race or ethnic group, the "police state" effects us all. This is about freedom, and our pursuit of it.