I have been trying to figure out the right words to say, and how to put it all down on paper. The past 3 days of news has been devastating; actually the past few years of news has been devastating. We have allowed so much hate to just poor from our veins. This "race war" is worse then it has been in years. Obama, his administration and the media have been feeding this hype. We live in a world where there is black and white, straight and gay. We have segregated ourselves to the point that if you have a different view you hate the opposite, you support the police then you must hate the blacks. It is truly disturbing.
I will continue to raise my children to love others, to honor God and to respect authority. With that being said I do not agree with police brutality. I will however not clump all officers together as we should not clump all whites, blacks gay, straight ect. together. We are all individuals and we all have different points of views. Yes I am a white, straight, christian women I am a wife and mother. That does not mean all people who fall into those same categories agree with me on everything or share the same point of view. So why should we pretend that that is how it is? Why should we say that just because I am not black I don't sympathize with their struggles? The color of you skin does not make you less or more important neither does your gender or sexual orientation. God loves each and everyone of us no matter what.
With all that being said I think it is important to really take a look at the facts. These numbers come from a website called the counted; they keep track of how many people have been killed by the police. They do a great job with breaking it down but sadly most people will just go to the site and see that 566 people so far this year have been killed by the hands of an officer. There is so much more to it, so here it is. Seeing how we are in a race war and are up in arms about how many black people have been killed, I will end each section with the comparison between whites and blacks.
Lets first start with unarmed deaths.
Unarmed White - 42 people
Unarmed African American - 24 People
Unarmed Hispanic/Latino - 14 People
Unarmed Native American - 2 people
82 Unarmed people killed by the hands of an officer. Most of them are domestic shootings that took place with an off duty officer and his family.
Of this 82 52 were gunshots 10 death by taser 9 struck by vehicle 11 death in custody
As you can see that is 18 MORE Whites then Blacks
Now lets look at the Armed suspects
Armed White - 212
Armed African American- 101
Armed Hispanic/Latino - 65
Armed Asian - 13
Armed Native American - 10
Armed Unknown - 28
429 armed assailants.
Of the 429 424 were killed by firearm, 2 taser, 1 struck by vehicle and 2 death in custody.
There are 55 people unaccounted for as they are either listed as other, undetermined or disputed on the weapon.
On the website it also has a chart that breaks it all up by ethnicity and here is what you will find there
Overall that is 566 people who have been died by the hand of an officer. 13 Hispanic/Latino 136 Black, 88 hispanic, 279 White, 10 Asian and 40 other/unknown. That is 143 MORE Whites killed then Blacks. If you do it per million (there are more whites in the country then blacks). So per million 3.4 Native Americans 3.23 Blacks, 1.59 hispanics, 1.41 whites, 0.56 asians.
So is this really a race issue? Or is just simply a media issue? Or is it more then that? Is it the need to make this into something? I am not saying that what is happening isn't wrong, but it is wrong all across the board not just in one demographic area. The american people are pointing fingers at the officers saying they are ALL racists, and they are out to kill the blacks. I am not going to sit here and say that there aren't racists cops or jumpy cops. But to group them all together is not fair. THEN to kill 5 officers in Dallas Texas, for what?!?
Now to see how many police officers have made the ultimate sacrifice. 58 officers have been killed in the line of duty. Yes this number is not as high but they are going into dangerous situations and when you have someone waving a gun at you you have to think about your life and the life of those around you first.
The number of people who have been killed by a fellow citizen are as follows 8,722 homicides and rising! Do you see the problem here?
I think we all need to take a step back, stop jumping to conclusions and really just pray. Stop blaming, stop taking what you see and pointing your perfect little finger at someone. Yes you can watch these horrific videos and do your best to figure out what happened; but remember these are just a glimpse of what is really going on. We don't know exactly what is being said, or what actions are taking place in the scuffle. We can be sympathetic, and be heart broken that someones life was taken and we witnessed it happen (I for one will never get used to that nor do I want to witness it again). I think the biggest thing is to stop, think, process, pray and react. We are aloud to react and have emotion, we are aloud to be mad and demand that these things stop. But we can not judge the actions of those in that 30 second clip as we don't know what happened before or after the camera stopped rolling.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of Philander Castile, Alton Sterling and all the 564 others who have lost their lives this year as well as all the officers and their families involved with these killings, as they have to live with this for the rest of their lives. I also pray for Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Omar Cannon, Misty McBride and Jesus Retana and the o53 other officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. I pray for the 49 precious people who were killed by an islamic extremists in Orlando as well as all the others who have lost their life by the hands of another. A life lost is tragic no matter what.
I sit here with tears in my eyes thinking about this world I have brought my babies into. I pray that with them and through them and others like them we can fix this world with God in control leading the way. Please join me in prayer. Pray for people to see that the actions they are taking are not the right ones, that we need to really learn to respect each other no matter what.
Thats all I got.... God bless
