More than 1,000 unarmed citizens have been shot and killed by police officers in 2015 alone, and most of them have been video taped by other people who offered the evidence up for the investigation. Despite the solid proof of foul play, statements from witnesses and other supporting documentation, a large portion of these cases have gone nowhere as far as justice is concerned. Many of them have been dismissed because of one juror’s wishes. Sometimes, it didn’t even take the actions of one juror to place the dismissal in effect.
The two cases that were the highest in profile were the cases against officers Michael Slager and Ray Tensing. Michael Slager was the officer who was accused of shooting an unarmed man in the back several times during what should have been a stop to help someone who had a flat tire. The man with the flat tire ended up losing his life, and the judge dismissed the case despite of the fact that so many people saw it and the entire incident was on the video camera. The Ray Tensing case involved a traffic stop that ended in a man losing his life because of an insane number of shots to the head. The courts dismissed that case as well. Thousands of similar occurrences have taken place over the years.
The Black Lives Matter organization tries to help, but it may not be adding anything positive to the cause. It seems that violence has skyrocketed between the police and various unarmed citizens since the organization began its protest. Two wrongs never make a right. The only thing they make is an awful mess. People are enraged and they want to see something done about these injustices. That is quite understandable, but taking things into one’s own hand rarely works.
Some people think that certain groups should ban together and “do something” about all of the injustice, but what is there to do if the entire moral system and the very fabric of this nation’s justice system have deteriorated to the point of no return? Something is terribly wrong if human lives mean so little that the police officers who take them go free. People are supposed to trust in police officers, but how does the nation trust them with more than 1,100 deaths in one year happening to unarmed people? Police were put in place to provide the citizens with safety. We were supposed to be relieved when we saw police coming, not worried about whether we would live through a traffic stop.