MY CHRISTMAS WISH

Murders broaden discussion of race-relations to include senseless murders of officers
By Miriam Raftery

December 23, 2014 (San Diego)–Police departments across the nation have reportedly been put on alert following the cold-blooded murder of two New York Police officers. The gunman, who was black, posted Instragram messages indicating he planned to kill officers as revenge for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner, two black men who were killed by white police officers under controversial circumstances.
Here is the link rest of the article. http://eastcountymagazine.org/sd-police-react-killings-nypd-officers

I posted this on LinkedIn Black Authors Network after reading an article about San Diego’s police officer association’s reaction to murders of two NYC police officers.

I’ve already seen pages and page of Blue Lives Matter or Police Lives Matter too. My response to that is this. When an officer puts on the police uniform, he or she knows the dangers she may face that. He or she took the job knowing being an officer might cause him or her to draw a gun or have a gun or other weapon drawn against them. Black officer, white officers or brown officer, it doesn’t matter. That’s what they get paid to do.

When a young Black man walks down the street, plays in the playground or shops in Walmart or hides in his grandmother’s bathroom, he shouldn’t have to worry some officer will shoot him dead.

We need to even the playing field for our children. We need to apply pressure to police departments to change how they see us. We need to insist officers live in our neighborhoods and their kids go to school with our kids. It’s much harder to shoot a kid you know goes to school with your own kid. Our men need to have conversations with white men about their sons and our sons. When we see our commonalities, it’s much harder to shoot first and ask questions later. Our women need to speak with white women about their sons and our sons. It’s much harder to hate when we learn what we share in common instead of what we don’t share.

I guess you could say this is my Christmas wish.
BL Wilson

SEASON’S GREETINGS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS