By Mary DeVitt
The official Black Lives Matter organization publishes a list of 11 Major Misconceptions about the Black Lives Matter Movement. Continuing our efforts to deepen our understanding of the movement, we publish one of them here:
#9—The movement hates police officers.
“Police officers are people. Their lives have inherent value. This movement is not an anti-people movement; therefore, it is not an anti police officer movement. Most police officers are just everyday people who want to do their jobs, make a living for their families, and come home safely at the end of their shift. This does not mean, however, that police are not implicated in a system that criminalizes black people, that demands that they view black people as unsafe and dangerous, that trains them to be more aggressive and less accommodating with black citizens, and that does not stress that we are taxpayers who deserve to be protected and served just like everyone else.
Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement is not trying to make the world more unsafe for police officers; it hopes to make police officers less of a threat to communities of color. Thus, we reject the idea that asking officers questions about why one is being stopped or arrested, about what one is being charged with, constitutes either disrespect or resistance. We reject the use of military-grade weapons as appropriate policing mechanisms for any American community. We reject the faulty idea that disrespect is a crime, that black people should be nice or civil when they are being hassled or arrested on trumped-up charges. And we question the idea that police officers should be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to policing black communities. Increasingly, the presence of police makes black people feel less rather than more safe. And that has everything to do with the antagonistic and power-laden ways in which police interact with citizens more generally and black citizens in particular. Therefore, police officers must rebuild trust with the communities they police. Not the other way around.”
See the Black Lives Matter organization website for
discussion of other misconceptions.
http://blacklivesmatter.com/11-major-misconceptions-about-the-black-lives-matter-movement/