Black Lives Matter

If you type 'blacklivesmatter' into the search function of Twitter you will come upon a huge group of people fighting for racial equality in America. Most news outlets seem to be glancing over this movement, a movement that is reminiscent of the original civil rights movement in America. The media was interested however when there was violence, anger and hate. At the beginning of these protests all we saw was the worst, the frustration and the discontent, but now those feelings have died down, we hear nothing of it.

What these people are fighting against is the obvious institutionalised racism of America's governmental and judicial systems. Sparking these protests are the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, both of which I'm sure you've heard much about. Whatever your opinion on these men, the fact that two police officers were able to viciously murder two people and face no consequences is a huge miscarriage of justice.
The police in America seem to be looking out for each other, rather than for the people they are meant to protect.

These policemen who murdered Michael Brown and Eric Garner were individuals, they do not represent the entire police force in America, but where the police as a whole fails is their blatant, feigned ignorance when treating these men like any other murderer. The judicial system in America fails in sentencing these people and what we get in lieu of actual justice, is an 'Us vs Them' attitude, where the police see the protesters as a violent mob and the protesters see the police as a group of racists.

Many people can and would argue that the police are doing a fine job in America and would argue that these cases are individual and non representative. Yet the police never suffer the consequences as individuals for their actions. There have been plenty of cases where the police have been too trigger happy, too comfortable shooting people. These cases paint a picture of a police system that doesn't care, whose orders are to shoot first and ask questions later and the culprits of these murders are often rewarded for it. It sets a dangerous precedent at a time when tensions in America are incredibly high.

The police don't seem to cement their position as a fair system in the aftermath of these protests, and today we have yet another shocking story on the racism of the police system: Police are using mug shots of black teenagers as targets in the shooting range.
Obviously this doesn't apply to every single policeman in the American system, but it shows that there needs to be unification between the government and the protesters on this matter.
Racial tensions in America run deep, and now is more the time for a civil rights movement forever, before people get complacent and those in power think they can subjugate an entire race of people, again.