Baton Rogue Shooting Proves Times Don’t Change

I want to preface this article by saying that the following contains references to police brutality, racial profiling, ISIS, Black Lives Matter, and other recent events involving these groups. If any of these are triggers for you, then I advise you to turn around.

With that out of the way, I don’t even know where to start on what happened in Baton Rouge on Sunday morning. Growing up in the suburban part of New York, you’re taught that Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, a day for football in the fall and family in the other three seasons of the year. Sunday is for sleeping in, for church, and for sixteen weeks out of the year, The Walking Dead.

Sunday isn’t supposed to be a day — and no day is supposed to be one — where at least three Baton Rogue officers are confirmed dead and another three are wounded after yet another shooting. Sunday should be a day where families treasure their times together, not having to find out their patriarch was killed just for being a police officer.

Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said the following in a statement on Sunday morning.

“Multiple officers from both agencies sustained injuries and were transported to local hospitals. At this point, we do not have concrete numbers or the extent of injuries. Updates will be provided as available.”

What happened on Sunday morning is just the latest in a string of shootings involving police — though not all have involved boys in blue being shot at. This is also not the first incident involving police and guns in Baton Rouge, as Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed execution style July 5 as he fought with two white police officers outside a convenience store where he sold CDs. Police say he was armed, though he was not holding his gun at the time he was shot.

Sterling wasn’t the only black man to be killed by police this month, as Philando Castile, 33, was shot and killed July 6 while in a vehicle with his girlfriend in Minnesota. On July 8, five Dallas police officers were gunned down in a sniper attack by Micah Johnson, 25, who was angry over the recent shootings by police and “wanted to kill white people” after the shootings of both Sterling and Castile. The former army member was killed by a police robot that night, but not before the self-described America lover brought more violence to the nation he so openly adored.

It’s not just America that’s battling an identity crisis, as recent terrorist attacks in France and an attempted coup in Turkey both show. We rightfully want change, whether it’s from the police culture that seemingly endorses corruptness and racial profiling or from the violent approach that people from all groups are so quick to take.

Groups like Black Lives Matter are successfully using social media to explain the point of their fight and how change needs to happen as soon as possible, while athletes are using their high-profile voices to plead for a new start. Dwyane Wade, a former All-Star with the Miami Heat who is now entering his first year with the Chicago Bulls, said the following at the ESPYS on July 13.

“Racial profiling has to stop. The shoot to kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown values has to stop. But also the retaliation, has to stop. The endless gun violence in places like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention Orlando, it has to stop. Enough. Enough is enough …”

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, a close friend and former teammate of Wade with the Heat, added the following.

“It’s not about being a role model, it’s not about our responsibility to the tradition of activism. I know tonight we’re honoring Muhammad Ali, the GOAT, but to do his legacy any justice, let’s use this moment as call to action for all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence and renounce all violence …”

Props for James and Wade are due, of course, but there’s something that we really need to think about it when it comes to that desire of making things different. We may not want to admit it, but things are never going to change when it comes to either side on any of these arguments. How are we supposed to live in the United States of America when we’re so divided and so willing to turn to violence just to get our way? A house divided cannot stand, no matter how hard we try.

The United States of America is not a perfect country, far from it, and there are so many things that need to be changed, but things can’t change if we don’t show the ambition and actual desire to make things different. Not all police officers are racists that want to see black men dead beneath their boots, but how can officers and departments change the police culture that seems to encourage that sense of domination and corrupt power?

For a group like Black Lives Matter or feminists, keep doing what you’re doing, but is there a different way all members can go about things so that fights seemingly exclude and attack anyone who doesn’t fit your idea of a perfect person — which is exactly against the ideology that you’re trying to fight, right?

People who are anti-gun and want to fight for stricter gun control are free to feel that way, but picking fights with people who disagree with you and calling them every name in the book isn’t the way to handle things. Really, that goes for every group: just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t mean they’re wrong or an awful person.

There’s so much talk about how we as a country need to destroy ISIS, but how can we possibly fight ISIS and the Middle East when we’re already at war with ourselves with no end in sight? Even if tensions are high between all of these different groups, we as Americans should be allying and figuring out how to turn that part of the world into shreds, not killing one another over nothing. The time has to come where we realize at the end of the day that, hey, we’re all Americans and we need to save our aggression for those who truly deserve it.

Save the aggression for a group of savages who kill their own blood for trying to be different.

Save the aggression for a group that openly praises attacks that kill over 80 people and leave so many others clinging to life.

Save the aggression for a group who is still promoting suicide bombings in hopes of getting a reward in the form of 200 virgins.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done because these shootings and acts of violence against our fellow Americans are just going to keep happening at this rate.

Whenever there’s a mindless shooting or terrorist attack, I always think back to what Detroit rapper Obie Trice said at a 2006 funeral for close friend DeShaun ‘Proof’ Holton, who had been shot and murdered during an argument in a bar with a fellow patron. Trice, who at the time was signed to Shady Records and had collaborated with Holton several times, said the following in a speech about violence.

“I want to talk to the black men in here that’s coming up in the ‘hood, coming up in the struggle. We’re killing each other, dawg. And it’s about nothing. Nothing. Nothing. We’re all dying… over nothing.”

That’s almost what it feels like every time we pop on the news and see an innocent black man killed in cold blood by a police officer or someone who wants to take their aggression out on a man in blue who has never committed a racial profile in his life. What are we killing each other for? Why are we killing each other?

Why are cops so quick to shoot black people or other minorities?

Why are groups so desperate to resort to violence and name-calling if things don’t go their way?

Why do we still act so naive when the reality is the chances of change happening lowers daily rather than rising?

By this point, you’re probably asking yourself what can we realistically do to really make change happen? The first — and really, the main thing — is to accept certain things that include the following.

• Guns are always going to be a problem, even if stricter gun laws are enabled. People are always going to find ways to get guns and people aren’t going to willingly turn over their guns, nor are resources going to be wasted trying to retrieve guns from their owners.
• Certain cultures, such as those in the police department, are always going to be the way they are because the members have been brought up on them. We can try to pray change will come, but the chances of there being massive changes is unfortunately unrealistic and naive. Season 4 of The Wire explained this perfectly when talking about the “stat game.“
• Violence is always going to be the answer for people because attacking others is human nature and has been since the dawn of time. Is that right or fair? No, but it’d be foolish to assume the violent aspect of people is going to change so quickly.
• People aren’t always going to agree on things, but attacking them — whether it’s physically or verbally — is the wrong way to go about things. Let me repeat that. People aren’t always going to agree on things.

Really, the only other realistic thing that we can try to do is come together again as Americans — but we’re slowly hitting a point of no return when it comes to being allied as countrymen. It’s almost like we’ve hit this mark where we’re so caught up being in one group or another that we’ve forgotten that we’re all freeborn men of the U.S.A.

I would love to see things get better and I know things have to get worse before they can get better, but everything that’s happened recently just makes me think that it’s impossible. How are we going to fight the bullies known as ISIS and the Middle East, a part of the world that’s laughing at us, when we can’t even land a true, meaningful punch on the people we’re supposed to love?

We all bleed red, but when are we going to remember that we’re supposed to bleed white and blue, too?

[Photo by Max Becherer/AP Images]