Black Lives Matter Essay
To start with, this is Black Lives Matter essay that considers this topic. Black lives matter is a movement that is against racially motivated violence and actions towards black people as well as police brutality towards black people. Although Black lives matter is a movement that recently made the headlines after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the US, it is an issue that has been prevalent for many years where the lives of Black people were not taken seriously.
An example of how black lives had been overlooked can be seen from those of the Windrush generation, after world war 2 many people were brought from different commonwealth nations to work with the promise of citizenship. This signifies how black lives were just seen as easy labour for Britain and they felt they could lie in order to bring many people from their countries to Britain.
Another example of racial tensions in the UK is the murder of Kelso Cochrane who was a black man who moved to London and was murdered by some white youths. The murder created an uproar as it was insinuated that the police were not taking the case serious and essentially covering up a lot of the facts. This case created an even bigger rift in Notting hill which already had a large racial divide. After the murder of Kelso, activists organised events as a way to celebrate Caribbean culture in the face of hate, which was the Introduction the Notting hill carnival. This example highlights how black lives are not taken seriously and that institutional racism takes place within the police which greatly affects black lives.
Another example is the murder of Mark Duggan, he was shot by a police officer as he was thought to be in possession of a gun. The after math of the murder was strong as many protests took place but due to the tensions between police and the public and what started as peaceful protests soon turned into violent riots which spread across the UK. The stories in the media was distorted a lot to it suggesting that it was just juvenile delinquents who were causing it and essentially forgetting about the actual murder, it is stated that rioting is language of the unheard and this emphasises how the public felt unheard by the police and the government and that rioting is the only way to get a point across. This highlights how the relationship between the public and police was very strained and that there was not much trust between them. This goes against Peelian principles where police must gain public approval in police action which makes cooperation easy, Peelian principles indicates the importance of police accountability and trust between police and public. Which many of these cases and examples have gone against.
A more recent case involved in the black lives matter movement is the murder of George Floyd who was murdered by police officers who kneeled on his neck while restraining him. During this time period George Floyd was not the only black person murdered by police such as Breonna Taylor who was murdered in her own home, but as his murder was filmed, he became the face of the movement that occurred that year. Many protests took place throughout the world for not only George Floyd but to the many black people who are wrongfully murdered by the police because of the colour of their skin. In the US there has always been tension between the citizens and the police, and this case increased it largely where police were then seen as racist and against black people. One way that the public would be slightly satisfied was if the police officer was charged and put in prison as in many of these cases the police officers who wrongfully killed someone are just fired.
Black lives matter is a movement that aims to make people aware of the unjust treatment of black people and to find solutions to the problems. Throughout all of the examples of cases one thing that comes out of it is the distrust citizens and black people have for the police which is emphasised in the aftermath of many of the murders.
