Recently, the footage of Sandra
Bland's aggressive encounter with a police officer in America stopping her for a "routine traffic stop" has been all over social media, Twitter as such. If you haven't seen this video, please do so before you read on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBh3wzXd3vg&spfreload=10
In the video, it's pretty clear that the officer is revelling in his own
authority and pushing for the harshest of sentences. Without a doubt, Sandra Bland
was right when she said in the voice mail to her friend - "How did
switching lanes with no signal turn into all of this?"
Because you were black, Sandra. And because that officer was a racist.
Moreover, another American has died unnecessarily simply because of the fact
that the American police force are still, up to this day and age, embedded with layers of
racism - and funnily enough still won't learn. It's painful and inhuman
every time a story like this hits the news, which seems to be becoming a
monthly occurrence, minus the ones that don't hit the
headlines - which happen every day under our noses. Even so, the headlines
are so far from the truth it hits us with an even bigger punch.
This is racism. Not just a shooting, police violence or suicide. It's racism.
The same was happening with the Charleston shooting earlier this year.
This absurd event wasn't just a crazed man wandering into a church full of people,
firing his weapon like a child with silly string - that was a racist man
targeting black people and marking his targets. Was it reported in the
latter way though? Of course it wasn't. Why? Because America fail to admit on the global stage that it has not dealt with racism.
Take Donald Trump for example, America's tall and proud would-be brother
to Nigel Farage. He's running for president in the 2016 elections and was fondly
quoted saying "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing
crime. They're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak
to border guards, and they're telling us what we're getting." in
regard to Mexicans crossing the border.
I'll admit, he's probably worse than Farage.
The worst part is that from the polls and ratings, he's actually a top
candidate. Another example of an opinionated multi-millionaire bringing a meaningless form of politics to a country in immediate need of addressing it's problems with racism.
Sandra Bland's death has unusual written all over it. No one will ever likely know what went on in her jail cell that led to
her death. However, the fact is that something just didn't add up. An extremely hostile police officer forcefully arrests a black woman for a
wrong manoeuvre and then she, under questionable circumstances, dies in
police custody in the following days? You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to understand the truth behind this.
I can't expect a nation who host's a population of almost 600 million people to hear the voice of a teenager in a small town in England, but, America - you still have a problem with race and it needs
fixing. This is not something that should go ignored.
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