Imagine being afraid of people who are supposed to protect you. “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a refrain shouted by Black Lives Matter protestors who are angry with police officer consistently killing black people and not facing any charges. Many minorities face racial inequalities constantly in America. African Americans and Latino/Hispanics groups are mostly affected by these horrific things that occur daily. Police Brutality against black people needs to come to an end. Police Officers should be taught that shooting is not the first approach to take and using excessive force is unnecessary and unfair.   

Firearms are given to police officers to protect themselves and the community but it appears that they are doing the opposite. It has been numerous cases where many innocent black people are murdered by police without any conviction or news attention brought to it. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, police officers are trained for an average of twenty-one weeks. During the duration of the training, one hundred-ten hours of training is dedicated to firearm and self-defense training. This point justifies that police are aware of the uses of their firearms, when and when not to use it, and the proper way to handle it. So many innocent people are murdered at the hands of corrupted, racist police officers. I believe police brutality is constantly occurring because the US government unapologetically allows these brutal things to happen. If American citizens come together and force our government to give answers about the numerous black lives lost and put an end to these racial inequalities, then this will contribute to the end of the constant chaos in America.

 Numerous lives have been lost due to the fact that the government allows police officers to kill black people and allow them to go unconvicted of murder. New York Times uploaded an article about a video that surfaced the media on August 31, 2017, a Georgia cop was recorded through the dashboard camera attempting to persuade a white woman that he would not shoot her after she refused  to use her phone and remained with her hands up because of videos she has seen of cops shooting innocent civilians at traffic stops. “But you’re not black.” Lieutenant Abbott continues to convince the lady. “Remember we only kill black people. Yeah. We only kill black people, right?’’. In addition to the statement previously made, we can further argue that police officers all around the country persistently prey on black people to kill these innocent people for their own absurd reasons. According to the Washingtons Post’s database, over a duration of three years(2016-18) 2,948 lives have been lost because of fatal shootings of reckless police officers. Little-to-none of the police officers have been convicted of these malicious acts of violence.

Police brutality against African Americans is a societal conflict that is affecting many citizens all over the country. It implies the use of excessive and illegal force or violence against people of the black community. This issue has gained much attention in the media due to the constant murders of African American men and women committed by police officers. This problem has gone so far that people have organized movements to protest the injustices and raise awareness for this cause. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’’ has a evolved into a very popular movement that protests how multiple police officers first approach to a person of color is pulling their gun. A great many of officers have used the “I thought they had a gun” excuse as a reason to gun down people of colour without any remorse. Any person pulled over at traffic stop regardless of race, should never be approached with a gun in their face. Police officers persistently bend the rules and break the law without any consequences or repercussions behind it and it must stop.

In conclusion, police brutality is a very pitiful and controversial topic that needs to talked about and fixed. I believe that change starts with removing anyone who is racist from the police force and enforce the rules of the use of their firearms. Change starts with the hunger to want it.