Akron Protesters
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Looks like this is a police murder based on CFAWB - Carrying a Fire Arm While Black. Apparently this is a slightly more serious crime than DWB - Driving While Black - which Danica got stopped for earlier this year. I know that the details aren't exactly clear in this case, and that the police have been acquitted, but I agree with Stephens' friends and family that justice has not been served.
For starters, to get to the root of the problem, why are African Americans living in poor neighborhoods that are fraught with violence? The fact that many minorities, specifically blacks and Hispanics, live in some of the poorest conditions is a pervasive injustice in our society, and something that should concern all of us - not just those living in poverty.
Secondly, what are the chances that the police would have shot the man who was defending his own home if he had been white? In other words, if this had been a white neighborhood and Jeffrey Stephens, Sr. had been white, would he be dead today? It seems less than likely to me - even if the neighborhood had been equally poor and violent.
This is because many Americans, and yes, many police officers, operate on the stereotype that a black man with a gun is a criminal - while a white man with a gun is defending his home. I think the protesters in this case aren't just protesting the shooting of an innocent man, Jeffrey Stephens, but also protesting the unjust stereotype in an unjust society that probably contributed to his death.
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