According to Keith Gabriel in his essay “The Cynicism of Cops,” police officers view Black Lives Matter as an ongoing threat to the lives of police officers. As a movement, Black Lives Matter began as a response to a perceived bias toward African Americans on the part of police. The controversial shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and the strangulation of Eric Garner in New York are the events that inspired Black Lives Matter. In his essay, Gabriel focuses on two former friends of his, both of whom are police officers, and he explains that he and his friends have drifted apart over the issue of Black Lives Matter. According to Gabriel, there are several reasons he and his friends drifted apart. These reasons include the fact that
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Whether it was Gabriel or someone close to him he knows how an officer approaches a black individual compared to different races on a daily basis. When most African American’s see the police in their neighborhood they go into a defensive mode because they believe that the police officers are out to get them rather than protect them. They feel this way because there is tension between most in the African American community and police officers due to the fact they do not trust one another. But it is just not the police that disappoint most in the African American it is also the judicial system. It starts with African Americans being wrongfully accused by police officers then unjustly convicted by our judicial system. Marvin Anderson all he wanted to do was be a firefighter. But them dreams were derailed when he was wrongfully convicted of rape, sodomy, abduction, and robbery. He was then sentenced to 210 years. It took 15 years of time in jail then 5 years of parole to get exonerated from these horrific charges. He was granted his freedom once they declared that his DNA did not match the DNA test. This is one of many examples; there is a whole database of wrongfully convicted African Americans. While there is only 13% of African Americans in the United States around 47% of them were exoneration. Therefore, Gabriel has a case with his two former friends with how vital the Black Lives Matter movement
Whether it was Gabriel or someone close to him he knows how an officer approaches a black individual compared to different races on a daily basis. When most African American’s see the police in their neighborhood they go into a defensive mode because they believe that the police officers are out to get them rather than protect them. They feel this way because there is tension between most in the African American community and police officers due to the fact they do not trust one another. But it is just not the police that disappoint most in the African American it is also the judicial system. It starts with African Americans being wrongfully accused by police officers then unjustly convicted by our judicial system. Marvin Anderson all he wanted to do was be a firefighter. But them dreams were derailed when he was wrongfully convicted of rape, sodomy, abduction, and robbery. He was then sentenced to 210 years. It took 15 years of time in jail then 5 years of parole to get exonerated from these horrific charges. He was granted his freedom once they declared that his DNA did not match the DNA test. This is one of many examples; there is a whole database of wrongfully convicted African Americans. While there is only 13% of African Americans in the United States around 47% of them were exoneration. Therefore, Gabriel has a case with his two former friends with how vital the Black Lives Matter movement