Alton Sterling

Once again I am writing about another Black life being taken by the hands of a cop AND this ISN’T the ONLY blog I’m writing TONIGHT! In the past TWO DAYS there have been two different BLACK men killed by the police! 

Alton Sterling a 37 year old husband and father of 3 was shot and killed by cops Tuesday July 5th in Baton Rouge, Louisina. Alton sold CDs out of his trunk in front of a convenience store and was known as the “cd guy!” There have been different reports as to why the cops were called on Alton so I’m not going to speak on that until I’ve heard the call. 

A few bystanders took out their phones and recorded the incident. In the videos you see the cops yell at Alton to get on the ground and then they tackle him to the ground. One cop is on top of Alton and the other cop is restraining him by his head. While the cops have Alton on the ground one of the cops yells “he’s got a gun” and the other cop proceedes to pull out his gun and has it pointed at Altons head! After about a half a minute the cop proceedes to shot Alton in the chest and back, killing him! After they’ve killed him they pull his gun out of his pocket! 

Now there are two different videos….one is from someone sitting in their car, fairly close, recording it and the other is someone a little too close to the scuffle! Watching both videos you NEVER once see Alton reach for his gun! It did NOT need to end with a man loosing his life!

Altons wife spoke on the incident and while she was giving her speech Altons 15 year old son Cameron broke down crying and saying over and over “I want my daddy” this video is sooo heart breaking! The video of the press conference is in the link below!

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2016/07/06/86748140/ 

A side note: both cops had on body cams that somehow “dislodged” during the incident! The U.S. Justice Departments Civil Rights division announced that they were investigating what happend. I feel like we all owe that family an apology for not seriously taking a stand and demanding change so that incidents like this would stop! 

Hilary Clinton had a lot to say! Here are a few of her quotes on this incident:

“From Staten Island to Baltimore, Ferguson to Baton Rouge, too many African-American families mourn the loss of a loved one from a police involved incident”

“Something is profoundly wrong when so many Americans have reasons to believe that our country doesn’t consider them as precious as others because of the color of their skin”

“Progress is possible if we stand together and never waver in our fight to secure the future that every American deserves”

These quotes are nice but they mean nothing if there’s not action! If you’re not going to help make a change then don’t say anything at all!

I would just like to be able to not worry about my son when he’s older! I don’t want to have to sitting on pins and needles every time my kids walk out the door! I know as a mother I’ll be worrying about my kids anyway every time they’re not home but as a mother of black children I feel like I have to be extra worried! It’s not right! Let’s just please make this right!