Shootings in America taking all American lives: ©Natalie Keshing

There was a horrific shooting that took place last night in downtown Dallas, Texas. Twelve people were shot, five police officers are now dead. This morning CNN anchorwoman, Ashleigh Banfield interviewed Sharray Santoya, a peaceful protester and a servicewoman who spoke eloquently of the Dallas protest last night before the shooting, “It was a peaceful protest, police officers were shaking hands with protesters and here in Dallas we have worked very hard on both sides to keep the peace.” She was with her children and there were people from all ethnic cultural backgrounds, people from middle Eastern heritage joining at the protest. As Sharray said, “There was Black, White, Brown from all cultures joined together in a peaceful protest.” It was the peace before the storm took place.

Everyone there was to show their solidarity in wake of the horrific killings of Black American men that have taken place throughout the United States; now for a very long time. In the last three years through news media networks and social media, video coverage from people’s phones has demonstrated the atrocities and unfathomable injustice killings of Black American men being shot, restrained till suffocated, and run over by a police vehicle at the hands of policemen throughout this country.

In Baton Rouge, a Black American man Alton Sterling selling CD’s in front of a convenient store was violently thrown down to the ground, two officers were trying to restrain him. The Black American man was shouting to the officers. In the scuffle one officer on the left took out his gun almost immediately. It was hard to tell if the other officer had done the same, the video coverage was not inclusive of the whole scene that took place. But after hearing the gun shots, not one, not two, not three but more there was another Black American man dead on the ground; then dead silence.

Some professionals on news coverage said, “if the people in the protest had been carrying a gun they would have been able to defend themselves”, certainly not in this case. The sniper who positioned himself above ground level was specifically targeting and killing almost all white policemen.

Guns and automatic weapons are easily accessible to anyone and everyone with intentions to do harm and kill, usually killing innocent people. Soft target gatherings makes this too accessible and probable that these events will continue to happen until we enforce stricter gun control laws. Policemen that take matters into their own hands and pull out their guns almost immediately, quickly making the choice to kill an unarmed Black American man must be held accountable.

There is a great need to re-train all police officers to handle these kinds of circumstances in a more rational and nonviolent way, without the use of their handguns as the very last resort. Many Black American men have been shot while trying to runaway from a policeman or policemen holding and pointing a gun towards them. Anyone whether a suspect or innocent person will run when a hand gun or weapon is pointing directly at them. It is human nature in the midst of chaos that tries to protect and save themselves.

Suspect car chasing by policemen usually lands up in a violent car crash with other innocent individuals in harms way. It now has been reconsidered and I believe in California, policemen are no longer car chasing suspects in their car because of the potential to involve and kill innocent people in harms way. When a police officer draws their gun while a suspect is trying to runaway he or she has a choice to make and that should include not to stop a suspect by shooting at him or her.

In cases where suspects are shooting in a gunfight with policemen or a suspect is killing innocent civilians then the policemen really don’t have another alternative or choice but to return fire and stop a madman from killing other people.

This is now a national priority to retrain police officers and to continue to enforce strict band laws regarding using a hand gun and especially an automatic weapon that has the potential to kill and harm many innocent people; soft targets.

Every human life matters in this world…and no more then when mourning families of those loved ones that died at the hands of gun violence. I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families of the police officers and the families of the Black American men who have lost their lives to this tragedy now brewing for several years. We must come together and implement new procedures in law enforcement to resolve and prevent other tragedies of innocent lives dying in such vain. There is never a reason to be proud and take someone else’s life over pride and lack of training that our law enforcement has to develop, adopt, and implement.

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©Natalie Keshing Editor-in-Chief NatsWritings.com or NatalieKeshing.com