The Black Lives Matter D.C. chapter is upset today after a cop shot in Washington, D.C. Sunday night and others shot across the country are hailed as heroes by the public and the media. BLM made a controversial statement just a day after two New York City cops were shot, one killed and one in critical condition.
The group said the coverage of the fallen police officers’ press conferences are “tear-jerker press conferences”.
“This is the point we’ve been making for months, look at the reaction and coverage tonight. Tearjerker press conferences and proclamations of heroes coming soon. Imagine if people knew these folks’ names. Being Black in DC is more dangerous than any job,” the group tweeted. “This isn’t to say these scenarios represent what happened tonight, but it does explain our skepticism, interest in details, and highlights the difference in how people talk and act when an officer is hurt vs when they hurt a Black person. No one asks what the cop did wrong.”
The group used the moment to call for more defunding the police and to criticized the law enforcement profession’s continued community outreach programs.
“We’ve seen time and again that doesn’t work,” the group said. “Policing and the system under which police work exists is bound to the enslavement, degradation, and murder of Black people and was never meant to protect us, but instead to exploit our bodies and labor to fill prisons and bolster capitalism. No amount of feel-good videos can deny that truth – no dancing, ice cream peddling, dance videos, BBQ eating COPAGANDA can change that.”