I am writing to ask Black Lives Matter to help save black lives. I am asking them to encourage Black Americans to stop resisting arrest when the police seek to arrest them.

Black Lives Matter’s approach does not seem to be working. People keep getting killed by the police. For some time now, we have been barraged during nightly news with a few seconds of shaky video that is supposed to show cops abusing a Black person, but actually shows nothing. The police are usually not charged. We are continually told that it is racism and not what is actually seen and not seen.

For a year, we have heard about George Floyd. We’ve seen the posters. There’s George Floyd Square and the demonstrations that were within. There’s been endless video of Derek Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck. We kept seeing this video. A jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of manslaughter. It was a fair verdict.

During the trial, they briefly showed the rest of the arrest video, the part we rarely saw. It shows Floyd aggressively resisting arrest. It shows why it took four officers to restrain him and why a knee got put on his neck.

Floyd would not have died without a knee on his neck. However, the knee would not have ever gotten put there if he was the least bit cooperative.

I believe that the Black Lives Matter approach is only encouraging more resisting arrest and killing more Black people. I believe that this approach is just heading nowhere.

 

Gerald Thibault

Skowhegan