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Police Killing of Unarmed Blacks

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Submitted By rooo3219
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Police Killings of Unarmed Blacks

Introduction

According to Fox News, the recent Baltimore riots following the controversial arrest and death of Freddie Gray has left the city with an estimated $20 million in damages (FoxNews, May 28 2015). Besides these damages caused by Baltimore riots, the long-lasting economic impact in Baltimore is even larger than that of natural disasters since businesses see Baltimore as a less attractive place to invest.
Additionally, earlier in 2014, after Michael Brown’s shooting and Eric Garner’s chokehold death, violent protests against police killings of unarmed blacks had already taken place across America in many cities. Those outbursts led to huge economic loss and were harmful for social stability.
Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and Eric Garner were not the only black unarmed men killed by police. The Guardian’s statistics illustrates how disproportionately black Americans are killed by police: among the 102 unarmed victims killed by police this year, 32% were African Americans compared with 15% of white people (Swaine,
Laughland and Lartey, June 1 2015). In other words, unarmed black Americans were more than twice as likely to be killed during encounters with police as white people.

Consequently, those outbursts or protests are rooted in legitimate anger toward a justice system that has in many ways failed them.

Not as simple as "thugs" and "criminals"

Some public and leaders consider Gray’s death not serious enough to cause the
Baltimore riots and dismiss these types of violent outbursts as senseless. President
Barack Obama, for instance, described the Baltimore rioters as "criminals and thugs" who were taking advantage of the tense situation in Baltimore. I strongly disagree and
I believe the Baltimore is just the beginning, and more racial riots will occur in the future if the country keeps

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