The common excuse used by police commissioners and mayors around the country after a Black or Latino life has been unjustly taken is “a mistake was made.” The volume of these mistakes equals to thousands of innocent African-American and Latino lives every year. There is an obvious systemic problem when most of these innocent victims tend to be of African or Latino descent. The casual attitude towards this problem is the alarming factor in all of this. It’s almost as if a Black or Latino life is not valued at all. That attitude is carried throughout the police departments everywhere. The “shoot first and ask questions later” mentality is being reinforced by the higher ranked officials in the police departments. It’s hard not to think that had these victims been white there would be a complete overhaul of the police departments’ tactics.

These deadly, costly mistakes happen on a daily basis and the only surviving victims are usually the families who are left without their loved ones. In most cases, it’s usually someone’s brother, father, mother, daughter or son. Sometimes, it’s also a cousin, a best friend, a companion, a husband, a wife, a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Nevertheless, it’s someone! Some of these victims were the breadwinners for their families and the pillar of strength for their loved ones. As if we don’t already have a problem with paternal presence in the black family, but now black men are being taken away by the police at an alarming rate.

These careless cops are afforded the ability to make deadly mistakes because of the loopholes in the law that keeps them from being prosecuted. Police Union big wigs are usually the enforcers behind the discovery for their own truths. We have seen time and time again where police union officials want to show their dedication and alliance to police officers, go through great lengths to make up stories to defend rogue cops’ inappropriate actions. These officials are the reason why dirty and incompetent cops aren’t fired. These officials are most likely to be white and the only thing that matters to them is keeping an officer on the force at all cost.