A Look at Police Brutality and Racism in America

The Black Lives Matter movement is in full swing right now, sparking protests across the world - read further for more information on how it's affecting out world, and why these protests started in the first place.

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Around the World

Following the death of George Floyd, many countries across the world have been inspired to protest racism in their own country - showing solidarity with the situation in America as well as proving their dedication to equality on a global scale. In countries like France, Belgium, India, South Korea, England, and so many more, the BLM movement has been working to change the system at its root.

Links
Global scenes of Black Lives Matter protests show outrage far beyond US
French police clash with anti-racism activists in Paris
How L.A. activists made Black Lives Matter a global movement

The origin of the movement

The term "black lives matter" originated as a hashtag (#BlackLivesMatter) after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager killed in Florida in July 2013. The tag became more popular after the deaths of 2 more unarmed black men - in both cases, the cops involved were not formally charged with a crime. These incidents made it easier to recognize excessive police brutality against black folx, popularizing the BLM movement, and sparking the "Say Her Name" movement - as well as sparking the birth of blacklivesmatter.com, a global organization whose mission is to "eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes."

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Why the movement is relevant to American society

We say "black lives matter" because black people in America experience a disproportional amount of violence, bigotry, and racism compared to other races - especially white people.

Among full- and part-time workers in the U.S., black people in 2015 earned just 75% as much as whites in median hourly earnings, and women earned 83% as much as men. Resumes with black-sounding names are more likely to get more job interviews - to the point where minorities "whiten" their resumes by deleting references to their race, and alter their names to have a more white spelling or sound. This goes to show just how much racism exists in today's society, and how it affects POC. [source]

Where does ACAB fit in?

bastardize - to reduce from a higher to a lower state or condition.

There's some dispute over the term ACAB - but to get to the root of it, we have to get to the root of what it actually means.
ACAB stands for all cops are bastards - not as a way to personally attack any individual cop, but to call out the system they operate for. The policing system in america has proven itself to be ineffective, brutal and bigoted - a bastardized version of the LAPD's "serve and protect" motto.

25% of cops say they've seen fellow officers harassing a citizen, "most likely because of his or her race," 61% admitted that they do not always report serious criminal violations that involve the abuse of authority by fellow officers, and 84% said they had witnessed other officers use more force than necessary to make an arrest, and 40% of cops are reported to be domestic abusers. Of course, this is all not helped by the fact that police officers can sometimes only required to train for six months - which is less time than it takes to become a barber.
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