Many have decided to counter the BLM movement with protests of their own because they believe that George Flloyd was a felon whose life wasn’t as important as police officers who have been killed in the line or duty, or even other African Americans — “All lives matter,” they say, in the ultimate example of missing the point entirely. These protests that have expanded across the globe are not about one example of police brutality.

They are about all examples of police brutality, regardless of race.

Many dissenters have said that the police would leave African Americans alone if they would stop doing things wrong or start obeying police orders. Tell that to Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead while sleeping in her own home. Not only was she murdered by the police who invaded her home, but they also openly admitted that they had no reason to be there (much later).

The United States has far more victims of police brutality than any other developed country in the world. One might ask, “Why is this the case?”

One reason is the obvious lack of training. A few weeks at a police academy and a cursory background check, and you’re essentially given a license to kill.

Another reason harkens back to George W. Bush. When the United States military bought a whole bunch of equipment it didn’t need for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was shipped back to the United States and given to police departments across the country — whose budgets were already skyrocketing. We gave a policing organization military equipment by the truckload. What did we expect them to do? …Act timid in full body armor?

But those are just secondary reasons. The underlying cause of many killings is racism, pure and simple. We kill African Americans a far disproportionate rate to Caucasians. That’s why defunding the police will soon be on dockets across the country, and why at least one has already been disbanded.