PSA: Black-on-black crime is not an excuse nor is it a valid argument for law enforcement killing innocent black men and women.
Everyone needs to realize this — white, Asian, Hispanic and even black people. I hear this argument in the black community almost as much as I hear it in the white one.
Most black people are convicted for their crimes, which is evident in the racial composition of American prisons. But when an officer kills a black person, it’s like pulling teeth for the officer to be convicted.
According to The Huffington Post, “One in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life.”
That just shows this country has no problem throwing a black man in jail.
People fail to realize the African-American community isn’t hurt, angered and disgusted with officers killing their members just because of the actual death.
Yes, these killings happened and they are devastating and heartbreaking, but unfortunately, there is no way to completely rid law enforcement of racist and untrained officers, so incidents like this are bound to happen.
However, the main problem is the lack of justice served.
That’s why the Black Lives Matter movement was created. If George Zimmerman would’ve been convicted for the murder of Trayvon Martin, the movement wouldn’t have been created — at least not when it was.
“I created #BlackLivesMatter … as a call to action for black people after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder and the killer, George Zimmerman, was not held accountable for the crime he committed,” co-founder of the movement Alicia Garza said.
A study by The Guardian shows that 838 people have been killed by police in 2016 alone. Many of the deceased were African-Americans and 16 of them were killed in Louisiana, including Alton Sterling, who was gunned down by Baton Rouge police in early July.
According to ThinkProgress, “In 2016, several officers have gone to trial, but none of them received jail time.”
That is a problem.
Not to mention, black on black crime stems from other systematic racial inequalities: poverty, low incomes, unemployment and many other factors. So, who’s really to blame here?
Black-on-black crime is clearly an issue, and that’s being worked on. But there’s absolutely no reason so many African-Americans should be dying at the hands of cops.
That argument is just a way to point the finger at the victim, all while taking away from the Black Lives Matter message.
So when people are screaming and using the hashtag Black Lives Matter, don’t attempt to combat it with the black-on-black crime argument. It’s annoying, aggravating and irrelevant.
Clarke Perkins is a 20-year-old political science junior from New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Vice Provost of Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer Dereck J. Rovaris speaks to a crowd outside the LSU African American Cultural Center on Thursday, July 7, before they made signs for an upcoming protest against the shooting of Alton Sterling by BRPD police officers.