RE: #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter?
I disagree that All Lives Matter is being used to shut down Black Lives Matter. To me it is a true statement. I do think black lives matter, but so do white lives, latino lives, asian lives, native american lives, etc.
I think singling out one only fans the flames of racism, and I think it will have the opposite effect from what it claims to be there for. I fully expect it to increase the violence, not reduce it.
At least with All Lives Matter you're inviting EVERYONE to participate and to fight against too much police violence REGARDLESS of color.
Another thing you didn't mention is that in actuallity MORE white people are shot and harmed by police than blacks. The difference is that Blacks are anywhere from 12-14% of the population depending upon where you pull your statistics. Based upon their population percentage the number of blacks killed/harmed by police is disproportionately higher. Basically, if blacks and whites were the same percentage of population (say 33/33) the blacks would have more violence.
The more violence is NOT due to color though I think because even black and latino cops are more likely to be violent towards blacks. It isn't the case of white cops and white people attacking blacks. There is a ton of black on black violence.
So with that let me propose an idea to you...
Could it be that cops talk to each other about how dangerous certain parts of a city may be. They may even exaggerate it and hype it (I've seen this happen). Now they go out on patrol and are more paranoid. They don't think as clearly as they should due to this paranoia.
Now here comes black lives matter that has some very vocal members that start proposing killing all white people, and killing cops, etc.
Do you actually think that would reduce the level of paranoia?
It also will now have white people that had zero paranoia when it came to blacks suddenly paranoid.
I think the reason BLM was started was a good reason. The name that was chosen and where it has gone since then are BAD THINGS and fuel the fire of racism. At this point I don't distinguish much of a difference between it and the KKK. Both have tons of racists in them.
I've said it before... and will continue to say it because I believe it is important.
You either want equality, or you want special treatment, you cannot have both because they are mutually exclusive.