On the front page of Tribune’s Utah section recently was an article about another black man who was shot and killed by police after a confrontation. Prominently displayed is a picture of a distraught family member wanting answers about her loved one’s death, followed by photos of protesters holding signs saying “Black Lives Matter.”
In the article we also read about demands to release police body cam footage. A couple pages later in the same section we read about another man killed after a violent confrontation with the police. However, there is no mention of family members seeking answers, protesters advocating for less police violence, and no demands for release of body-cam footage. In fact there is little information given at all, just a few paragraphs with sparse details.
Both men were killed under similar circumstances but the coverage and response were vastly different. What else was different between these two men? One was black and one was not. One’s death was the focus of the media and protesters. The other was an afterthought, easily looked over.
We never see signs with “Hispanic Lives Matter,” or “White Lives Matter,” or even “All Lives Matter” protesting police violence. Are we only concerned about police brutality toward African Americans? Shouldn’t we be promoting a decrease in deadly force toward all people, independent of race? Or, do “Black Lives Matter … more?” Because that is the message I’m getting from political leaders, activists, professional athletes and this newspaper.
Brad Stevenson, Layton