In 2020 George Floyd was murdered and this murder skyrocketed the Black Lives Matter movement. I thought it was mostly micro-aggression and a minority of people who were extremely racist but did not have power to actually do bad. When I was informed I was shocked and then I thought it was a once off thing, something that would not continue happening, something that was only in America or something that would barely happen. But to my disdain it was not. I chose this movement because I could not handle hearing black people get murdered in gruesome ways everyday and people being like "oh well what did they do?". I cannot handle people doing everything to just excuse the racist people. I cannot deal with that. I chose this project to educate people about the issues that black people go through, that all lives cannot matter until black lives do. -Blessing
What is #BlackLivesMatter
Black Lives Matter is an international social movement that is advocating for fighting racism and anti-black violence. We will be discussing the online aspect of it. It's a movement that counteract the unjust killing of black people by the police and orders that society treat black people the same as they treat white people. The reason for this movement is that black people are 3.5 times more likely that white people to be killed by police when they are unarmed or not attacking, black teenagers are 21 times more likely than white people to be killed by police, a black person is killed every 40 hours by police and one in every 1,000 black people.
Events of #BlackLivesMatter
Black lives matter was made in 2012 because Trayvon Martin was murdered when he was going to buy a soft drink by George Zimmerman. 3 black female organizers; Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi created this movement to spread the word of black people being unjust-fully murdered by police. As quoted from https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/ "The organization has a mission to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes."
The movement was popularized when George Floyd was murdered on the 25th of May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, Chauvin knelt on his neck while Floyd was shouting and pleading "I can't breath!" He was arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Darnell Frazier recorded and uploaded this video to Facebook where it was spread all over the internet especially social media. When people heard about this, they were outraged, and started an online campaign in protest of it. They started organizing protests online, using different social media platforms to get him justice. Derek Chauvin was sentenced 22 and a half years for his murder. As state attorney general Keith Ellison said "is one of the longest a former police officer has ever received for an unlawful use of deadly force."
Breonna Taylor was murdered by police officers in Louisiana on the 13th of March 2020 in a botched raid in her own apartment. When the police barged in her boyfriend (Kenneth Walker) thought someone was breaking in and so he shot at them and struck Sergeant Jonathon Mattingly in the thigh, the police responded by firing multiple shots and shooting Breonna Taylor 5 times. The ambulance that was supposed to stay outside during the raid was told an hour before to leave which is against standard practice, Breonna Taylor was also not given any medical attention. As quoted from the New York Times 'No officer has ever been charged with shooting Ms. Taylor, but on Aug. 4 the Justice Department charged four current and former police officers with federal civil rights violations, including lying to obtain a search warrant for her apartment.' Kelly Goodlett, a detective who retired after getting charged pleaded guilty on August 23rd at a hearing. Kyle Meany, was fired by the Louisville Police Department on Aug. 19. Brett Hankison, was the only officer to face state charges in the raid for a charge of wanton endangerment of neighbors whose apartment was hit when he fired without a clear line of sight into Ms. Taylor’s apartment. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted. Protestors used social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to organize and spread information about the issue they are concerned of and they are used to spread information a out the real life protests and encourage people to join the movements.
Effects of #BlackLivesMatter Online
George Floyd was murdered on 25th of May 2020 and the video of him getting murdered sparked the black lives matter online movement.
Between January 28th 2013 and April 30th 2021 more than 50 million twitter posts have been made about BLM.
More than 50,000 people donated $1.8 million in 24 hours through to support protesters thrown in jail which was the Brooklyn Community Fund Jail
28 million people posted a black square on Instagram for #BlackoutTuesday
According to a Pew Research conducted in June 54 percent of social media users aged 18 to 29, stated they had used social media platforms in the last month to look for information about rallies or protests happening in their area.
Outside of the United States, other countries such as the UK also had protests in real life, organized and spread on social media
Counter Movements to BLM
There are some people that make online social movements just to counterattack BLM. All Lives Matter is one of them, They decided to counter movement BLM. The All Lives Matter supporters think its bad to say BLM when we are all human beings, that we all should matter not just black people. A lot of the supporters are bigoted and do not understand that all lives cannot matter until black lives matter. They also used ways such as social media to spread their movement.Blue Lives Matter is another, this movement was created to undermine Black Lives Matter, since the majority of the movement is black people being abused or murdered by police officers, some people thought it was worng to blame police officers. It was made as a response to the murders of Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, it was made in 2014.
Political Effects of #BlackLivesMatter
The Black Lives Matter protest is a worldwide phenomenon. Around the world it has had huge political effects
In Vallejo the Touro University of California banned the police department from using their campus as a training ground. This decision came after the shooting of Sean Monterossa and the release of a statement from the Vallejo police union which criticized the protests of killing because of the police.
In San Diego June 1 2022, The San Diego police department issued an immediate ban on carotid choke hold that starves the brain
In Los Angeles on June 3 2020 the mayor Eric Garcetti said he would cut as much as $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department Budget to which he was going to previously give an increase of $120 million
In Davis on June 6 2020, the Davis police department announced it would prohibit police officers from using choke holds and requires them to intervene when viewing officers using inappropriate levels of force
In Denver on 7 June 2020 the police department banned the use of choke-holds without exception and established new reporting requirements for when a police officer points a gun at someone.The department will also require its SWAT teams to activate body cameras during tactical operations.
In Colorado on June 13 2020 the Colorado General Assembly passed SB20-217, banning the use of choke-holds
In Sacremento on June 30 2020, the City Council members voted on an agreement to appoint an Inspector General to investigate