Justice vs. Destruction: What do the Black Lives Matters riots really stand for?

Imagine this: You are out on a date with your significant other in Uptown Charlotte,
North Carolina. You both finish eating, pay for the meal, and begin to walk outside to leave. Just
as you are about to head out the door you hear people chanting Black Lives Matter and
Justice for Keith Lamont Scott. You have no idea whats going on, but before you can ask
someone a chair comes flying through the window and almost hits you. You quickly flee the
restaurant with your significant other and go home when it looks like the chaos has cleared.
When you get home and turn on the news you learn that an African American male was shot and
killed tonight in Charlotte by a police officer and the people you heard were the protestors from a
group known as Black Lives Matter. You were just simply out eating dinner when you
couldve been hurt all because a Black Lives Matter riot believed that the shooting was
unjustified. Later it comes out that the shooting was in fact justified and now the city of Charlotte
has millions of dollars in damage that you will have to pay for with your tax money. Now, what
would be your impressions of this movement? Do you think that this riot was justified to destroy
all of the things they did? Or do you think that the destruction they caused in the city only made
you question the morals and reasoning of the entire Black Lives Matters movement? These are
questions multiple people have asked in regards to the Black Lives Matters movement and all
of the riots/protests that they have started over African Americans being shot by police officers.
Personally, I believe that the violent outbreaks from the Black Lives Matters movement has
only weakened the moral values of the group.
So, you may ask why there is so much controversy over the Black Lives Matters
movement anyways. Well, it all started with the unjustified killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.
According to Holly Yan, a news reporter for cnn.com and author of Black Lives Matter' Cases:

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What Happened after the Protests?", Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old boy walking home from
a local convenience store when a local neighbor, George Zimmerman, who helped watch the
neighborhood saw him and thought something suspicious was going on. He called the police
from his car to report a suspicious guy and continued to follow Martin even after the 911
dispatcher informed Zimmerman to stop. It is unclear as to what happened next, but Zimmerman
and Martin ended up in a fight ultimately ending in the death of the 17-year-old. Zimmerman
claimed self-defense, while prosecutors claimed it was an unjustified shooting. In the end, the
second degree murder case against Zimmerman was ultimately dropped. After the verdict came
back, an outrage in the African American community rose up and the movement known as
Black Lives Matters was born. In this case, I do believe that the protesters had a right to
protest. They waited until the facts came out and didnt act on a whim of their imagination. But,
the question still remains of: was the destruction in Florida caused by the riots of the Black
Lives Matter movement worth it since the case verdict was never over turned? Or was it just the
beginning of the many riots to come that ultimately start to destroy the moral grounds of the
entire Black Lives Matters movement? I believe it was just the beginning of the many
destructive riots that were to come in the following years in the United States.
A few years later in 2014, an African American man named Eric Garner was killed by a
police officer in New York City. Holly Yan once again fills us in on the details of the case.
Garner was illegally selling cigarettes outside of a convenience store when police arrived to
arrest him. He put both hands up in surrender, but police officer Daniel Pantaelo threw him to the
ground in a choke hold. Not only are chokeholds not allowed in the state of New York, but this
choke hold also couldve led to the ultimate death of Eric Garner as the victim was saying I
cant breathe! I cant breathe! Police claimed he died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital

and Pantaelo was convicted and found not guilty of the murder. Pantaelo gave his apologies to
the Garner family and informed them that it was never his intention to hurt or kill Eric Garner.
Just like the Trayvon Martin case, riots soon pursued after the failure to convict Pantaelo. In
these two cases, both riots presumed after the trials had occurred, so people from the Black
Lives Matter movement were not jumping to conclusions and had the right to protest. But, what
about in the case of Keith Lamont Scott?
Just last month, in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, Keith Lamont Scott was shot and
killed by an African American police officer. Reporters from CBS News explain all the details of
the shooting in the article: Keith Lamont Scott Shooting: Charlotte Police say he was holding a
gun when shot. It started off with police being called to investigate a different crime when they
happened to stumble upon Scott. Police said that he got into his car and they saw that he had a
gun. They then informed him to put down his weapon as they raised their own. When Scott
refused to put his weapon down and instead got out of the car with his weapon, Officer Brentley
Vinson shot Scott, which ultimately killed him. Family members of Scott claim that he was an
innocent man who was just waiting to pick his daughter up from the bus stop and that the so
called gun police saw was merely a book that Scott was reading to pass the time. Police Chief
Kerr Putney informed CBS News that there was no book and that a weapon was found on the
scene. Riots soon started after the news of Keith Lamont Scotts death travelled around the
nation. Furthermore, according to news reporter Colleen Jenkins of the Huffington Post, who
wrote: Keith Scotts Wife Said He Threatened her with Gun: court documents, which contains
information about Keith Lamont Scotts personal life about his family, and why he may not have
been the perfect person that the Black Lives Matters movement portrayed him as. It gives a
detailed report from his wife talking about how she had to get a restraining order against him for

abusing their son and threatening to kill the entire family. All of these details came out after the
riots had already occurred. In the end, the Black Lives Matter movement destroyed multiple
buildings in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, they blocked traffic and burned objects on I-85,

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another man was shot, many officers were injured, and they raided a local Walmart all before
hearing the full details of the shooting. Many innocent peoples things were destroyed and
broken all because people heard the words African American shot by a police officer. North
Carolina was soon put in a state of emergency and even the Coast Guard came in to help settle
the riots. It was later determined that the shooting was justified and Brentley Vinson was never
charged with murder. So in this case, would you still think the Black Lives Matters movement
was justified in doing the damage that they did to the city of Charlotte? Personally, I believe this
case has started to make everyone question whether or not the Black Lives Matters movement
is truly fighting for the justice that it claims it is fighting for. According to the official page of the
Black Lives Matters movement, blacklivesmatter.com, their goals are to fight for loving
engagement, queer affirming, intergenerational, black families, empathy, black villages, black
women, collective values, transgender affirming, diversity, globalism, restorative justice, and
unapologetically black. However, nowhere on the entire website does it talk about creating riots
to get the justice they believe in. So, the question that is then raised is: Are they willingly
undermining some of their own principles i.e. empathy and restorative justice -- just to obtain
the attention of the media? Empathy means to understand and care for others feelings, but by
destroying innocent peoples homes and properties, are they really doing that? Restorative
Justice, according to Oxford Dictionary is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the
rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large, but
by damaging cities and hurting police officers are they really doing that either? The answer is no.

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No, they arent. Instead of caring for others feelings and helping to rebuild the bond between
officers and the victims families, they are causing destruction and that is why so many people
today, including me, are beginning the question the true moral grounds of the entire Black Lives
Matters movement.
Furthermore, I dont believe the media is helping this ongoing problem/confusion of the
morals behind the Black Lives Matters movement. In Dolores T Peterbaughs article: Black
Lives Matter, Sometimes, she talks about how the media needs to stop reporting what they find
interesting and needs to start reporting news. She calls out the media, saying that if All Lives
Matter they would not only publish stories about the white, teenage girl that was murdered, but
also the young, African American girl who was abused and burned at the stake. Instead, it is seen
in most media and news sources that the white, teenage girls murder will have multiple stories
for weeks, but yet the young, African American girls murder will maybe appear in one news
story. Also, she believes that politicians should be doing something about this issue. All they are
doing is saying that All Lives Matter, not just black lives, but they arent truly doing anything
to stop the mass destruction that this movement is causing. She also argues that innocent, hardworking families should not have to worry about a riot coming into their homes and ruining them
just because they are angry over an issue. In the end Peterbaugh says that this doesnt mean the
Black Lives Matter movement doesnt stand for a good cause, it just means that they are
becoming destructive. I agree that the Black Lives Matter movement originally started out with
a stable, moral background, but I dont agree that the media is completely to blame for the
violent ways that the Black Lives Matter movement has now turned to. As a person, you are in
control of what you do and how you behave, and if everyone just decided to act violently for
attention our world would go into complete turmoil.