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The Black Lives Matter movement has been vital in bringing attention to the various instances of shooting deaths and brutality enacted by police. However, critics of Black Lives Matter have challenged the overall aims of the group despite its growing numbers.

The Washington Post examined the movement through the lens of the varying responses to the loss of Black lives. The piece opens with the unfortunate shooting death of Chicago teen Laquan McDonald and the response when compared to the relative quiet of outcry over the stray bullet death of 9-year-old Ferguson, Mo. girl, Jamyla Bolden. It appears that some feel that the movement should direct some of their vitriol to instances of death and violence in the Black community that occurs from within.

From the Post:

The contrasting responses have put the goals of some community leaders at odds with those espoused by groups such as Black Lives Matter, who have seized the political moment with loud protests calling for less-aggressive policing and more accountability for law enforcement. Some political and religious leaders say that what’s needed is an equal public outpouring over the severe crime that continues to plague many communities. Compared with the reaction provoked by a police shooting, they said, response to street violence is too often muted, fragmented and brief.

Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, whose district includes some of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods, in July released a seven-point plan to combat gun violence that includes several get-tough measures that would be anathema to many activists now protesting police misconduct in Chicago. His plan includes tougher gun laws, more cops on the street, and new measures that would treat defendants accused of murder with the same harsh criminal sentences as domestic terrorists.

Boykin, who is black, said he understands the concerns of those who protest police brutality, but he said he is more concerned about the frequent killings of children and others on the streets of Chicago.

“I tell you what, there needs to be stronger outrage when these things happen,” Boykin said. “We need outrage from the Black Lives Matter movement, from community leaders, from pastors. We get emotional when a police officer or a white person kills a black person, but we ought to also get emotional when a black person kills another black person.”

Read the rest of the piece by following this link.

Photo: IZZY/WENN.com