Police should treat everyone with respect, regardless of skin color

The news is too painful for me to watch.

It is crazy what has been going on in the country. II don’t even know where to start. But what has been weighing heavy on my mind is the killing of George Floyd last summer, and then the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed him.

I feel I’m living in a history book and history is definitely repeating itself. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — no, make that 9 minutes and 29 seconds, according to the experts testifying at Chauvin’s trial.

This was on a whole new level of execution-style killing of a Black man. Mr. Floyd isn’t the only person of color who died at the hands of police. I don’t even know all of their names because I can’t watch the news. It’s too painful.

I saw the video of Mr. Floyd, and it made me mad and sad. I live in this country where police brutality is still happening so much. Nobody should be scared about going outside because of their skin color. I want to tell everyone that nobody is different, we’re all people.

I have grown up in Modesto and now I am a 10th grader at Davis High School. I guess I’m lucky to say that I have not had any bad encounters with police. But I’m from a mixed family, and I worry about my siblings and friends. I’m not even sure if the African American side of my family knows how much I worry about the bad things happening to African Americans.

But I do.

My brothers and sister and I are different colors but we treat each other, and everyone else, with respect. We don’t care what people look like. If a kid can understand that color doesn’t matter, why can’t a police officer?

I was worried about what would happen at Chauvin’s trial. I am so relieved and happy that the former police officer was found guilty. This is the first step in the right direction. Justice was served, but it’s tragic that a man had to lose his life like this.

I counted on my friends to tell me the verdict for Chauvin’s trial. I just couldn’t watch. I was really scared that he wouldn’t be held accountable for his actions. Everyone deserves consequences no matter how powerful they are, but it seems the higher you are, like some police officers, the less consequences you face.

I know one police officer does not make them all bad; some are really helpful and nice. I think some police officers would have helped Mr. Floyd, but on that terrible day, some of them just stood there and watched. Can you believe people like that could get a job that’s so important?

Nobody should get their life taken away or be beaten or treated badly because of their skin color. Like Rodney King said, “Can’t we all just get along?” If you don’t know Rodney King, he was a Black man who was severely beaten by police, three of them white, in 1991. The officers were acquitted of the charges and that started the riots in Los Angeles. I think that was one of the first times police brutality was caught on camera.

Here we are, 30 years later, and it still feels like history is just repeating itself.