As the nation continues to attempt to process the baffling death of Sandra Bland while in police custody, one truth rises above all debates — our country is in desperate need of drastic police reform. As recent statistics and a long history of continued brutality prove, America has reached the crisis point with the prevalence of institutionalized police brutality. Thankfully, we also exist during a time of brave political voices using their respective platforms to champion this truth with unfettered allegiance.
On Thursday's Nightly Show, Larry Wilmore played Bland's recently released traffic stop video — including captions and a brief but thorough breakdown of the implications of each statement from both Bland and the arresting officer. "'Are you done?' isn't how you finish something," Wilmore says of the officer's antagonistic response to Bland simply answering his previous question. "'Are you done?' is how you start something." Sadly, that "something" eventually became the death of Bland — ruled by prosecutors as a suicide, though a family-ordered autopsy and the inquiring minds of citizens all across the nation rightfully believe otherwise.
Sadly, as the call for police reform in America grows louder and louder, those in opposition of this necessary change have already started slyly spreading propaganda to hinder its advancement. Don't buy into such rhetoric's intellectual shortcomings, as police reform is an undeniably grave necessity.
