The Questions Of #BlackLivesMatter

But some grassroots activists who began organizing out of anger towards the grand jury decisions, as well as the fatal police shooting of Akai Gurley, many of them working class and politically unconnected, fear that the establishment-friendly reformism championed by the Justice League threatens to water down the struggle against state violence. They worry that the group’s ties to city government and wealthy celebrities make it nearly indistinguishable from the power it’s trying to change. The result has been a quiet struggle for the future of the Black Lives Matter movement in New York City.

This Gothamist article about the growing schism in the #BlackLivesMatter movement raises a lot of questions. Is legislation the best way to effect change? Is protest? Are young people being pushed out of the movement? Should you fight from the outside or from within? How is William Bratton still police commissioner? Do we even need leaders?

I read it about an hour before I read about the murder of Walter Scott, clicking “play” on that video before I knew what I was getting into. Now I really only have one question, which is when is this going to work? How many more people need to die? Who can stop this?