Underlying Conditions Which Give Traction to "Black Lives Matter"
Black Lives Matter, as a movement, emerged from police killings of unarmed Black men and women. But powerful underlying trends that have been around for some time give the movement traction. Among these trends are:
A drug war which has led to levels of incarceration of non-violent Black drug offenders which have destroyed entire communities and are utterly disproportionate to the actual role of African Americans in the nation's drug business.
The militarization of the nation's police, as a result of both the drug war and the "war on terror" which have led to young people of color being pinned into their own communities, and occasionally their own housing projects, by aggressive policing.
The widespread adoption of the "broken windows" theory of policing, reinforced by data driven methods of evaluation police performance, which lead police to aggressively confront people of color when walking, driving, taking public transportation, entering or leaving schools, if it appears that non violent With A Brooklyn Accent: Underlying Conditions Which Give Traction to "Black Lives Matter":