Race To End Racism
As the city of Pittsburgh mourns the loss of 17 year old Antown Rose II, who was shot and killed by police officer Michael Rosefeld. Antwon’s life was taken on June 19, 2018, and on March 22, 2019, Rosefeld was found innocent of all charges against Antwon. This story has brought up many more injustices involved with our police officers and our justice system.
A brief backstory on Antwon who was not only a child, a son, a friend, an uncle, a brother, but most importantly an innocent human undeserving of this. In the summer of June he, along with a few friends, was stopped by police officers and initially fled the vehicle in which they were told to exit. As they began to run , Antwon posed no threat at all from the time he fled until his life was taken. Rosefeld fired shots which killed Antwon and within the video you can hear racial slurs being said to him as he fell to the ground.
This innocent young man’s life was taken by the hands of a man who didn’t think twice about firing his gun, who didn’t think about the training he endured before that gave procedures for instances such as this. He didn’t raise his voice for him to stop, but instead he raised his gun. For that, justice needs to be serve. So many African American men and women lose their lives due to the color of their skin.
Black Lives, in fact, do matter. The richness in skin and culture has somehow posed a threat to others so strong that they feel entitled and obligated to kill us off. That’s no longer the case, we have come together as one in unity to face these issues, injustices, and prejudices together.
As the infamous “iupatties” weekend came to a close and many students began departing. One student, found a billboard that had promoted not only racism, but it showed just how comfortable they were to put such insensitive and beyond disrespectful remarks. Here is the following picture that was taken:
The billboard had other various clips that were also recorded and shown. This is the world that we live in, in 2019 the blatant demand to disrespect African Americans and a young man who lost his life way too early. Justice wasn’t served and the fight is far from over. Not only for Antwon but for the other many lives lost that never gained justice. Justice sees no color but the system does. Make sure to vote, use your platform to speak positively, make change, correct those who see indifferent. Pittsburgh must stay strong and keep beating the race.