In dozens of cities, including Indianapolis, vigils and protests are marking a violent, tragic week that included police killing black men in Minnesota and Louisiana – and a black sniper who opened fire on white police officers in Dallas, killing five and wounding seven others.
Black Lives Matter has condemned the attack in Dallas, but they're not backing down from their campaign to demand police reforms and justice for victims of police brutality.
"Is it horrid that someone has done this? Absolutely. Do we condone that? Absolutely not … we need police officers," said Rekia Boid of Don't Sleep, which organized Saturday's Black Lives Matter protest at the Indiana Statehouse. "However, it's not something that we don't experience every single day of our lives."
The protest was organized after police shot and killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and 32-year-old Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minn. According to "The Counted," a database compiled by The Guardian newspaper, police in the U.S. shot and killed someone every single day between July 5 and July 9. So far in 2016, that's 571 people.
"Each day this week, we've had examples of somebody who lost their life needlessly, senselessly," organizer Dominic Dorsey told the crowd of about 700 on Saturday. "Instances that could easily have been deescalated by a conversation, instances where individuals were already disarmed, and at some moment they (police officers) decided their life wasn't worth handcuffs and due process."
Since it started three years ago, after the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, white people have joined the Black Lives Matter movement in ever-larger numbers. And Saturday night in Indianapolis, Dorsey told the many white people in the crowd that the movement needs them now more than ever -- not just to show up at protests, but to speak out in their everyday lives and work for change.
"The fight for black lives includes you. We need you," Dorsey said. "There's no shame in saying 'black lives matter.'"
Ben Blevins of Indianapolis was among those at Saturday's protest outside the Statehouse.
The fight for black lives includes you. We need you.
"The least that I can do is show up and be here," said Blevins, who is white. "There is a massive sense of urgency, which is something that is sometimes difficult for me to internalize, so I have the luxury of saying it takes time, when every bit of time that goes by, someone is dying."
At an interfaith prayer service earlier in the day, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett urged people to pray for peace and then get down to work on the problems that face Indianapolis and the country.
"We must act to address a system in which it is possible that men and women can die due to the fact that they wear a uniform. We must also act to address a system in which it is possible for men and women can die at the hands of a gun due to the color of their skin," Hogsett said.
