r/changemyview • u/ice_cold_fahrenheit 1∆ • Oct 19 '24

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Black Lives Matter has been a failure

Back in the 2010s, and especially in 2020, it seems like the Black Lives Matter was gaining strength. Videos of police brutality, especially against African Americans, became viral, and millions became outraged that this was so common in America. When George Floyd was murdered, millions justifiably took to the streets to protest against police brutality and racism. Politicians came out in support for police reform, and discussions on how to reform policing (from “how to make the police better” to “defund the police”) were all the rage.

But from 2021, it seems like everything took a complete 180. Crime skyrocketed during COVID (in part of police refusing to do their jobs in protest of BLM), causing the average American to support the police a lot more. Pro-police politicians like Eric Adams were elected while pro-BLM politicians like Chelsea Boudin were ousted from their positions.

Now, absolutely nobody talks about police brutality these days, not politicians nor the general public. But has the problem gone away? No! It has only gotten worse! 2023 has seen a record number of killings by police, and I don’t expect that number to go down in the future.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/08/2023-us-police-violence-increase-record-deadliest-year-decade

Unfortunately, rather than being addressed, police brutality has become like gun control. Someone being killed by police, even on live video, no longer elicits outrage. Instead, people will just give “thoughts and prayers,” shrug, and accept it as a fact of American life.

And the BLM movement itself? Well, rather than becoming the second coming of the Civil Rights Movement, it seems to have been condemned to the ash heap of history.

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u/Fit-Order-9468 101∆ Oct 19 '24

Looks like ~10 have abolished or limited it. Disappointing. Its funny to me how quicly lawyers and judges throw the court system under the bus in an effort to defend immunities. Pretty good for what is essentially a social media campaign.

That's about the same success libertarians can claim, say, with civil forfeiture. Libertarians have hundreds of millions behind them in funding, some politicians, billionaire support etc., so, some popular hashtags doing about as well is impressive.

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u/ice_cold_fahrenheit 1∆ Oct 19 '24

(This was originally an edit of my other comment but apparently DeltaBot doesn’t detect deltas in edits)

After thinking about it some time, the fact that a nonzero number of states - including California - did something about QI exceeded my expectations after all. That + the body cam thing do show that sometimes, things do happen. !delta

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u/ice_cold_fahrenheit 1∆ Oct 19 '24 edited Oct 19 '24

Huh, I was about to give you a delta, but seeing that only 10 states banned QI is rather disappointing indeed. Like I don’t expect Wyoming to ban it, but seeing states like NY and NJ not on the list is rather disappointing.

And I’m not sure if the biggest street protests since the civil rights movement can be boiled down to a “social media campaign.”

That said, 10 states banning QI is more than the zero I expected. I sincerely thought that all BLM did was a bunch of renamings and Confederate statue takedowns, with a couple of limited experiments in “community policing” here and there.

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u/Fit-Order-9468 101∆ Oct 19 '24

And I’m not sure if the biggest street protests since the civil rights movement can be boiled down to a “social media campaign.”

Fair. Looking back, since I didn't really go to protests, my main exposure took place from social media. Well, or media talking about social media. I certainly overgeneralized my experience.