Shirlee Smith | When Do Black Lives Matter?

A few weeks ago, headed home driving north from the other part of Pasadena, one of my daughters, who was in the front seat of my car spotted a small gathering of people standing on the sidewalk. They were. in front of the low-income housing units that were once called Kings Manor but now renamed Kings Villages.

“Oh, someone else has been murdered,” she exclaimed upon seeing candles and flowers and she was able to recognize that the gathering of people constituted what in Black neighborhoods is, an all too familiar vigil.

And soon, some few days after, there was yet another killing.

But where were they?

We didn’t see any placards decrying the murder of the victims who were young black men. We didn’t see any marchers chanting the all too familiar cry of “ Black Lives Matter.”

In reference to these murders of 3 young black men, I heard the following from several people when I asked where the protest was, “Oh, the victims were gang-bangers.” I was told this with a clear lack of concern.

Now, maybe these responders were just blowing off their own narrow opinions as to where were those people who are so outspoken against police and their slaughter of young black men in my community.

If the marchers and the demonstrators truly believe Black Lives Matter, why aren’t they on the scene when your son kills my son because he’s wearing the wrong colors?

Maybe the job of cleaning up home is much tougher than that of demanding law enforcement clean up their act.

The excuses for my neighborhood being gangridden and violent are old and worn. Poverty, lack of jobs, poor education, bad policing and unjust criminal justice practices are a reality, and always have been, Maybe it is time for all of us to start talking with the rest of us who we think don’t quite measure up and therefore their lives, even though black, don’t really matter.

My daughter who was riding in the passenger side of the car the day we spotted the memorial is usually getting where she needs to go via public transportation.

I’m asked quite frequently by people I know and who look like me, if I know what kind of people ride the bus -public transportation. Well, mainly people who don’t have a car?

No, dangerous people who live in Northwest Pasadena, I’ve been told.

If we can demand that law enforcement respect us and stop their killing shouldn’t we be demanding that the family whose son was shot dead in the street and the family of the perpretrator not be shunned but instead be respected and helped to lead a more productive and socially acceptable life?

Police reform is essential., So is community reform.