Drake, the Toronto rapper with an international audience, said the video of Alton Sterling’s killing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana., left him feeling scared. “Last night when I saw the video of Alton Sterling being killed it left me disheartened, emotional and truly scared.” he said in an Instagram post yesterday, to his more than 25,000 followers.
“No one begins their life as a hashtag, yet the trend of being reduced to one continues.”
Drake, whose father is an American, lives in the United States part of the year, wrote: “No one begins their life as a hashtag, yet the trend of being reduced to one continues.”
And now, another day, and another death with the shooting of Philando Castille, 32, who was shot Wednesday in Minnesota during a routine traffic stop for a broken tail-light. Similar to Sterling’s death in Baton Rouge, it happened at point blank range.
Live-streamed on facebook, Diamond Reynolds, Castille’s girlfriend who was in the car with him, recorded the scene and can be heard imploring “Please officer don’t tell me that you just did this to him.”
Her four year-old daughter can be heard saying “Don’t worry Mommy, I’m with you.” Ms. Reynolds said she was then taken out of the car, told to go down on her knees, handcuffed, and put in the back of a police car.
Today, in a state of shock and grief, she was shouting, “They are here to kill us because we are black.” She said she recorded the scene to show the world.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.