6 Things America Has Deemed More Valuable Than Black Lives

Demonstrators destroy the windshield of a Baltimore Police car as they protest the death Freddie Gray, an African American man who died of spinal cord injuries in police custody, in Baltimore, Maryland, April 25, 2015. Protesters returned to Baltimore's streets Saturday to vent outrage over the death of Gray on April 12.      AFP PHOTO/JIM WATSON        (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Windows

When protests swept through the streets of cities like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore following the deaths of unarmed Black citizens, there was an incredible amount of focus being placed on the damage being done to car and building windows. News outlets referred to residents as “animals” and “senseless” without acknowledging the deeply rooted issues in such communities that caused tensions to boil in the first place. For one Baltimore teen who smashed a police car window with a traffic cone, he is now facing a possible life sentence after turning himself in to authorities, The Guardian revealed.

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Police Dogs

While it seems nearly impossible for a police officer to spend time behind bars for killing an unarmed Black boy, killing a police dog will land you behind bars for decades. A 17-year-old boy by the name of Ivins Rosier was tried as an adult after fatally shooting a police dog. He was 16 at the time of the incident, the Daily Mail reports, and has been sentenced to 23 years in jail.

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