In four months, police have killed 294 people. 294 people. Walter Scott. Eric Harris. We add their names to a seeming invincible list that only and inevitably gets longer and larger every day.

Walter Scott. Shot in the back as he ran away, but the officer claimed he was a threat.

Eric Harris. Shot in the back “accidentally” after he was slammed to the ground.

What they have in common? Black men shot by white officers. What else? Neither received immediate medical treatment that could have saved their life. And again, the nation finds itself divided between those who support the victims and those who support the officers.

So here we are again, finding ourselves considering, contemplating, questioning this idea of a perfect victim. And once again we conclude that neither was one. Scott owed child support and he had a broken taillight, neither charge worthy of a death sentence. Harris was illegally selling a gun, an offence also not worthy of a death sentence.

I’m tired of writing about the police killing black men, but it’s become some sort of sick trend and until people stop putting the blood of these men in their back pockets, it will continue to be the topic of discussion; until people stop shaming black victims, and praising these officers, I will continue to write.

I’ve come to this point where it seems like everything I write has already been said, but obviously, it needs to be repeated. People just haven’t been getting it, but I think they’re starting to. Can someone, anyone, anywhere in this world explain to me how a trained officer “accidentally” shoots and kills a person? Can someone tell me how after this person is wrongly shot, he is then bombarded with an officer’s grotesque derogatory slurs?

Police departments need to rethink who they are hiring and how they are training some of these “skilled and professional” officers, because I’ve never heard of it to be in an officer’s training to shoot someone who is running away. I’ve also never heard of confusing a taser with a gun. Maybe they need to change the weaponry design, or color, or placement on the belt, because simple-minded mistakes are deadly.

There is a reason that people are running from the police. It’s because so many officers appear more concerned with arresting than assisting, so quick to handcuff you and send you on your way. It’s because officers are allowed to make mistakes that could kill me. And yet people are actually saying they deserved to die because they ran. But I was always taught to run from danger. I was always taught to run and save my life. I was always taught to run until I was safe.

I don’t like danger; I’m not brave enough. I don’t like putting my life on the line, so I would never choose a profession in law enforcement. Every time a black man is killed, officers scream that they feared for their life. Every single time, but they chose this life. Every single officer in the force chose their job, they picked their fate, and they accepted that danger. You cannot complain about something that you chose for yourself. They whimper and wine about how afraid they were, then they weep and wail about killing their victims, when they are still alive to tell their families they love them one last time. These villain officers take lives and expect sympathy, but they are the reason another family has to make funeral arrangements. It just doesn’t make sense.

It’s not even just about race anymore. This is a power thing. It’s a “I can do what I want and get away with it” thing, which is why Michael Slager would have been freed if it weren’t for the video footage, and why the police department was so quick to back him up.

It’s about power, which is why the media isn’t focused on Walter Scott’s case. Justice doesn’t sell in media news. Controversy sells. We need police to wear body cameras at all times. Video is the key to the truth; the key to prosecuting guilty officers.

It’s great that Walter Scott’s family has gotten justice. It’s great that Michael Slager has been fired and arrested. Either way it’s a lose-lose situation, a family has lost its child, the world loses its trust in the police department, and the police department loses its credibility. We don’t win, because there shouldn’t even have been a need for this kind of justice.

Young men shouldn’t even be being killed, but because they are, it just makes me wonder how many of these murders weren’t caught on camera.