Calling Them Out: Why LGBT People Should Get Behind The People Exposing Corruption With The #myNYPD Hashtag

     It was June of 1969. Cops stormed the Stonewall Inn in New York City, arresting gay folks for living their lives. Having dealt with abuse from the police force for years, the LGBT men and women finally had enough. They stood up to the brutality, and the gay rights movement began. Today, folks are still standing up to the NYPD, which some say has become more violent in the years since Stonewall, but they are doing it in a much more peaceful way. They are taking to social media to stand up to the violence.

(From www.benswann.com)

     The New York City Police Department first asked people to send pictures of their force earlier this week using #myNYPD. Expecting to see smiling faces of their force, the NYPD got a surprise when Twitter users took the opportunity to call them out for their abuse of the public. From photos of an elderly man who took a beating from the NYPD after jaywalking to the story of a boy whose legs were broke by cops, New Yorkers are letting the world know about the abusive police state that exists in the Big Apple.
     As a minority community, we as LGBT folks definitely need to support this kind of thing. After all, minorities, both racial and sexual, are the ones who are mainly the victims of this kind of abuse. We have been, and still are to a degree, targeted by law enforcement simply for being who we are, and we need to support others who share our struggle to exist peacefully in a discriminatory world. So, if you have any stories or pictures of police abuse, make your stories heard by taking to Twitter using #myNYPD or whatever your city's police department is, so that we can make sure that this kind of abuse towards our fellow humans comes to an end once and for all. After all,  if Stonewall taught us one thing it was that speaking out against injustice is the only way to ensure that more injustice in the future. If we do this, who knows, we might be able to give future generations a better world, free of  hate, discrimination, and corruption where no one has to fear their local law enforcement officials.