Two East Texas police officers are receiving a lot of attention these days after they posted a very powerful photo of themselves, in response to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
The picture shows Trinity Police Dept. Officer Donald Givens and Chief Steven Jones standing side by side. Both of them have the words “his life matters” written on their hands with arrows pointing at each other.
Chief Jones told Fox 5 News they just got fed up with all the hate and anger being spewed all over social media. The officer laments over all the police-involved shootings nationwide, which created such an intense hatred of the law enforcement community.
The simple fact is this: “I care about Officer Givens and he cares about me and our race has nothing to do with it,” Jones said.
While Jones stated that they have a pretty positive image in their town, which has a population of less than 3,000, he also said: “There is a lot of hate out there from both sides and it’s depressing to both of us. Sometimes we ask ourselves, ‘What are we doing this job for?’ We are hated by blacks, whites, Hispanics, this group, that group.”
That’s what led the two officers to take the photo – to put a positive message out there, hoping it will make a difference.
The Trinity Police Department uploaded the picture to both Facebook and Twitter on May 6, but it really started to gain momentum after it was shared earlier this week by a group called, American Conservatives of Color. The photo has been shared more than 93,000 times and has received more than 19,000 likes.
The post also included the hashtags #AllLivesMatter and #PoliceStrong, according to Fox 5. That spawned other hashtags including #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter.
These two officers are no strangers to the limelight. They are stars of the CMT show ‘Big Texas Heat’ about the “on and off-duty antics of the Trinity Police Department.”
“I feel that the “Black Lives Matter” movement was a wash,” said Officer Givens. “I feel that it’s nothing but a hate group, and is no different than the KKK and the Black Panthers. We as a country and a community need to find a way to heal our nation.”
The #BlackLivesMatter movement is traced back to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. It started to pick up momentum again, after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson last August.