As rumors circle around whether police officer Darren Wilson was beaten or not beaten, Michael Brown’s body has undergone three autopsies, and the United States is still grief stricken as one 18-year-old was shot multiple times by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

While truth and justice need to prevail in this horrifying situation, I remain in contemplation of why the world waits to revolt until something of this nature — one specific death — occurs.

Police officers are supposed to represent the government, ensure a citizen’s safety, and be men or women of truth, which is why the concept of this situation is so atrocious. Nonetheless, one man’s alleged mistake does not represent the view of the entire government, nor are his doings a representation of every white person in America.

Protestors are calling for a change in regard of unwarranted police brutality against black victims, but looting the city and violent protests only bring attention to just that, not the cause.

For a campaign or even a persuasive speech to be successful, the message and call to action need to be clear, simple and  memorable.

Unfortunately, many Americans believe the nation is upset because Wilson was white, not because he was a police officer.

On TV, I witness the outrage over Michael Brown’s death, not the actual numbers and percentages of police brutality incidents If people think this was an isolated incident of some unfortunate accident, then why should people care?

Awareness is key in order for there to be change, and I doubt many Americans are actually going to research statistics on police brutality when they see the spectacle of unorganized, violent protests, along with the news-porn that is looting.

The public needs to know that in 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that black people were almost three times more likely than white people to be subjected to threatened with force by the police.

Additionally, in 2007, an investigation by Colorlines and The Chicago Reporter found that in the cities of New York, San Diego and Las Vegas, the percentage of black people killed by the police was at least their the share of the total population.

If these numbers from the Census Bureau were translated to 2013 in San Diego, whose population is roughly five percent black, then one black person would be killed by the police for every 10 people killed.

However, in this protest, what doesn’t get recognized are America’s murder rates in general.

According to CNN, in 2011, Detroit was named as the No. 1 most dangerous city in the U.S. with a murder rate of 48.2 of 100,000. Detroit’s population was 713,239 in 2011. The approximate number of murders was 342 that year.

There was no huge revolt in Detroit that year, nor was there a revolt in St. Louis, the No. 2 most dangerous city in 2011.

Ferguson, Mo., is a suburb of St. Louis, and with St. Louis’s ability to get on multiple ‘most dangerous cities’ lists, it seems Brown’s death was the just-noticeable difference, police brutality or not, in the hundreds of murders that have occurred in St. Louis alone.

With St. Louis still ranked No. 2 in Forbes’ “The 10 Most Dangerous U.S. Cities” and fourth in the nation for murders, what makes all the previous black deaths before Brown’s unfit for public outrage?

In 2012, Missouri’s black homicide victimization rate was 34.2 per 100,000. The year before, St. Louis’s murder rate was 35.3.

There is no mention of St. Louis’s crime statistics on TV, or of the fact that Missouri has been No. 1 in the nation for black homicide victimization according to the Violence Policy Center.

I bring these numbers up not because I’m trying to compare racist police brutality with blacks murdering blacks, but to show that so many lives are being taken regardless of who is taking them.

There is no emphasis on the race of the murderers in the cities mentioned, so whoever is emphasizing that a white person killed Brown, rather than a police officer, is taking a step back in the road to equality.

Therefore, there needs to be some type of conjunction with Brown and the other murders so there’s no room left for doubt in the reasoning of everyone’s anger.

It would show the nation that a life, is a life, is a life, and the loss of one is treated with as much severity as Michael Brown, regardless of who is holding the gun.