As the video continues the contention grows more and more. People protesting, rightfully emotional about their experiences, begin calling the police officers names and this comes across my timeline.

This is a touchy subject, but it needs to be addressed. Protest and riot are separate things, one is peaceful the other is inching toward chaos. Tear gas being deployed as a result of resistance is an unnecessary result of the inability to listen to one another. The angst in this type of situation is real, the tension could be felt away from the protest sites. The protest turned from being peaceful to something else at Memorial Park. What would you do in that situation is once again a loaded situation. What does it take for a community to turn to what we've seen the last few days? Taking the protest to riot, to a full fledged looting? Most of us cannot fathom taking something that far. Yet most of us haven't lived in an area where the police are not as respectful as our police officers in El Paso. What would it take for you to damage your own home or feel that it is an option?

However, this is an issue growing at an alarming rate is something that needs to be addressed and the conversation has begun, later than most would say it needed to. The alarming rate of this happening to a singular community is something that cannot and should no longer be ignored. We stand in solidarity with one another in El Paso, side by side with our brothers and sisters in the black community. This doesn't mean we cannot respect and stand along side out men and women in Blue.

The conversation needs to be had and it needs to be had Right Now, let us not shy away, or approach it with def ears. Let us listen, take in every word from both sides and grow. Overall there were some tense moments during the protest, however in typical El Paso fashion, we came together and roller heads prevailed. Thank you El Paso, you showed that even during this stressful time, you are and always will be #ElPasoStrong!

About JT The Brick

Fox Sports 1380 · El Paso's Sports Talk Leader