The name of the organization – and its purpose – seem to create a confusion. Black Lives Matter (BLM) presents itself as a civic organization devoted to protecting Black citizens from all forms of racism – with special emphasis on individuals unjustly Killed or abused by police – or the justice system in general. If you follow their activities and statements, pushing back against the justice system may be their only raison d’être.
The killing of George Floyd was an outrageous example of the latter – and a tipping point for a history of our American justice system’s unfairness to minorities IN CERTAIN PLACES. The emphasis is added because the cultures of police institutional racism is hardly a pandemic. It is very localized … in certain places. Not all the deaths highlighted by BLM were as clearly murderous as was Floyd’s, but there were others. The killing of Eric Garner in New York City, the killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago and the killing of Rayshard Brook in Atlanta stand out.
BLM creates a public outcry whenever a White cop kills a Black person. They do not protest when a Black cop kills a Black person. That strongly suggests that BLM operates with a racist subtext. Apparently, the lives of young Black males killed by a Black cop matter a bit less.
Even as horrific and tragic as are cases like Floyd, we need to keep them in perspective. They were a small number of the more than 10 million criminal arrests made each year across the nation. In fact, the entire number of people killed by police – approximately 1000 in 2019 (and the number keeps dropping each year) — is relatively small. It comes out to approximately one-thousandth of one percent. And in most cases, the use of deadly force was justified and non-controversial.
Police officers do not like to use deadly force – and very few are involved in such incidents. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 27 percent of police officers have ever fired their gun in their entire police career — outside of training. They are trained to use restraint – minimum force – and that is what they almost always do.
BLM, however, uses the rare instances of police brutality to advance the underlying philosophic and political agenda of the radical left more than a real concern for black lives across the board. Members and followers of — and those who claim allegiance to — BLM members and supporters are often participants in the destructive criminality that is associated with left-wing protest movements – including looting, arson and attacks on police. They are among those who graffiti public surfaces and illegally topple statues. They are among the rioters.
The most revelatory aspect of BLM’s motivations is over what Black lives DO NOT matter to them.
BLM shows little concern for the tens of thousands of Black folks who have been deprived of their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods and even their lives in these so-called peaceful protests. BLM was not out protesting the death of the Black former St. Louis police Captain David Dorn, who was gunned down during one of the “protests.” — maybe because he was murdered by a Black man. They did not protest the death of Lorenzo Anderson — the 19-year-old Black man shot and killed in that “Utopian” Capital Hill Occupation Protest (CHOP) zone in Seattle. He was the short-lived zones third murder victim. None of these murders attracted the attention of so-called civil rights activists. There were no press conferences organized by millionaire race-baiter Al Sharpton.
It seems that Black lives only matter if the dead are killed by a White police officer – whether the killings were justified or not. BLM seems to focus only on situations in which they can gain notoriety – and financial support. They use those events to unjustly smear police and police departments all across America. They use those events to gin up racial friction by spreading a false narrative of pandemic racism all across America. That suggests a significant racist underpinning of the BLM movement designed to achieve notoriety, inordinate political power and personal wealth.
BLM virtually ignores the murders of thousands of Black folks in the segregated areas of our inner cities – following in the partisan tradition of such so-called civil rights leaders as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Since a high percentage of them are victims of Black-on-Black killings, BLM does not seem to think that those Black lives really matter. Their successful effort to reduce police funding and enforcement in New York City has resulted in a crime surge – and murders (mostly Black victims) have shot up more than 30 percent over last year. Did those Black lives matter?
We also need to understand that BML has evolved into a partisan Democratic Party support group – much like the feminist movement is the ladies’ auxiliary of the Democratic Party. That is why you see such Black Democrat personalities as Sharpton, CNN’s Don Lemon, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kamala Harris and an array of Black House members praising and supporting BLM.
That is why Democrat Mayors – such as New York’s Bill de Blasio, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, Seattle’s Mayor Jenny Durkan and D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser — praise the group, and in some cases, paint the group’s name on major streets in huge yellow letters. It is why the liberal Democrat-leaning media gives BLM positive publicity in virtually every report.
Black Lives Matter, Inc exposes its underlying partisan political interests when it expands its purpose and actions on the streets to embrace the radical left Democrat agenda by its attacks on the American culture in general. Its attacks on the nation’s Founders, on Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and religious icons such as Father Junipero Serra go far beyond its initial mission of addressing police racism.
If BLM was truly concerned about Black lives and Black oppression, they would be working with the Republican Party to push back against the historically racist Democrat political machines –and specifically the cancer of racism within the police departments they control. By any objective calculation and analysis, the Democrats are ruling over the worst Black segregation and oppression in America – and have been for generations. These Democrat machines have been responsible for the destruction of millions of Black lives by depriving them of access to America’s opportunities –and has even taken tens of thousands of lives. But those lives do not seem to matter to BLM.
It is a great slogan, but as an organization, Black Lives Matter, Inc. only contributes to civil disunity and civil disorder. They are not sticking up for Black Americans. They are sticking it to them.
So, there ‘tis.