What You're Not Getting About #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter

I'm so sick of everyone's misguided self-righteous crap. Sick of everyone pointing their finger at any cause but the correct one. Sick of improper blame.





Let's state some facts first. Plain and simple: Eric Garner and Michael Brown were small-time
criminals who did not deserve to die during their final encounters with the police. The law should have been applied to them and they should have had the chance to go to court for their minor transgressions – they shouldn't be lying in coffins because two racist cops with God-complexes used excessive force
against them. Those specific officers should have faced repercussions for their actions yet neither will stand before a jury – and that is wrong. It is a perpetuation of a defect in our society that allows typically white officers off the hook whenever they use brutality against minority citizens – and it is morally wrong and it needs to be addressed and stopped.






HOWEVER – none of what I just said at all ever justifies the cold
blooded murder of two police officers. The deaths of Wenjian Liu and Rafael
Ramos are an unspeakable disgusting travesty, and my heart hurts just as much
for the injustice perpetrated against them as it did for the injustice
perpetrated during the Garner and Brown cases. Calling open season on anyone in
a uniform is just as senseless and immoral as shooting/hitting first and asking
questions later in encounters with unarmed black men. It's wrong and it's
heartbreaking what happened to these two police officers and I wish there was
something we could do to give justice to their families – but that's not an
option either since the cowardly bastard killed himself after the murders.






As for the outrage against public figures like Bill Deblasio and Al
Sharpton and Eric Holder – I'll say this. Granted, I don't know DeBlasio or
Holder or Sharpton personally. I don't know what goes on in their heads. But I
can pretty much guarantee that they are fundamentally NOT "anti-cop."
You know who is "anti-cop?" Criminals. Pop-culture criminals like
Tony Montana, as well as real-life criminals like Bonnie and Clyde or Al Capone
– these slimeballs were most definitely "anti-cop" and yet we still
idolize and glorify their criminal prowess today. People who seek out elected
positions in government are not "anti-cop" – but sometimes they are
"anti-cops-not-being-held-accountable-for-their-brutality-against-the-citizens-they-are-supposed-to-be-protecting."
And that's what is happening here.






By supporting the right for people to protest against unnecessary
violence perpetrated against minority citizens by police, Bill DeBlasio and
Eric Holder are not being "anti-cop" – they are being
"pro-justice." Yes - the protests were mostly an inconvenience to
people in the city not actively protesting, but they had been primarily peaceful
until that despicable incident on the Brooklyn Bridge and this tragic
assassination of two officers. None of the people in charge of organizing these
protests has been calling for violence against police – they have in fact been
speaking out against it since the beginning. The families of Michael Brown and
Eric Garner have said plainly that violence against police as well as
looting/damaging property is NOT the answer and they do not support it as
revenge for their slain relatives. As American citizens we have the right to
protest peacefully, so blaming these police deaths on the Mayor or blowhards
like Sharpton because they support protests against a real problem like police
brutality is like blaming Martin Luther King Jr. for any black civilian deaths that
occurred during clashes throughout the civil rights movement because he
defended equal rights for all people regardless of race – you can't blame
public figures for defending First Amendment rights guaranteed to us in the damn Constitution.






Nobody wants to label this for what it is because of the tension
that's been clouding everyone's judgment since the summer of 2014. This is yet
again another sad case of an evil individual – a violent repeat offender who
should have had no access at all whatsoever to a firearm- acting out against
his imagined enemies. Now two admirable men have died in the line of duty at
the hands of a monster, and for what? To me their deaths are akin to the
pointless slaughter of the children and staff of Newtown Elementary by a madman who mistakenly
blamed the school for his troubles – there were plenty of signs that something
nefarious was going on with these killers and sadly innocent people paid the
price just by showing up to work.






The bottom line that few people are getting is this – it is an
undeniable fact that people in positions of authority are capable of
corruption. WE CANNOT EVER PLACE ABSOLUTE TRUST IN POLICE OR CLERGY OR
LAWMAKERS – WE ARE ALL HUMAN AND IMPERFECT. Most people in positions of
authority do not abuse their power and are good, kind people just trying to
make a difference – but there are plenty of bad apples. These individuals
should be punished for their transgressions just like the rest of us – they
shouldn't be allowed to abuse their power. 




All people regardless of color
should have the law applied to them equally – and it isn't that way and it has
never been that way. Look no further than the Twitter hastag
#crimingwhilewhite. Historically: minority peoples have been abused and
mistreated since (and prior to) the founding of our nation in 1776 – and it's time for
the injustice to end. Ideas like "#BlackLivesMatter" are a call for
justice and fairness, not for retribution against police. #BlueLivesMatter is of course a
worthwhile cause as well - but these social media ideas are not parallel and are
speaking for different agendas. The movement against police brutality and for
police accountability is not in any way a cry for police mistreatment or
disrespect towards police. No one is saying that black lives are more important
than the lives of police officers, nor more important than white lives or Asian
or Hispanic lives. The agenda of #BlackLivesMatter is to make people aware that
often minority citizens are mistreated by people in positions of authority simply
because they are black or brown, and in certain terrible situations these abuses result
in the unjustified deaths of black people as in the Garner and Brown cases. The
agenda of the majority of people using #BlueLivesMatter is to express outrage
that the authority of the police was ever questioned in the first place –
and that is a dangerous mindset. 




If the people who are charged with our safety
are never checked – what you have is tyranny, not respect. The murders of these
two NYPD officers should not be blamed on a peaceful movement – they should be
blamed on the soulless criminal that killed them - on the defects at large in our society. A society that glorifies
gun-violence and criminal behavior and a society that does a piss poor job of
preventing gun-related tragedies because the people who make our laws are slaves to campaign donors like the NRA.