Only some black lives matter to Black Lives Matter

Originally published in the Washington Examiner

Black lives matter. That statement is undeniably true, but not all black lives matter to the group Black Lives Matter. Apparently retired Captain David Dorn of St. Louis was not worthy of the same outrage as George Floyd. Captain Dorn was gunned down by looters after answering an alarm at a pawn shop belonging to a friend. Black Lives Matter was silent. An arrest was made. Black Lives Matter was silent. As it turns out, it’s not the life that matters to Black Lives Matter, it’s the person who killed them.

It’s hard to find anyone in this country who wasn’t outraged by the murder of George Floyd. There have been other accusations of police brutality that divided public opinion. The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri was another flashpoint. Black Lives Matters reacted with their typical outrage. Sports celebrities word t-shirts with “Hands up, don’t shoot” on them. President Obama’s Justice Department with Eric Holder at the helm promised justicer. After a thorough investigation, they came to the same conclusion as the FBI and a grand jury. Brown was killed after trying to wrest a gun away from a police officer then he charged at the officer when he tried to make an arrest. The whole “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative was found to be a fantasy.

The George Floyd killing was different. We all watched in horror as policemen pinned him to the ground, one with his knee on his neck, for an excruciatingly long time, even after his arms were handcuffed behind his back. All of the officers have now been charged. This should have been a unifying moment for America, but it wasn’t. 

It’s interesting to note that the protests started before an arrest was made, but the rioting started after. I’ve organized plenty of protests. They are goal-oriented. Ours was to stop a state income tax in Tennessee. Each time the legislature adjourned for the day without passing it we went home. We only came back when they tried it again. When George Floyd’s killer was arrested that should have been the end of the protest, but getting an arrest was not the true goal. We now see what that goal was. Disbanding all police.

This is not the objective of any reasonable law-abiding citizen. This is the objective of a mob. Black Lives Matter is funding the mob through a network of liberal donors that include billionaire George Soros and the leftist Ford Foundation. To date, they’ve raised over $100 million. 

The question is how interwoven is Antifa into Black Lives Matter? It’s hard to say. At least some of the protesters are outraged that Antifa has hijacked the protests. There are videos of black demonstrators shouting at Antifa members for spray-painting buildings with “BLM” and handing out bricks. 

That’s another thing. The bricks. How were pallets of bricks magically appearing in cities and towns all across America? To believe that riots across the entire country can spontaneously erupt organically is to ignore the evidence of a well-coordinated organization. If you understand that Antifa’s goal is to destroy America as we know it, then you can understand how they seize on any opportunity to act as a wedge. They really don’t care who’s right, they just want to see America burn.

How much is Black Lives Matters a part of that? It’s hard to tell, but one sure-fire way to watch America burn is to disband the police. This insane idea is actually being seriously discussed on liberal news outlets all across the country. What would they replace the police with? They won’t say. It appears it’s social workers. Nothing against social workers, but can you imagine dispatching them to quell the riots? Can you imagine calling a social worker when your house is being broken into in the middle of the night? It’s lunacy.

You know what else is lunacy? Acknowledging that black lives matter then recognizing that all lives matter and getting fired. It happened to an NBA announcer. Imagine daring to suggest that all buildings matter, too, and being forced to resign, as happened at a Philadelphia newspaper. What kind of country do we live in where proclaiming that every life matters is racist?

If there’s just one thing you learn today it’s this. Black Lives Matter isn’t concerned about black lives. There’s been no concern over the black lives lost during the riots. There’s no concern, either, over black citizens who are killed by other black citizens. According to statistics from the FBI, about half of the murders in America are committed by blacks. Over 90 percent of their victims are black. Black Lives Matters never talks about those victims. Why?

Is police brutality a problem? It is. I’ve been on the receiving end of it, but I don’t paint all cops with a broad brush. However, it’s not the problem BLM would have you believe. There were 41 unarmed people killed by police in 2019. Only 9 of them were black, while 19 were white. We’ve all encountered the Rambo cop. Let’s address that and clean up our police departments. But let’s also address the portion of our population that’s disproportionately being victimized, and that’s poor black citizens being preyed upon by other black people.

These are the people on the front lines of crime. We should be devising ways to protect them. Instead, Black Lives Matters calls you a racist if you even raise the issue. These are the people being victimized, and they don’t really care what color the perpetrators are. They just want it to stop. You think that’s bad now? Wait until you disband the police.