It’s past time for Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter to ally.
They’re both for the same thing ultimately: opposing innocent people being harmed. They’re just focused on different innocent people.
These movements need to not be opposed to one another.
Being opposed implies that Police generally are FOR the wrongful treatment of blacks by police, including wrongful killings. They’re not.
Being opposed implies that black people generally are FOR the wrongful violence against police such as the two recent assassination events. They’re not.
The large majority of police are against wrong violence to blacks. The large majority of black people are against wrong violence to police.
The issues are not equivalent in terms of how they occur. This is not some false equivalency, it is not an “All lives matter” denial of the special focus the discrimination against black people deserves.
It is saying it’s too easy for “black lives matter” to be confused with an attack on police generally, and “blue lives matter” to be confused as condoning wrong police violence against black people.
And so, they should not change a thing about their messages — which as I view it are for Black Lives Matter calling for attention and change on the issue of the great wrongs done especially to black people by some police, and for Blue Lives Matter is saying that they do not deserve to all be painted with the brush of the few who do wrong and that they deserve respect and appreciation as well, as the public servants they are, at risk for our benefit.
They won’t agree on every detail of policy — Black Lives Matter calling for systemic reforms that Police might not entirely agree with.
They are different agendas. But they are NOT AT ODDS.
And that should be made clear by an alliance between the groups.
Blue Lives Matter, confirm your support for reforms against injustice for black people and your condemnation of the wrong violence against blacks by a minority of officers.
Black Lives Matter, confirm your support for most police officers serving the public, and your condemnation of the cases they are the victims of violence — sometimes wrongly using your name.
The two groups have different, independent agendas. But they should ally against all wrong violence, in order to strengthen both of their points, and to silence the wrong people on both sides — the people who would use Black Lives Matter to attack police generally and support attacks on them, and the racists who use Blue Lives Matter — as we saw at the Republican Convention — to serve as an instrument for defending wrong violence against black people.
They should hold a joint rally, a joint press conference, and express this alliance — and then return to their independent causes for their groups, but acting jointly and consistently against violence.
I just saw a story about a Mayor with a Black Lives Matter banner on City Hall, and police concerned that there has no mention of Blue Lives Matter.
The Mayor should be able to hang a Blue Lives Matter banner below the Black Lives banner without it in any way taking away from that issue, without any false equivalency.
Rather, in a spirit that each group deserves respect. And both groups will benefit from that.
Black people will benefit from the police more clearly supporting their rights, and police will benefit from the point being made that most police are not doing wrong, and are appreciated by all.
Black people will benefit from bigots having the rug pulled out from under them by the police, and police will benefit by reducing the amount of hate aimed at them all.
The alternative is ugly: increased confrontation and violence as the few members of each group who do wrong are more and more associated with the entire groups.
