In the wake of many fatal police shootings and widespread protests from Black Lives Matter and other groups, anti-police brutality activism has been portrayed as “anti-police.” This characterization of Black Lives Matter is thoroughly misguided and in fact intensities the feeling of racial animosity and draws us further away from ending common ground and real solutions to the problems law enforcement and the public face.
When one of our brave police officers is injured, attacked, or killed on duty, there is universal denouncement of the perpetrator both by the public and Blacks Lives Matter itself. However, due to the mischaracterization of Black Lives Matter and other activists as “anti-police,” when an unarmed African-American is shot by police, people immediately rush to their “side” of the issue and begin inventing ways to either justify the officer’s actions or paint them as racist.
As a country people must be willing to criticize the police, who are taxpayer-fund- ed public servants without that (often legiti- mate) criticism being targeted as somehow “anti-police.” The scrutiny of public insti- tutions is fundamental to our democracy. When elected of cials are involved in some- thing people know to be unethical, illegal or against our interests, people have the right to be outraged, seek accountability and ulti- mately vote that person out of of ce. By the same token, when a police officer abuses power they should be subject to the same level of scrutiny and more so in the case of
a civilian death, especially an innocent one. Of course, as Blues Lives Matter support- ers and activists have repeated ad nauseam, the overwhelming majority of police in this country are honest, decent people who de- vote their careers to improving their com- munities and saving lives. The praise and
recognition they receive is well deserved. Unfortunately, thanks in part to copi- ous amounts of misinformation saturating Facebook pages, in addition to the partisan echo-chambers on cable news, people have become incapable of holding two truths in
their minds at once.
People can, and should, for the sake of
the justice system, be able to recognize improvements that need to be made in terms of racial justice across the country. Identifying the necessary improvements and the desire for accountability in not in any way antithetical to the appreciation the police deserve.
No honest person could ever assert that all police are racist, power hungry bullies, just like no honest person could say that there are not instances of power overstep by some police in America that should be dealt with accordingly. Black Lives Matter does not promote the idea that all police are evil nor they support violence in any capacity.
The question “can we balance support for police and support groups like Blacks Lives Matter?” is inherently misleading.
The purpose of activists groups like Black Lives Matter is to improve relations between communities and their police, not simply to smear all police as heinous rac- ists. People can and should support the police as well as the people working hard to hold them accountable.
