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Last month, 12 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to the Capitol police who protected the building and members of Congress during the events and aftermath of Jan. 6.

Among those representatives were some of Trumps strongest supporters in Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-R), Matt Gaetz (FL-R), and Bob Good (VA-R).

They chalked it up to the language in the bill. They disagreed with the inclusion of words like insurrectionists to describe the mob that attacked the Capitol and temple of democracy to describe the Capitol building.

But arent these people of the same camp that believes blue lives matter? The people who stormed the Capitol harassed and harmed the police officers protecting the building. One officer, Brian Sicknick, was killed. If the Republican party wanted to honor police officers, this was their chance.

Their dissent leaves one wondering, has Blue Lives Matter ever really been about protecting blue lives?

The Blue Lives Matter movement came to a head this summer in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. As horror stories of Trump supporters attacking more than 50 Capitol police officers began to emerge in the days following Jan. 6, its hard to believe that the Blue Lives Matter campaign was ever focused on protecting the men and women in blue.

Rather, it seems that Blue Lives Matter became a weapon of racism a way to push a narrative of violence on Black protestors and justify the white supremacy existing within the criminal justice system.

Throughout last summer, Republicans talked about Blue Lives Matter in equivalence to Black Lives Matter, arguing that blue lives were in as much danger as Black lives. However, theres no such thing as a blue life. Police officers choose their profession. They apply, train and work knowing theyre in a dangerous field. A Black person doesnt choose to be Black. No one murders a cop just because theyre a cop. Black people are killed simply for existing.

Blue Lives Matter is a scapegoat of sorts. It allows some people who are against the Black Lives Matter movement to mask their true feelings of racism and hatred toward Black lives with support for the police officers who oppress them. When the same people who supported Blue Lives Matter stormed the Capitol and beat up police officers, they made something clear blue lives dont matter to them unless those blue lives are suppressing Black lives.

The insurrectionists at the Capitol aimed to overturn election results. They hoped to harm and kill members of Congress. They erected gallows and yelled: Execute the traitors!

When police officers tried to fight back against this mob, they were pulled into crowds by their legs. They were punched. They were shoved down flights of stairs. They were crushed in doors and beaten with hockey sticks and flag poles. Sicknick was murdered.

What happened to those peoples support for police officers during last summers protests? It seems they only care about the cops when the cops are upholding pillars of racism that benefit white people and harm minorities, specifically Black people. When those same police officers fought off that violent mob of people who supposedly cared about their wellbeing, that support was forgotten.

Blue Lives Matter is about protecting white supremacy and the institutional oppression of Black Americans. Its about perpetuating a narrative that Black people are to be feared and justifying the murders of innocent and undeserving human beings. Its clear to see because when examining the events of Jan. 6, one thing is for sure.

Its never been about the cops.

Charlotte Matherly is a junior media arts and design major. Contact Charlotte at mathercg@dukes.jmu.edu.

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Opinion | Blue Lives Matter was never about cops - The Breeze

by: via Nexstar Media Wire, The Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) Atlantic City says it will redo a Black Lives Matter tribute on a street because the original painting of those words across the entire road confused motorists who didnt know where to drive on it.

Instead, the words Black Lives Matter will be painted onto the repaved road in a manner that does not obscure lane divider markings, Mayor Marty Small said Thursday.

The City Council voted Wednesday night to spend $36,000 to repave the road, which police said had become so confusing to motorists that the city blocked it off at either end with barriers to prevent anyone from driving on it.

It was an oversight on our part, and when we realized it, we fixed it, Mayor Marty Small said. The words Black Lives Matter will still be on the street.

The road needs to be repaved because the type of paint used in the display cannot be painted over, officials said.

Last September, the city held an event in which volunteers donated paint, materials and labor to write Black Lives Matter in huge capital letters stretching from curb to curb on a section of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the citys downtown.

But the giant yellow letters obscured the yellow dividing line of the four-lane roadway, as well as the broken white lines on either side marking travel lanes.

Acting Police Chief James Sarkos told the council Wednesday night that the mural violated state Department of Transportation regulations. He also said motorists had become confused while driving on it, to the point that police had to close the road to traffic to prevent accidents.

The road painting was a compromise that averted a potential confrontation between activists who wanted to paint the words Black Lives Matter on the famous Boardwalk, and city officials who would not allow it.

City Council member LaToya Dunston accused the city of wasting taxpayer dollars by painting the road without knowing the rules governing it.

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Atlantic City to redo Black Lives Matter road paint that confused drivers - CBS17.com

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) Black Lives Matter 757 held a protest Saturday night regarding the recent officer-involved shooting at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

The protest began at 19th Street after members of the group attended the Virginia Beach Police press conference.

The march was held to protest the officer-involved shooting and death of Donovon Lynch, who was shot and killed Friday night.

Members of the group chanted Lynchs name at their protest as well as Black Lives Matter. BLM 757 told 10 On Your Side they wanted the officer involved in the shooting to be arrested like the others who were arrested for the shootings that took place Friday evening.

The group also raised concerns about police conducting an internal investigation and want Virginia State Police to take over.

I dont understand how this officer didnt have their body cameras on just conveniently during the time of firing on this young Black king. But we need to make sure that all officers have body cameras functioning at all times, said Japharii Jones, with Black Lives Matter 757.

Jones also said that investigators should also be required to wear body cameras and brought up Virginia Beachs City Councils decision to not allow citizens on their Investigative Review Panel the right to investigate and discipline officers.

The group says they will continue to protest at the Oceanfront most weekends and on major holidays until their is justice.

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BLM protest officer-involved shooting at Virginia Beach Oceanfront - WAVY.com

By PETER WOLF

(re: Looking at Black Lives Matter from one Jewish perspective, March 4)

Its hard to know what to make of Alvin Gordons Point of View. It is a mixture of falsehoods, bizarre distortions, irrational fears and rage at Black people, Black communities and Black leaders.

But when I cant make rational sense out of someones viewpoint, as a psychologist, I look for the psychological sense of it.

Mr. Gordon starts with some hypothetical situation of whether you would save an anonymous Black person versus a loved one if both were drowning. Of course you would save the loved one. Thats the way it actually is in real life, he says.

But you would also save your loved one before a stranger who is white, purple, whatever. And he ignored the situation where the Black person is your loved one, as is the case for me.

His hypothetical makes no rational sense to me. To me, it seems Mr. Gordon is conveying the thought, Come on, you are just as against Blacks as I am. Their lives matter less to you than white lives, dont they? Many of us dont belong to that club.

Then he attacks the slogan Black lives matter because all lives matter. Having watched and participated in Black Lives Matter protests, I have never heard anyone say other peoples lives dont matter. The Black Lives Matter movement came about because it seemed that, to some portion of the police, Black lives dont matter as much as white lives.

One of the beautiful things about the movement is that it is interracial. But when a particular group is having a problem, you focus on that problem.

If there were a Jewish Lives Matter movement in the 1930s, I dont think Mr. Gordon would condemn it for not dissolving that message into an all humans platitude.

Next he goes on about how the Black Lives Matter movement is not doing a damn thing about Black-on-Black crime. But Black Lives Matter has a different focus: police brutality. Would you attack a Jewish group supporting research on, say, Tay-Sachs disease for not dealing with anti-Semitism?

What is not known by many is the work of numerous groups dealing with inner-city violence. The right especially since the rise of Trump doesnt want to talk about it because Black lives dont matter that much to them.

The left, unfortunately, is afraid of acknowledging problems in the Black community for fear of attacks like Mr. Gordon offers. But 400 years of trauma, of being seen as being less than fully human, is going to be traumatizing.

To quote James Baldwin back in 1961, To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time.

For an example of one New York City group dealing with inner-city violence, there is Street Corner Resources, led by Iesha Sekou. It offers a variety of services, including violence interruption, working with neighborhood gangs. If this Black-on-Black violence concerns you beyond finger-pointing, look it up and make a donation.

There are many such groups, operating under the radar.

Mr, Gordon goes on to talk about local disputes decades ago. When there are real conflicts between competing groups which rub up against each other, there will be friction and, sadly, prejudice. On both sides.

Back in the day when I worked with inner-city kids, the Puerto Rican gangs would do battle with the Dominican gangs. In many parts of the world, this leads to inter-ethnic slaughter. (Remember what happened in the Balkans?)

What about today? Where are the Blacks attacking Jews? And I dont mean criticizing Israel, which many Jews also criticize. Of course today in, for example, Borough Park where there are turf battles there are Blacks who hate their Jewish neighbors, and Jews who hate their Black neighbors.

One of the things that I am most proud of as a Jew is our willingness to fight for the well-being of our fellow human beings, as exemplified during the civil rights movement by Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman who gave their lives. As the people of HIAS, who work with Latin Americans at our southern border (and other refugees), put it, We used to take refugees because they were Jewish. Now we take them because were Jewish.

A poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute last September found 66 percent of Jews had a favorable impression of Black Lives Matter, with 28 percent negative. Mr. Gordon is in the minority.

I have noticed that in the anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, anti-left diatribes that I had read in these pages not blaming The Riverdale Press, which also has printed the opposite view, including from me they get more hysterical as they go on. Mr. Gordon goes on to attack a bunch of Black people.

He claims Louis Farrakhan, who actually is anti-Semitic, is a friend of Obama. Really? Yes, they were once in a photo together at a meeting of Black leaders. Im sure there are pictures of him with devout Zionists.

He attacks Black anti-Semites, including U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib who isnt Black, but is of Palestinian descent. (The same for Mr. Gordon?)

How can a rational person (Im being generous) especially after the attack on the Capitol by right-wing white supremacist groups with a guy happily wandering around with a Camp Aushwitz shirt look at Black people and the left as being the source of danger to Jews?

And dont forget the synagogue in Pittsburgh. Or the Jews will not replace us march in Charlottesville. And their anti-Black plus anti-Semitic ancestor, the KKK.

It makes no rational sense. Never a mention of the actual people who hate and kill Jews, and who mixed in with armed white supremacist militias are a genuine threat.

There is only one answer, and I dont use such a word lightly. Racism. To play off Mr. Gordons ending (to the haters, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew) To the haters, a Black is a Black is a Black.

Why the racism? Why the fear and loathing of Black people?

Hey, Im a psychologist. But I am not Mr. Gordons psychologist.

Continue reading here:
Is there any other way to describe it than racism? - The Riverdale Press

More than a dozen cities have reviewed the police response to Black Lives Matter protests and the reports show poorly trained, over-militarized, and stunningly unprepared police forces across the country.

According to the New York Times, the missteps transcended staffing levels and financial resources meaning police departments from New Yorkto Indianapoliswere unprepared to deal with the protests. That includes everyone from top commanders to beat officers were not only unprepared and untrained to deal with the protests, but many of their actions did the exact opposite of what was intended.

The Times analyzed reports across the country by watchdog organizations and outside investigators in nine major cities and post-action examinations by police in five other large cities. One of the conclusions drawn from almost every report was that officers need more training when dealing with large, organized protests.

They also offered a range of proposals to improve and lessen the number of incidents between protestors and police. Those include entire departments working with community organizers and consulting with civil rights attorneys on protest-management solutions. Police leaders developing more restrictive guidelines for tear gas, rubber bullets, and other crowd-controlling weapons. The suggestions also include officers receiving more training to control their emotions and aggression in the moment.

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement began last summer after the death of George Floyd. More than 100 cities across the nation began marching and protesting against police brutality and called to defund police budgets and put more money into social services such as drug addiction and prevention, mental health services, and youth education and sports.

The overwhelming majority of those protests were peaceful, especially during the day. However, many were escalated by police actions. In New York, one officer shoved a woman violently to the ground. In Florida, a White cop shoved a Black woman kneeling in front of him and had to be removed from the area by a Black female officer.

In some incidents, the police themselves were under attack and forced to respond to buildings being burned stores being looted, and police being ambushed by protestors including one incident where a woman threw a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle.

Amnesty International has logged more than 120 incidents of violence by police in 40 different states during the summer of protests.

In the aftermath, more than a dozen cities cut their police budgets, redistributing their funds to various social services and introducing programs where social service officers will respond to non-emergency calls including mental health calls.

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Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests In Multiple Cities, Study Shows What We Already Know - Black Enterprise