In the wake of the tragic recent events in Dallas, Falcon Heights, and Baton Rouge, the President brought together law enforcement officials, civil rights leaders, activists, faith leaders, academics, and state and local elected officials this week to encourage frank conversations about the steps we can take together to build trust and ensure justice for all Americans. As part of these conversations, the President directly addressed the concern that the "Black Lives Matter" slogan, social media movement, and the associated protests are somehow inherently anti-police:
"I know that there are some who have criticized even the phrase 'black lives matter,' as if the notion is, is that other lives don't matter. And so you get 'all lives matter' or 'blue lives matter.' I understand the point they're trying to make. I think it's important for us to also understand that the phrase 'black lives matter' simply refers to the notion that there's a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be addressed. It's not meant to suggest that other lives don't matter. It's to suggest that other folks aren't experiencing this particular vulnerability.
"And so we shouldn't get too caught up in this notion that somehow people who are asking for fair treatment are somehow, automatically, anti-police, are trying to only look out for black lives as opposed to others. I think we have to be careful about playing that game, just because that's not obviously what is intended."
What a broad range of people they met with…not. Don't tell me you really want to improve police relations when the main people you meet with are people like Al Sharpton and the very people complained about, Black Lives Matter agents.
Yes, being anti-police is exactly what Black Lives Matter intend. We could talk about the 8 police officers that Black Lives Matter supporters have actually killed, including the two officers assasinated in NYC, one in Kentucky, and the five in Dallas. We could talk about the dozens of assaults on police, including those just this past weekend, where 21 officers were injured by BLM attackers, one who threw a molotov coctail and another who dropped a concrete block on an officer's head in St. Paul, Minnesota.
But just as a matter of policy, BLM and many of their subsidiary organizations actually call for defunding, disarming and disbanding with police, so yes, you can't get a more 'anti-police' organization. It is a functional part of their demands.
Indeed, Mica Grimm, one of the BLM people with whom Obama met, was the leader of the group that chanted 'Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon' last year.
Here they are again this week, encouraging people to run over or shoot the police.
Black Lives Matter protest leader calls for running over, shooting police.pic.twitter.com/EPoK7gWsRs
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 11, 2016
So don't you dare tell me I shouldn't trust the evidence of my own eyes and ears.
Obama said, "And I understand these protests — I see them, they can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt."
The problem isn't just that they are "messy" (bleeding cops tends to be messy) and "hijacked by an irresponsible few".
The problem is that they are anti-police at their very core, that is who they are, and that is what Obama has encouraged.