The scary BLM

Prompt: Black Lives Matter (BLM):

Recently there have been a few assaults/murders on the police by people who seemed to be inspired by the BLM movement.  Using the Al-Qaeda or ISIS model of influence, these assailants would be considered Home Grown Violent Extremists also known as domestic terrorists.  Does BLM have any responsibility for the murders?  Are the individuals carrying out the criminal acts simply murderers and not terrorists?  Or are their political messages or forms of demanding political/social change tied to these murders more akin to domestic terrorists?  Moreover, like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, has the group that fosters and advocates the hate, violence, and murders evolved into a domestic terrorist organization?

My disclaimer -  The right of American citizens to utilize the Bill of Rights is essential for us to maintain our freedoms.  Many groups have, and many groups will (and should) use these powers bestowed upon the people to effect political/social change.  I fully understand the origins of BLM and respect the initial movement to bring light what they feel are social and political injustices.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/08/28/texas-deputy-executed-days-after-black-radical-group-calls-for-killing-cops/ (Links to an external site.)

http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/29/black-lives-matter-protesters-chant-pigs-in-a-blanket-fry-em-like-bacon-video/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/08/28/black-activists-called-for-lynching-and-hanging-of-white-people-and-cops/ (Links to an external site.)

PLEASE be very respectful.  This is a sensitive topic for both pro-police as well as pro-BLM.  I would strongly recommend students review their posts carefully before hitting the submit button.  If we cannot discuss sensitive topics like this in an academic forum, where else can this type of issue be discussed (rhetorical question - no response necessary to this last statement)?


My argument:

Hey All,

This is a doozy, so to start off I think I should just  put it out there that I do not think that BLM is a domestic terror organization and that that  label should be used with caution.  The designation of "terrorist" or "terrorism" is becoming an all too common term that we will quickly become desensitized to.  The designation of lone offender or  homegrown violent extremist should be separated from the automatic domestic terrorist label. Let me explain.

In the particular case we were given a lone gunman shot a Harris County Sheriff's Deputy in the back of the head while he was simply fueling up his patrol car. Incensed by calls for violence seemingly from a radio show advocating for the lynching of whites and killing of cops (Price & Shadwick, 2015).  This on the surface screams domestic terrorism, but was it the shooters intent to change his or others situation by committing this act, or was he just acting on impulse after being told that  was the right thing to do. This feels more like a murder than terrorism. The tie-in to the BLM march in  St. Paul, Minnesota seems empty at best. There is no direct tie to BLM and the message used by BLM seems to be simply extremist rhetoric similar to chants we hear from middle eastern countries, "Death to America." Does this mean all citizens of middle eastern countries are international terrorists? Of course not. Does this absolve all international terror actors from there actions or make them not terror actions? Again, no.

In some way BLM  does have a responsibility for the actions taken on behalf of their message. But this does not automatically make their organization terroristic, just extreme. Further, any link to BLM was denounced in an official statement by the organization (Lussenhop, 2015). Again the individual actors in these attacks don't seem to have legitimate intentions behind their killings, they seem to merely be using the message as an excuse to commit murder. A closer fit to this designation would be  Robert Lewis Dear Jr. who killed 3 Planned Parenthood workers in a shooting on November 27th, 2015.  Mr. Dear's actions are directly linked to the definition of domestic terrorism as he was religiously motivated and his intent was to use violence and fear to essentially shut down operations at that particular facility, and others.

Ascribing the label of domestic terror organization does little for our nations overall security as BLM just simply doesn't fit the mold, in my opinion. If their messages were to be taken literally, there would have been far more fatalities during the time  of these messages, and further a common  sight at BLM rallies are white "allies," who if the message was literal would be killed in the name of the cause. Further members of BLM have joined smaller rights organizations such as Black Guns Matter, which is a primarily black  organization that can be seen at many 2nd Amendment rallies,  heavily armed, and acting peacefully  with other rally attendees.  These murderers should be called what they are, murderers, and BLM should be seen for what it is, a civil rights organization, albeit an extreme example of one, whose choice of rhetoric represents a group that has felt the burden of oppression for hundreds of years by  a system designed to oppress them.