title:  This Cop Sees Black Lives Matter In A Way That Will Make Conservatives’ Blood Boil
text: The battle between supporters of Black Lives Matter and those who see BLM as a racist, violent group of domestic terrorists is getting worse in the wake of the deaths of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, which BLM had zilch to do with. It s easy to assume that every police department everywhere are working on ways to stop BLM in their tracks, but that s not true. There is at least one department that actually sees BLM quite differently.Earlier this week, Phoenix Black Lives Matter hosted a forum in which police officers, and other community leaders, were invited to speak. The Phoenix Police Department s assistant chief, Mike Kurtenbach, said outright: The Phoenix Police Department doesn t see Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization. We view Black Lives Matter as a partner who holds us accountable.We stand with you to find solutions. There s no way to respond to that but with cheers, and Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton reinforced that by telling the diverse crowd that they re looking to have a very diverse police department, and they want people to apply to work in their department. More diversity can mean more accountability, which means changing policing for the better. Working with BLM as a partner, instead of fighting them as a terrorist group, also leads to better policing.We re full of people mostly conservative who believe that BLM is specifically waging a war against cops, though BLM actually decries that violence. They want to remain peaceful. Yet, our conservative leaders, particularly those at the Republican National Convention right now, scream about Black Lives Matter being inherently racist, as Donald Trump himself said. Then again, from a white supremacist, that s not too surprising, but it s disgusting that so many in the GOP agree with him.There s also Rudy Guiliani, who claims to have saved a lot more lives with his broken windows policy than Black Lives Matter ever did. He said: I don t see what Black Lives Matter is doing for blacks other than isolating them. All it cares about is the police shooting of blacks. It doesn t care about the 90 percent of blacks that are killed by other blacks. We don t see how he cares about black lives at all. New York City s broken windows policing model has led to a very, very racist department that targets members of the black community for really stupid stuff far more than white people.Then there are some police departments that see BLM as a threat, and any support of them as a gross insult, almost along the lines of people spitting on soldiers returning from a war they disagree with. For instance, the Somerville, Mass. department is calling for the removal of a Black Lives Matter banner from City Hall like it s the Confederate flag. Their union actually said: The Somerville Police Employees Association and its members are deeply troubled that the city continues to display the Black Lives Matter banner above the main entrance of City Hall. It is inconceivable to us as it is demoralizing that our city would propagate its support for this movement while standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country. The people who cry,  All lives matter,  really don t get why the movement specifies the black community. Some lives in this country matter more than others here. Given the rate at which unarmed black people are shot by police, are arrested and incarcerated by our justice system, and how they re perceived as guilty until proven innocent, their lives matter considerably less than other lives.That is an undisputable fact.So it s very refreshing to see a police department that s willing to work with BLM on improving policing by seeing them as a partner in this, rather than as a hostile movement that incites terrorism and insults police officers by its very existence. We need a lot more of this.Featured image via Phoenix Police Department