Agreed completely.
Personally I wouldn’t ask that but let the person say or or not for themselves. Same for any matter of controversy really. I’ve found that people often tell you far more on their own than if directly asked on potentially sensitive matters.
Why not? On the face of it you’ve got one group saying that black lives matter and another saying that police lives matter and naively speaking I agree with both sentiments. In a vacuum, I don’t see how anyone could possibly disagree with either statement. So leaving my own views, opinions and etc. aside it seems like a perfectly inoffensive question; they have similar names, are they similar things? If the officer bristles or finds the question controversial then they are already telling me a lot.
So do you think you could say a little more about why you think I’m off to a bad start?
what if they find the question problematic because they don’t buy into the narrative that one is a response to the other?
I wouldn’t say a bad start, just not how I handle these kind of things for the reason stated before that I’ve found that people will in fact tell you their views unasked if you give them a chance.
I don’t see how asking if one is like the other implies that one follows from the other. There is obviously a passing resemblance and the points of similarity or difference that the officer might choose to focus on are bound to be illuminating one way or the other.
I think it helps that I have a goofy accent that marks me as someone if not from another planet then certainly from the other side of this one, but I feel confident that there’s nothing inherently controversial about me asking such an obvious question as “is Blue Lives Matter like Black Lives Matter”?
Ok but @codinghorror asked no questions and got no answers. If you want to know something you have to ask something. Where would you start?
Just like you “what’s that bracelet?”
Have racist co-workers, can confirm.
Consider that comfort a privilege; like others have already said, no matter how politely stated, the question can easily be misinterpreted as ‘questioning their authority,’ even though it technically has nothing to do with the traffic stop or the officer’s duties.
That said, I would be very interested to hear a cop’s answer to the question, but I’ll never ask it.
These days, I treat cops like the plague;
I avoid them at all costs, and I’d be reluctant to willingly call them, even in case of an emergency.
I’m not 100% sure that’s the case; the Wikipedia entry says
On December 20, 2014, in the wake of the killings of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, a group of law enforcement officers formed Blue Lives Matter to counter media reports that they perceived to be anti-police.
However, using the exact same name is definitely… odd, and sets up some bad optics. Not that either name is perfect, as @Melz2 pointed out it would perhaps have been less controversial and easier to understand for the average joe if “Black Lives Matter” had been originally called “Black Lives Matter Too”.
Hindsight is 20/20, but many people will only see what they want to see, regardless.
Though the word ‘too’ is heavily implied, there are many who actively choose to see it as ‘Only Black Lives Matter’, and that’s not the intent or meaning at all.
On December 20, 2014, Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, a 28 year old with a long criminal record born to a Muslim African-American family, killed two on-duty New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, ostensibly as revenge for the death of Eric Garner and the shooting of Michael Brown killings of unarmed black men by police. Brinsley then fled into the New York City Subway, where he committed suicide.
It was literally in direct response to BLM. There could not be a more direct line drawn between the two.
EDIT
The police union at the time literally said this violence was because the protests against police and the media coverage, officers tracked down people connected to the case an beat them, etc. While the killer was only associated with BLM by encoding its name (supposedly), Blue Lives Matter is a counter-BLM group through and through right down to the name.
Naming is incredibly important, and super difficult to get right. Especially in hindsight. The goal is to keep misunderstandings to a minimum.
Never underestimate the average person’s ability to understand things at the most superficial level possible. That’s not a criticism! People have a lot of their own shit going on, and no time to process Whatever You Care About. This goes sextuple for nuanced issues, of which there are a lot…
That’s great advice, but that bird has long since flown the coop.
We have to deal with the here and now, where the meaning has been explained clearly, repeatedly; but certain folks insist on ignoring the participating activists and instead assigning their own incorrect misinterpretation.
Basically anyone who honestly thinks that speaking out against racism is somehow ‘worse’ than actual systemic racism is complicit to enabling that system.
Nobody faults the suffragettes because their banners didn’t say “Votes for Women Too.”
Nothing is stopping us, or anyone, from referring to it as “Black Lives Matter Too”.
Not that “Blue Lives Matter Too” is any more acceptable, of course, but reducing misunderstandings helps.
One thing that weirds me out is that there seems to be a consensus among BBS commenters that the police should basically be disbanded, that civilization is better off without any police at all? Do we also have that feeling for firefighters, librarians, judges, and other essential roles that I view as the cornerstones of basic civilization?
There is no question at all that the political/social body of the United States values dearly its blue lives. That is demonstrated in too many ways to enumerate here. Stating blue lives matter as a retort to black lives matter is an offense, and a willful exercise in point-missing. And there is no reason to state by symbol or by word that blue lives matter than as a slap back at the idea that black lives matter.
You’re focusing on a minor semantic detail after the fact; and that’s problematic when it comes to seeking actual solutions.
I don’t really care what anyone calls it; the bottom line is I don’t want have to be more afraid of the cops than I am of the criminals, and that’s my reality right now.
Now you’re just pulling assumptive nonsense out of your ass, Jeff; I never said that, and I can’t recall seeing anyone else who comments in good faith say it, either.
I’m just trying to increase understanding of the actual goal of BLM, and reduce misunderstanding by average joes. The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is today.
Try actually listening, maybe; instead of just waiting for your turn to talk.
Because that’s often how conversations like this (race, gender) seem with you; nothing I say is actually getting through.
It gets tiresome.
FTFY, but yes, this is true enough.
