Elizabeth Robertson - It is not people chanting 'Black Lives Matter' that you need fear

To The Daily Sun,

I was disappointed to read Terry Stewart’s inflammatory letter to the editor online this morning. One foundation of journalism is the pursuit of the truth. It is this commitment to verification that separates journalism from propaganda, fiction, and advertising. Stewart’s letter makes untrue statements and draws misinformed conclusions, and that is unsettling. Let me set the record straight.

“Black Lives Matter[‘s]... mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives,” (blacklivesmatter.com, emphasis mine). Protests, especially this year, have felt very much like church to me. Collectively, we grieve. Collectively, we inspire joy in one another. Collectively, we speak, dream, and march for a better future, for a better present. Attend one and see for yourself.

Statistics do not support the false narrative of widespread violent protest in the U.S. Since May 24, there have been “more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country. Over 10,100 of these—or nearly 95 percebt—involve peaceful protestors. Fewer than 570 — or approximately 5 percent —involve demonstrators engaging in violence. Well over 80 percent of all demonstrations are connected to the Black Lives Matter movement or the COVID-19 pandemic,” (acleddata.com).

Not only does Black Lives Matter explicitly state that their mission is to protect Black communities from violence, here in N.H. there has not been one single incident of violence at any BLM event or protest that I have attended since they began in May. I have gone to many, with four generations of family, in places ranging from Plymouth to Dover to my hometown of Gilford, and they’ve all been peaceful, with zero incitement to violence — except those made by counter-protestors and elected officials like Representative James Spillane. Spillane posted online, “If you see a BLM sign on a lawn, it's the same thing as having a porch light on at Halloween. You are free to burn and loot that house.” (Emphasis mine)

The people being shot and killed in the street in broad daylight are, by and large, not police officers. They are Black men, women, and children. The FBI states that 37 law enforcement officers have been feloniously killed in the first eight months of 2020, while CBS news reports 164 Black men and women have been killed by police in the same period. In addition to police killings, right-wing extremists (i.e. the Proud Boys and the KKK, which still exists!) have killed 329 people in the last 25 years (from the Center for Strategic and International Studies database). White supremacists have walked into houses of worship to murder in cold blood. It is not the people chanting, “Black Lives Matter,” that you have to fear. A recent DHS assessment named “lone offender white supremacist extremists” as posing “the greatest threat of lethal violence” in 2020.

All lives do not matter until Black lives matter.

Elizabeth Robertson

Gilford