The Democratic National Committee was on record as endorsing Black Lives Matter during its summer meeting of 2015, shortly before BLM activists chanted "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon." "Pigs in a blanket" refers apparently to police officers in body bags. The DNC did not withdraw its endorsement after this display; it instead invited BLM activists to organize a town hall meeting on "racial justice."

'Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon' demonstrators

We are emphatically not singling out one or two rogue activists as the face of BLM. The video shows a large number of protesters who call unanimously for the murder of police officers, while nobody among them objects visibly to this kind of language. Barack Obama later praised the organization's leaders even though, by February 2016, it was long on record as calling for "pigs in a blanket." Obama's guests at this meeting included Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) of the recent House sit-in, and the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton who also is on record as advocating the murder of white people in general and police officers in particular.

I don't believe in marching! I believe in offing the pigs! Well, they got pigs out here! You ain't offed one of them!

I'll off the man. Well, off him! Plenty of crackers walking around here tonight!

Prominent Democrats such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have, in fact, been frequent guests at Al Sharpton's National Action Network; the same organization whose racist and anti-Semitic hate speech helped incite the fatal arson of Freddie's Fashion Mart in Harlem. This is "Pay your respect to the black fist/ Or we'll burn your store right down to a crisp" in action against Jews rather than Asians, who were the original subject of these lyrics.

On Thursday, July 7, Micah Johnson gave BLM and Al Sharpton what they wanted: five dead police officers, and nine other people wounded. The Democratic Party, as represented officially by the DNC, is therefore pandering to BLM and Sharpton to appeal to the lowest socioeconomic class of Black voters; the ones who listen to and act upon misogynistic and violent rap lyrics such as those from "Cop Killer."

I got my twelve gauge sawed off.
I got my headlights turned off.
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off.
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off.

The remaining lyrics consist primarily of a well-known four letter word and the refrain, "Cop killer."

The same socioeconomic group as represented by BLM then jeopardized public safety by blocking interstate highways in Saint Paul, MN and San Francisco, CA. 21 police officers were injured during the Saint Paul riot, and I am calling it a riot because a protest, as sanctioned by the First Amendment, does not involve throwing rocks, bottles, fireworks, and bricks at the police or anybody else. BLM also staged recent riots in Rochester NY and Baton Rouge, LA. Most of the Rochester arrests were for disorderly conduct, a relatively minor violation, but rocks were again thrown.

The Saint Paul Police Department just reported on Facebook, meanwhile,

"A molotov cocktail has been thrown at officers. It is unclear if anyone has been injured. Some also dropped a large chunk of concrete onto an officer's head from a bridge. Officer injured."

If the Democratic National Committee wants and needs this kind of vote, it does not want or need anybody else's.

Does Black Lives Matter have a legitimate reason to protest? With the sole exception of what looks like the actual murder of a suspect by a police officer (who was subsequently charged), there are almost universally two sides to each of the stories that prompted the riots.

There Are Two Sides to Most Stories

Nobody condones for an instant unjustified police shootings. A bad cop is infinitely more dangerous than most criminals because the law is on the cop's side unless and until he does something so egregious that the law cannot stand behind him. It is astounding that the Wilkes-Barre police union filed a grievance when the mayor fired an officer "accused of pointing his loaded duty weapon at two other city cops in the police station." Somebody who negligently points a firearm, and all firearms are assumed to be loaded, at another person requires disciplinary action and/or retraining at the very least, but somebody who does so intentionally does not belong in any kind of job where he carries or handles a weapon. A willful firearm safety violation should be a "one strike and you're out" offense. Bad police are therefore dangerous to other officers as well as to ordinary citizens.

There are, however, two sides to most stories including the shooting in Ferguson that spawned Black Lives Matter in the first place. Here is a video in which a Black civil rights activist, who was previously highly critical of police, shot a "gentle giant" like Michael Brown in a simulated use of force exercise. His decision was correct because the other man was reaching for him and, even though he was unarmed, he could have taken the officer's weapon. Anybody who advances on a drawn gun is so malicious or deranged that one can reasonably assume one's life to be in danger.

The activist and another participant were also "killed" by a suspect whose hands they allowed to go out of sight for a couple of seconds, and the same thing happened to me during a gun training simulation; the aggressor had a knife behind his back. This Facebook video meanwhile shows actual surveillance videos of criminals attacking police with guns and other weapons, and so quickly that the officers often cannot react in time.

An instructor at FrontSight proved that the bad guy can shoot you while you are telling him to drop a pistol he is holding down by his side. He not only raised and fired the weapon before somebody could get past "Drop…," he hit the target in front of the backstop. That means that a real criminal with equivalent skills would have shot the law-abiding citizen or police officer that had ordered him to drop his weapon. A typical thug is not going to have equivalent skills, but nobody is obliged to bet his or her life on the proposition that their thug is typical. At about 1:55 in the Facebook video, an above-average thug draws a pistol from his waistband and shoots a police officer who already has his weapon in his hand. The outcome is totally contrary to the well-known adage that it is suicide to try to draw a weapon while the other person has one in his hand, and suggests that the officer should have shot the other man the instant his hand moved toward his pocket or waistband.

The other side of the story recently came out in the Alton Sterling case. The police were not responding to a report of somebody peddling CDs without a license (much as Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick opened fire on a suspect for selling balloons without a license). A homeless man had apparently called 911 to report Sterling, or somebody who looked like him, for brandishing a gun. This video from Blue Lives Matter reinforces the point that there is another side to the story.

It is also alleged that Philando Castile, who was killed during a traffic stop, had reached for his gun rather than his wallet. The BLM camp nonetheless rushed to judgment against these officers almost before investigations began, much as the Ku Klux Klan once rushed to judgment against Black suspects with a burning cross in one hand and a hangman's rope in the other. This is the camp that the Democratic National Committee supports officially while Barack Obama continues to defend BLM after the Dallas shooting.

William A. Levinson is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.