These past few days, I haven't been able to clear my mind of the bloody crimes committed against black bodies by the very people who were enlisted to protect them. I stand as an ally to the families of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Delrawn Small, Stephanie Hicks, and many more, as well as to the black community as a whole. Police brutality is a direct civil rights violation. This form of state-sanctioned murder completely upends not only the lives of the victims' families, but also the lives of the rest of the black community. I'm shocked to live in a country in which subjugated groups are put in a position to fear for their lives, especially at the hands of the police.

I am a passionate supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been under criticism since a peaceful protest turned violent in Dallas on Thursday July 8th. As a result, five police officers were shot dead by a sniper who took the nonviolent protest way too far. Regardless of race or profession, each of the people who died as a result of this week's events left behind children, parents, partners, and siblings. While I agree that there needs to be a widespread movement in the police force to put an end to the racial profiling and presumptive shooting of black civilians, the murder committed by the Dallas shooter was unjustifiable, as well as completely counterproductive to the movement to seal the gap between people of color and the police force. Still, the vengeful actions of one man are far from representative of the Black Lives Matter movement as a whole.

However, some politicians see the death of the Dallas police officers as a symptom of the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick blames "people on social media with their hatred toward the police." In fact, Patrick goes as far as to call protesters "hypocritical" for running away from the shooting and "expecting the men and women in blue to protect them." People who express their criticism toward our law enforcement do not do so because they "hate the police." They do so because the systemic oppression of people of color is often overshadowed by the blind patriotism we've been taught from birth. I choose to share my controversial beliefs about our law enforcement, not because I want to shut down conversation or express anti-police ideology, but because after being taught that our police exist only to protect us, it's easy to ignore the evidence that police make streets more, not less, dangerous for black Americans. Texas state representative Bill Zedler tweets, "Clearly the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter encouraged the sniper that shot Dallas police officers." What about the rhetoric of white politicians who choose to ignore some of the most prevalent issues because they aren't immediately prevalent to them? The rhetoric of Black Lives Matter does nothing more than call into question our country's unjust treatment of people of color. The Black Lives Matter movement is nonviolent in nature, and an entire movement cannot be blamed for the violent actions of one rogue individual.

While I acknowledge that this may not be the easiest time to be a cop in America, I believe that police officers can do their jobs without spilling blood. Why can a white teenager openly carry a loaded shotgun on a busy street and get charged with a misdemeanor, while a black man can't even reach for his ID without getting shot? Thousands of deaths could have been prevented if our system of law enforcement wasn't so focused on criminalizing the minor "broken windows" offenses that specifically target low-income people of color (i.e. public alcohol consumption, cannabis possession, loitering, spitting, jaywalking, etc.) In fact, many of these minor offenses are symptomatic of larger issues like homelessness, addiction, or mental illness, none of which the police are qualified to address.

Congressman Roger Williams dismisses a movement designed to raise awareness of our country's lack of regard for black lives as "the spread of misinformation" resulting in the condemnation of "one of the noblest professions by those who could benefit the most." The sheer number of unarmed black Americans brutalized by police officers is what condemns this profession, not any propaganda designed to persuade people of injustice that doesn't exist. I've faced my share of toxic hate comments for being "histrionic" and coming across as "anti-American" in my online reactions to current events. However, my intention in bringing awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement is not to minimize the deaths of hardworking police officers or to assert that white lives don't matter. While most guilty police officers will never see the inside of a jail cell, the Dallas shooter was executed on the spot. While about half the murder victims in the United States are white, 77% of people who are executed killed a white person, while only 13% killed a black person. In dismissing these injustices as "misinformation" and in presenting any resistance toward structural racism as a call for violence against the police, these congressmen completely undermine the realness of the racism on which our country was constructed.

Scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I'm struck by confusion. Facebook friends who'd never publicly expressed their solidarity with the hundreds of black people who died at the hands of the police are now picking up their pens to share their devastation as a result of the Dallas shooting. I agree, what happened last night was horrific and cold-blooded, but why speak up now if you haven't in the past? Are black bodies considered acceptable losses in the effort to protect our nation's citizens? In the last decade alone,the number of Americans killed by the cops surpassed the number of Americans killed in the Iraq war. And no one should be accused of backing the Dallas shooting for pointing this out.