Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few days, you more than likely know about the horrific shootings that have taken place between police officers and Black Lives Matter Activists. Before I get too far into it, I was a Black Lives Matter supporter since it was instituted following the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012. I recently revoked my support for similar reasons that I revoked my support of the New Wave Feminism movement.

With that being said, I remain an equal rights activist fighting for equal rights for women, people of all races, people of all religions or lack thereof, and the LGBTQ community. I just no longer associate myself with these organizations/movements due to them being hijacked by extremists.

The first of the three shootings was the shooting of Alton Sterling. Unlike the other two shootings that followed, the specifics dealing with the shooting aren’t quite clear, however, there has been a video that surfaced. But I will recite what I know to be true and my thoughts on what we know thus far.

The police were called to the scene of a crime because someone had called complaining that there was someone there threatening people with a gun. Though we don’t know for sure who was threatening people with a firearm, authorities and the media believe that it was Alton. However, according to the owner of the store outside which the shooting took place, Alton Sterling was not the guy threatening people with a gun. So, again, we don’t know for sure. What’s more important than whether or not he was threatening people is the aftermath. When the cops arrived, they tackled Alton to the ground. From the video footage I saw, he was down and unarmed. In the video, you can seem him reaching for something. The police say he was reaching for his gun, but he had already been tased twice by that point, and all the cops really had to do was pull his arm back, push the gun away or even tase him again. But no, they decided to shoot and ask questions later, because that’s the way it’s done in America.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of the cop is that he was startled by the sudden movement of Alton, but if that were true, then he really shouldn’t be a cop. The way police officers are trained here in America is very old west or military state-like “shoot first, ask questions later.” From watching the video and hearing what the police had to say, I have a hard time believing that this shooting was necessary. Nobody in this situation needed to die.

The second shooting that took place, the shooting of Philando Castile, is a little more cut and dry because we do know more about it. Philando and his girlfriend were pulled over for a broken taillight, as ridiculous as that sounds. If the couple in the car were white would they have gotten pulled over at all? I’m not sure, but I’m almost willing to bet that they wouldn’t have. That’s not the point, though. When the cop came to the window of the car, Philando carefully and calmly informed the police officer that was carrying and he had a permit to do so. After he informed the officer of this, he slowly started to follow instructions and reach for his ID. Then the officer shot him.

If either of these two cases had signs of blatant and outright racism, it is this one. Here we had a black man (who worked at a school and people testified was a great guy) who informed the officer beforehand that he was carrying and had a license to do so. He then reached for his ID following the officer’s instructions and got shot. There is no sense in this, and by my estimations, both of these deaths could have been avoided. There is no reason to believe that Philando was going for his gun, and the end result was a senseless act of violence. We need to fundamentally change the way that police officers are trained here in America.

Which brings us to the next senseless act of violence. On July 7, 2016, 12 Dallas police officers were shot during a Black Lives Matter protest, five of them were killed. To be clear, the murderers were not the peaceful protesters and they’re not why I revoked my support. However, these terrorists (yes, I said terrorists) were black activists influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement. Moreover, several members of the Black Lives Matter movement rushed to social media and congratulated these murderers. Slowly but surely, the Black Lives Matter movement is morphing into a hateful group hijacked by extremists.

My Democratic colleagues are sure to let us know not to jump to conclusions, as are a few of my atheist friends. The problem is that my atheist friends were quick to condemn Omar Mateen and Islam following the Orlando shooting and Democrats, in general, were quick to condemn Dylan Roof of his massacre last summer. All of these situations are the same. The definition of terrorism is “an act of violence motivated by political or religious gain.” The people who shot these cops were politically motived by the shootings that took place before it. It is terrorism, albeit domestic terrorism, but terrorism regardless. Case closed.