One of the great misuses of power on the right is the reframing of protests for equal justice into attacks on general concepts most people do not have a problem with. Black Lives Matter, which is allied with movements for more equal representation, protecting democracy, and protections for marginalized groups, has received such a reframing. As conservatives turned Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem—in protest of racial injustice and law enforcement’s disproportionate use of violence against people of color—into an attack on military veterans, police departments across the country have turned the Black Lives Matter movement into an attack on police writ large. Even the good apples, so to speak.
Of course, in doing this, law enforcement and those on the right turn any criticism or critique of very obvious failings on the part of police into a battle between law and perceived chaos. It’s racist by nature, but it also turns anyone supporting racial justice into an enemy of police departments across the country. As HuffPost reports, this means that even organizations that do things that supposedly everyone—Republican or Democrat, white supremacist or antifa supporter—agrees with can find themselves being punished. Specifically, domestic violence programs are finding themselves losing police support based solely on their organization’s support of Black lives.
An example of how blue lives matter seems to mean no one else’s lives matter was explained by Katie Bement, executive director of a Wisconsin domestic violence organization named Embrace. According to Bement, after posting Black Lives Matter signs at four of their organizations locations, they received “emails from local law enforcement who were disturbed by the signs, interpreting them as anti-police.”
Bement and others tried to explain that Black and Brown Americans make up a lot of people in America, and supporting the idea that Black Lives Matter is about supporting the concept that Black … lives … matter. They put out a statement on Facebook that said, among other things, that they support their communities of color and that “As an anti-violence organization, Embrace cannot end one form of violence without addressing the other, and we cannot properly serve all survivors if we do not acknowledge and address the oppression and violence the most marginalized survivors are experiencing.”
Unfortunately, this was a bridge too far for white supremacists and political narcissists and on Oct. 7, Barron Country, Wisconsin, voted to defund Embrace, which was set to receive $25,000 in 2021. The vote also called for Barron County Health and Human Services director Stacey Frolik to resign from Embrace’s board.
Wisconsin Public Radio reports that a chief deputy of the Washburn County Sheriff's Department, “along with the Shell Lake Police Department, Spooner Police Department, Minong Police Department and Birchwood Police Department — were ending their affiliation with Embrace based on the statement.”
Since reports of this attack on the Wisconsin domestic violence organization went national, hundreds of people have stepped up to donate and support Embrace. They even set up a GoFundMe to help replace the $25,000 lost due to blue lives mattering more than the survivors of domestic violence in Barron County. Guess what? They’ve tripled that number as of the writing of this story. I guess more citizens value people’s lives over the racist assholes who abuse their positions of power to terrorize communities of color.