Why Blue Lives Matter is Not Freedom of Speech

One night I was walking out of the climbing gym I frequent, Upper Limits in Chesterfield, Missouri, (I moved back to my hometown recently) and noticed a cis, white man wearing a Blue Lives Matter hoodie. I was kind of taken aback. It was the end of the night and he was sitting at a table amongst other employees of the gym. These were people I had chatted with on occasion because I’m all about building relationships. I was taken aback because they were chatting casually as if this hoodie had a band name on it.

I confronted the man. He told me he was an assistant manager at the gym, and lo and behold also a cop. No surprise there. I told him why his hoodie is violent and how it will make people who climb at this gym feel unsafe and unwelcome. He told me he supports Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter and I told him that is a contradiction and you cannot support both because Blue Lives Matter is a white supremacist response to Black Lives Matter. Blue Lives already matter. Black lives in this country are the most vulnerable, least protected, and it’s cops who are killing them, along with white people who dial 911 when they feel the slightest bit uncomfortable in the presence of a Black person.

I also told him that I can say all of this only because I am a cis, white woman. I am protected in this country. No one is going to call the cops…