Black Lives Matter (BLM) argued that “responding to violence with more violence does not work” — seemingly forgetting months of their own violence — in support of the proposed People’s Response Act.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), would provide $2.5 billion for a First Responder Hiring Grant to support hiring non-police responders such as social workers and mental health counselors to tackle emergency situations, according to Bush’s press release.
“For too long, our flawed approach to public safety has centered criminalization, surveillance and incarceration, rather than care, justice and healing,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D- Mass.), the bill’s co-sponsor.
In a press statement, BLM praised the bill for tackling what they see as a long-overdue problem for the black community.
“From the War on Drugs to militarized policing to mass incarceration, Black, brown, and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately targeted and harmed by America’s policing and incarceration crisis,” the statement said.
“Responding to trauma with trauma does not work. Responding to violence with more violence does not work,” the BLM statement opined. “This never worked. And that’s why we’re getting behind the People’s Response Act.”
This, however, seems to be a case of short-term memory loss, given the progressive activist organization appropriated violence as part of their response to the killing of George Floyd last year.
In fact, the summer of BLM protests and riots, caused not only over $1 billion in property damage but also injured easily over 2,000 police officers, according to Axios and Police Magazine.
Many small businesses that were already barely surviving from the pandemic were also violently looted, burned, or destroyed in the riots — many of which were black-owned.