Black Lives Matter has come under fire from over 100,000 people who have signed on to have the anti-police brutality group classified as a terrorist organization in a White House petition. However, the signatories may learn that petitions don’t matter.
A petition seeking to classify the civil rights organization Black Lives Matter as a terrorist outfit has exceeded 100,000 signatures on the White House’s petition center, We the People. Any initiative that receives at least 100,000 signatures is placed on a list of pending petitions to which the administration must respond within 60 days.
The author of the petition, known only as Y.S., created the petition a day after Alton Sterling was killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the same day that Philando Castile was shot during a traffic stop in a St. Paul, Minnesota suburb.
However, what may have helped the petition truly gain speed was an attack on police officers in Dallas, Texas the following evening.
The murder of five law enforcement officers and wounding of six others, plus two civilians, has cast a harsh light on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The shooter, Micah Johnson, had no direct affiliation with the group and had been blacklisted from several black-power groups due to his history of sexual harassment and emotional instability, the Daily Beast reported.
The lack of a direct connection to the BLM has yet to stop many people from assuming that the African-American shooter was a member of the movement. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick placed the blame for the attacks on the shoulders of the BLM, saying, “I do blame former Black Lives Matter protests.”
The petition reads, “terrorism [sic] is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims’. [sic]” and adds, “This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations.”
The justification for being on the same level as the Islamic State comes from “its actions in Ferguson, Baltimore, and even at a Bernie Sanders rally, as well as all over the United States and Canada.”