Black Lives Matter?

Yesterday as I watched a news feed about Black Lives Matter marching in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wondered if Dr. King would approve of them blocking the light rail system? I also found it ironic that since the police were the focus of their protest, that the police were keeping the protesters off of Interstate 94—which had they gotten on the freeway (like they have before), could have resulted in a lethal and tragic situation.

Then I formed a question in my mind. Do black lives really matter to this group? What I mean is, I could show numerous black on black deadly violence incidents that have occurred—yet the only ones that seem to matter to Black Lives Matter are the proportionally smaller number that have occurred when police have used deadly force.

My question: If there are two black lives and one black life shoots and kills the other one, does this matter? Does the loss of life only matter when it is during a struggle with police or does it matter even if the killer is also black? I only ask because no one is (still) addressing the issue that lots of African-Americans die violently—at the hands of other African-Americans.

Having worked within social services for a time, I still believe that the means to solving the big picture problem, is to have strong families, buy into the idea that education is key to success; and changing attitudes that set a pattern of crime and poverty.

But then, this whole issue is about pursuing the small picture viewpoint. It isn't really about changing society for the better is it? Nobody really wants the change if they have to change themselves. They just want the police to change.