BLUE LIVES MATTER VERSUS BLACK LIVES MATTER:
BENEFICIAL SOCIAL POLICIES AS THE PATH AWAY
FROM PUNITIVE RHETORIC AND HARM
Christopher E. Smith
*
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 463
I. COUNTERREACTION: ORIGINS AND OUTCOMES .................................... 464
A. The Origins of Two Organizations .................................................. 464
B. The Policy Response: Punitive Laws ............................................... 467
II. BENEFICIAL POLICIES: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PROTECTING AND
SUPPORTING POLICE OFFICERS ................................................................. 470
A. Resources ......................................................................................... 471
B. Public Policy .................................................................................... 474
C. Respecting Black Lives Matter ........................................................ 480
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 489
INTRODUCTION
The original website of the organization Blue Lives Matter explicitly
described its founding as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement.
1
According to the website, the fatal shooting of unarmed African-American
teenager Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, in
2014 led “agitators [to] spread outright lies and distortions of the truth about
Officer Wilson and all police officers.”
2
Like Black Lives Matter,
3
Blue
Lives Matter is a specific organization, as well as a slogan used by people
unconnected to the organization who share the organization’s worldview
about whom American society unfairly targets and victimizes.
4
Both slogans
*
Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University; Ph.D. 1988, University of
Connecticut; J.D. 1984, University of Tennessee; M.Sc. 1981, University of Bristol (U.K.); A.B. 1980,
Harvard University.
1
. Blue Lives Matter Mission Statement, BLUE LIVES MATTER, http://archive.bluelivesmatter.
blue/organization/#history (last visited Apr. 19, 2020) [hereinafter BLUE LIVES MATTER].
2
. Id.
3
. BLACK LIVES MATTER, https://blacklivesmatter.com/ (last visited Apr. 10, 2020).
4
. Compare Dara Lind, How “Blue Lives Matter” Went from a Reactive Slogan to White House
Policy, VOX (Feb. 9, 2017), https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14562560/trump-police-
black-lives (explaining that Republicans, particularly supporters of President Donald Trump, use “Blue
Lives Matter” as a slogan to show their support of police), with John Eligon, One Slogan, Many Methods:
Black Lives Matter Enters Politics, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 18, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/
us/one-slogan-many-methods-black-lives-matter-enters-politics.html (“[Black Lives Matter] is as much a
mantra as a particular organization . . . .”).
464 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
are used as calls to action that seek to motivate supporters’ efforts to shape
public opinion, law, and policy.
5
For those who trumpet the phrase “Blue
Lives Matter,” “[s]upport for law enforcement has become a form of identity
politics allyship for many white and conservative Americans.”
6
There is reason to wonder whether Blue Lives Matter advocates have an
excessively myopic focus on physical attacks against police officers
7
that
they claim are facilitated by false narratives from Black Lives Matter
adherents and their sympathizers in government and the news media.
8
Thus,
one should ask: What if there was a genuine commitment to “making blue
lives matter,” rather than just using the slogan and corresponding actions to
counterattack the statements and protests by Black Lives Matter advocates?
This Article examines this question and thereby challenges the viewpoints,
proposals, and consequences of current Blue Lives Matter rhetoric and
action.
I. COUNTERREACTION: ORIGINS AND OUTCOMES
A. The Origins of Two Organizations
Three friends created and spread the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013
as part of their outraged reaction to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the
neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an
unarmed African-American teenager walking home in Sanford, Florida.
9
One
year later, the hashtag was a prominent slogan for protesters and civil rights
advocates on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury declined to
indict Officer Wilson for killing Michael Brown.
10
The hashtag’s originators
5
. See, e.g., Lind, supra note 4 (“Speakers . . . led Republican National Convention attendees
in “Blue Lives Matter” chants. Blue Lives Matter bills that would make it a hate crime to target a police
officer have already been passed . . . .”); Eligon, supra note 4 (“Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag
and grew into a protest slogan . . . and became an Internet-driven civil rights movement.”).
6
. Lind, supra note 4.
7
. See, e.g., BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
[T]he founders decided that we could be doing more to help the officers who
are getting attacked in the streets. The Blue Lives Membership was created so
that citizens who aren’t afraid to support law enforcement could become
actively involved in providing law enforcement officers with life-saving
equipment and training, and providing financial support for the families of
heroes killed in the line of duty.
Id.
8
. See id. (“[Two New York City police officers] were ambushed and murdered by a fanatic
who believed the lies of Black Lives Matter, the media, and politicians.”).
9
. Elizabeth Day, #BlackLivesMatter: The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement, GUARDIAN
(July 19, 2015), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement.
10
. Id.
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 465
used social media to organize several hundred protesters to travel to
Ferguson,
11
in order to participate in the controversial multi-night protests
that included looting and arson by some of those present.
12
Photographs of
burning buildings and police officers wearing military gear to confront
unarmed protesters brought additional attention to the protests
13
—and to the
slogan “Black Lives Matter.”
14
Very quickly, parallel protests erupted in
more than 100 cities across the country.
15
The slogan’s impact was enhanced
through its visibility at street protests around the country concerning the
deaths of other African-Americans at the hands of police or while in police
custody during 2014 and thereafter.
16
As one observer described: “Black
Lives Matter serves as a banner under which multiple groups, individuals and
protests aim to address police brutality.”
17
Black Lives Matter became a formal organization with dozens of
chapters in cities around the country.
18
Yet, the chapters are local and
autonomous, and people unconnected to the formal organization take action
while using the slogan.
19
As an observer described: “The new movement is
powerful yet diffuse, linked not by physical closeness or even necessarily by
political consensus, but by the mobili[z]ing force of social media.”
20
As a
11
. Id.
12
. The Damage in Ferguson, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 25, 2014), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/
2014/11/25/us/ferguson-photos.html.
13
. See, e.g., Julia Craven, Mariah Stewart & Ryan Reilly, The Ferguson Protests Worked,
HUFFINGTON POST (last updated Feb. 18, 2016), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ferguson-protests-
municipal-court-reform_us_55a90e4be4b0c5f0322d0cf1 (including a picture of police officers in riot
gear); Black Lives Matter: A Movement in Photos, ABC NEWS, https://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/black-
lives-matter-movement-photos-44402442/image-44402849 (last visited Apr. 10, 2020) (including a
picture of an unarmed African-American in a contentious confrontation with a police officer).
14
. Nishat Kurwa, “Black Lives Matter” Slogan Becomes a Bigger Movement, NPR (Dec. 4,
2014), https://www.npr.org/2014/12/04/368408247/black-lives-matter-slogan-becomes-a-bigger-movement.
15
. Steve Almasy & Holly Yan, Protesters Fill Streets Across Country as Ferguson Protests
Spread Coast to Coast, CNN (Nov. 26, 2014), www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/us/national-ferguson-protests/
index.html.
16
. See, e.g., Carolyn Sung & Catherine E. Shoichet, Freddie Gray Case: Charges Dropped
Against Remaining Officers, CNN (July 27, 2016), https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/27/us/freddie-gray-
verdict-baltimore-officers/index.html (“Gray’s death became a symbol of the black community’s mistrust
of police and triggered days of protests and riots in Baltimore. The city became a focal point of the Black
Lives Matter movement . . . .”); Wesley Lowry, Black Lives Matter: Birth of a Movement, GUARDIAN
(Jan. 17, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/black-lives-matter-birth-of-a-
movement (“The social justice movement spawned from Mike Brown’s blood would force city after city
to grapple with its own fraught histories of race and policing. . . . [P]rotests propelled by tweets and
hashtags spread under the banner of Black Lives Matter . . . .”).
17
. Josh Hafner, How Michael Brown’s Death, Two Years Ago, Pushed #BlackLivesMatter into
a Movement, USA TODAY (Aug. 8, 2016), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/08/
08/how-michael-browns-death-two-years-ago-pushed-blacklivesmatter-into-movement/88424366/.
18
. Day, supra note 9.
19
. Id.
20
. Id.
466 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
result, chapter leaders seek to avoid identification with, and responsibility
for, violence and property damage by unaffiliated people at protests in which
the Black Lives Matter slogan is displayed.
21
When police officers were
injured at a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, a local Black Lives
Matter leader said: “There were people [from] outside of the community that
I didn’t recognize . . . . They were doing stupid stuff, and it’s something we
don’t tolerate.”
22
The organization faces potential blame for everything that
occurs at events at which anyone uses or displays the slogan, as evidenced
by a Louisiana police officer’s unsuccessful attempt to sue the organization
when he was seriously injured at a protest.
23
While the organization can likely
avoid legal liability for harms that occur under the slogan,
24
the prominence
of the slogan and movement make it a tempting target for opposition and
blame by critics.
25
The Blue Lives Matter organization identifies its founding moment as
the murder of two police officers in New York City that it blames on Black
Lives Matter: “On December 20, 2014, NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos and
Officer Wenjian Liu were ambushed and murdered by a fanatic who believed
the lies of Black Lives Matter, the media, and politicians.”
26
In the years that
followed, the organization found reinforcement for this motivation and
explanation of events in subsequent injurious attacks on police associated
with protests under the Black Lives Matter banner.
27
In particular, two
horrific events provided notable opportunities to reinforce this perspective:
the killing of five police officers by a lone gunman at an otherwise peaceful
protest in Dallas in July 2016
28
and the ambush killing of three officers in
21
. See, e.g., Josh Sanburn, Black Lives Matter Leader Condemns Violence at St. Paul Protest,
TIME (July 10, 2016), https://time.com/4400330/st-paul-protests-philando-castile-black-lives-matter/
(reporting on a Black Lives Matter leader in St. Paul, Minnesota, who denounced violent acts by outsiders
against police).
22
. Id.
23
. Joe Gyan, Wounded Baton Rouge Deputy’s Lawsuit Against Black Lives Matter Rightly
Dismissed, Appeals Court Says, BATON ROUGE ADVOC. (Aug. 16, 2018), https://www.theadvocate.com/
baton_rouge/news/courts/article_11cdb1da-a168-11e8-a51a-53e06e434a73.html.
24
. Id.
25
. See, e.g., infra notes 26–35.
26
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
27
. The Blue Lives Matter website contains an entire section of articles about Black Lives Matter
that seem intended to generate outrage and present Black Lives Matter as threatening to society. See, e.g.,
Officer Blue, Black Lives Matter Assault Police During Arrest at Charlotte Airport Immigration Protest,
BLUE LIVES MATTER (Jan. 30, 2017), http://archive.bluelivesmatter.blue/black-lives-matter-assault-
police-arrest-charlotte-airport-immigration-protest/ (portraying Black Lives Matter’s participation in a
protest over President Trump’s first travel ban as an attempt to “hijack” an unrelated protest, spread false
information about a police shooting of a black man, and assault police).
28
. Sniper Ambush Kills Five Officers, Injures 7 in Dallas Following Peaceful Protest,
NBCDFW (July 7, 2016), https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Protests-in-Dallas-Over-Alton-Sterling-
Death-385784431.html [hereinafter Sniper Ambush].
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 467
Baton Rouge a few days later,
29
with both gunmen apparently angered by
highly publicized killings of African-American men by police. Neither
shooter claimed formal membership or affiliation with the Black Lives
Matter organization,
30
but both tragic events occurred either in conjunction
with (Dallas)
31
or soon after (Baton Rouge)
32
Black Lives Matter-related
protests. In both cases, Black Lives Matter organizational leaders condemned
the shootings
33
and argued that “[t]o assign the actions of one person to an
entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible.”
34
Yet, the Blue Lives
Matter organization does indeed blame Black Lives Matter for encouraging
individuals to inflict harm on police officers.
35
B. The Policy Response: Punitive Laws
The policy-making responses to the Blue Lives Matter initiative have
had one predominant focus: increasing sentences for those convicted of
offenses against police officers.
36
This is not the exclusive approach, as
evidenced by the first congressional response to the ambush murders of New
York Officers Ramos and Liu—a bill signed into law by President Obama in
29
. Steve Visser, Baton Rouge Shooting: 3 Officers Dead; Shooter Was Missouri Man, Sources
Say, CNN (July 18, 2016), https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/17/us/baton-route-police-shooting/index.html.
30
. See Sniper Ambush, supra note 28 (reporting that, during negotiations with the police, the
barricaded shooter said, “he was not affiliated with any group, [and] carried out the act alone”); Visser,
supra note 29 (quoting a statement the shooter posted in advance on YouTube: “I just wanted to let y’all
know, don’t affiliate me with nothing . . . . I thought my own stuff; I made my own decisions . . . .”).
31
. Sniper Ambush, supra note 28.
32
. The Baton Rouge shooting occurred less than two weeks after several days of protest in
response to a bystander-recorded video capturing the shooting death of Alton Sterling, an African-
American man. Compare Visser, supra note 29 (reporting that a man killed three police officers in Baton
Rouge on Sunday, July 17, 2016), with Steph Solis, Protests Break out After Baton Rouge Police Fatally
Shoot Man, CNN (July 5, 2016), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/05/baton-rouge-
alton-sterling-police-shooting/86738368/ (stating that the incident which left Sterling dead occurred on
Tuesday, July 5, 2016). The video showed that police shot Sterling as he was resisting being handcuffed
while held on the ground by two police officers. Id.
33
. See Joshua Berlinger, The Baton Rouge Photograph that Everyone Is Talking About, CNN
(July 11, 2016), https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/us/baton-rouge-protester-photograph/index.html
(“Black Lives Matter protesters condemned the Dallas killings . . . . ‘Black activists have raised the call
for an end to violence, not an escalation of it . . . . [The] attack was the result of the actions of a lone
gunman.’”); see also Gyan, supra note 23 (“[A Black Lives Matter leader] condemned [the Baton Rouge
shooter’s] attack within hours of it occurring and said the Black Lives Matter movement began as a call
to end violence and remains so.”).
34
. Berlinger, supra note 33.
35
. See BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1 (“The media catered to movements such as Black
Lives Matter, whose goal was the vilification of law enforcement . . . . Personal responsibility for one’s
actions went away, replaced by accusations of racism and an unjust government.”).
36
. Julia Craven, 32 Blue Lives Matter Bills Have Been Introduced Across 14 States This Year,
HUFFINGTON POST (Dec. 11, 2017), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/blue-black-lives-matter-
police-bills-states_us_58b61488e4b0780bac2e31b8 [hereinafter Craven, Blue Lives Matter Bills].
468 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
2015 to create a national alert system to disseminate threats against the
police.
37
Beginning with Louisiana’s 2016 law, however, the predominant
approach reflected in new statutes and proposed laws has emphasized
enhancing punishments by including assaults on police as a covered category
in hate-crimes statutes.
38
A similar, parallel approach was simply to
legislatively authorize more severe punishments for attacks on police
officers.
39
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a proposed “Protect and
Serve Act” in 2018 to treat assaults on police officers as federal crimes and
increase penalties for such crimes.
40
The proposed bill in the U.S. Senate took
a different approach by including attacks on police in federal hate-crimes
laws.
41
Both liberal
42
and conservative
43
publications have criticized the
punitive legal approach to advancing the Blue Lives Matter initiative. Liberal
critics see such laws as unnecessary, because attacks against police officers
are already subject to strong punishments without any hate-crimes
requirements of proving motivated targeting.
44
Moreover, police officers do
not fit the rationale of hate-crimes legislation, which is directed to protect
historically persecuted groups who have been subject to systemic
discrimination.
45
In addition, there are concerns that prosecutors will stretch
37
. See Gregory Korte, Obama Signed “Blue Alert” Law to Protect Police, USA TODAY
(May 19, 2015), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/19/obama-blue-alert-law-bill-
signing/27578911/ (describing the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015, Pub.
L. No. 114-12, 129 Stat. 192).
38
. Craven, Blue Lives Matter Bills, supra note 36.
39
. Loren Thomas, Bill Could Increase Penalties for Crimes Against Police, WLTX19 (Feb. 8,
2017), https://www.wltx.com/article/news/local/bill-could-increase-penalties-for-crimes-against-
police/101-405204115.
40
. Deborah Barfield Berry, House Passes Tough Penalties for Those Who Attack, Ambush Law
Enforcement Officers, USA TODAY (May 17, 2018), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/
05/16/law-enforcement-house-passes-tough-penalties-attacks-officers/617154002/.
41
. Id.
42
. See, e.g., Collier Meyerson, The Case Against “Blue Lives Matter” Bills, NATION (May 23,
2017), https://www.thenation.com/article/case-blue-lives-matter-bills/ (arguing that a New York bill that
would make an offense against a police officer a hate crime would increase the punishment an offender
faced, but would not deter the offense).
43
. See, e.g., John-Michael Seibler, Our Police Deserve to Be Protected, but Congress Proposes
Wrong Idea, HERITAGE FOUND. (Aug. 13, 2018), https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/commentary/
our-police-deserve-be-protected-congress-proposes-wrong-idea (characterizing Blue Lives Matter
sentencing enhancements as contrary to federalism principles and failing to address actual problems in a
meaningful way).
44
. See, e.g., Rebecca Beitsch, Is Killing a Police Officer a Hate Crime?, PBS (Aug. 3, 2016),
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/killing-police-officer-hate-crime (explaining why critics find no
need to include police in hate-crimes laws).
45
. See id. (explaining that critics believe amending hate-crimes laws to further protect police
officers would “dilute [the laws’] original intent: ratcheting up the punishment for acts designed to
intimidate whole communities”); Kanya Bennett, Congress Wants More Protections for Cops While
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 469
these laws to bring hate-crimes charges against uncooperative people who
are deemed to be resisting arrest, but who are not physically attacking an
officer.
46
With respect to federal proposals, conservative critics raised
concerns about congressional interference with matters that should be left
under state authority.
47
Moreover, these laws may be overly broad,
potentially authorizing federal charges against someone who takes a swing
at an officer but fails to strike any blow.
48
In an especially harsh assessment
of the punitive legal approach to Blue Lives Matter laws, one observer
remarked that such laws “protect and serve cops who hassle innocent people
or use excessive force [by] giving them a new legal threat to use against their
victims.”
49
The fundamental questions about these laws ought to be: (1) What is the
exact problem these laws seek to address? and (2) Do these laws address the
actual problems facing law enforcement officers? Highly publicized ambush
attacks against police officers triggered the creation of these laws,
50
including
the attacks in New York City and Dallas
51
that some Blue Lives Matter
advocates blame on Black Lives Matter activists.
52
Despite the claim that this
“type of violence . . . is growing at exponential rates,”
53
FBI data indicate
that felonious assaults and fatal killings of police officers have gone up and
down in individual years over the past decade, but there is no significant
increase, or even upward trend, in victimizations.
54
The laws are clearly
Ignoring Police Reform, ACLU (May 17, 2018), https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-
reform/reforming-police-practices/congress-wants-more-protections-cops-while (arguing that it is
inappropriate to characterize an offense against a police officer as a hate crime, because hate crimes are
acts perpetrated against groups that have been historically and systematically discriminated against—
police officers have not suffered historical or systematic persecution).
46
. Julia Craven, Louisiana Police Chief Shows Why the State’s Blue Lives Matter Law Is So
Dangerous, HUFFINGTON POST (Jan. 23, 2017), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/blue-lives-matter-
law-lousiana_us_588653dde4b0e3a7356ae3ae.
47
. Seibler, supra note 43.
48
. Jacob Sullum, Congress Stands with the Blue, Against the Constitution, REASON (May 23,
2018), https://reason.com/archives/2018/05/23/congress-stands-with-the-blue-against-th.
49
. Id.
50
. Craven, Blue Lives Matter Bills, supra note 36.
51
. Id.
52
. Id.
53
. Id.
54
. CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFO. SERVS. DIV., FED. BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS KILLED OR ASSAULTED, tbls.1, 82 (2017), https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2017/
resource-pages/tables-by-title-2017 (reporting felonious assaults and fatal killings of police officers by
year); see also Edward R. Maguire, Justin Nix & Bradley A. Campbell, A War on Cops? The Effects of
Ferguson on the Number of U.S. Police Officers Murdered in the Line of Duty, JUST. Q., Sept. 29, 2016,
at 12–13 (deploying data to refute claims that fatal attacks on police have increased since the events in
Ferguson, Missouri, that gave prominence to the Black Lives Matter organization and movement).
470 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
retributive in nature,
55
yet “[n]early all states already have laws enhancing
the punishments for certain violent crimes against law [enforcement]
officers.”
56
Some advocates claim that the increased punishments will have
a deterrent effect that will reduce attacks on police.
57
There is no evidence,
however, that such laws will actually deter people who harbor a specific
motivation to harm police officers,
58
especially because crimes against police
officers are already addressed with significant punishments.
59
Thus, rather
than actually increasing any benefit to police officers who work in an
environment of risk, observers see these laws as merely symbolic statements
by politicians who want to claim that they are doing something about crimes
against public servants.
60
II. BENEFICIAL POLICIES: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PROTECTING AND
SUPPORTING POLICE OFFICERS
On its original website, the Blue Lives Matter organization noted that
subsequent to its founding it sought to broaden its efforts to benefit officers
by becoming a membership organization that would include regular citizens:
[T]he founders decided that we could be doing more to help the
officers who are getting attacked in the streets . . . . Membership
was created so that citizens . . . could become actively involved in
providing law enforcement officers with life-saving equipment
55
. See New “Blue Lives Matter” Laws Raise Concerns, DETROIT NEWS (May 26, 2017),
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2017/05/26/blue-lives-matter/102196678/ [hereinafter
Laws Raise Concerns] (quoting one governor who pledged to enact “the toughest penalties possible for
anyone who attacks a law enforcement officer”).
56
. Id.
57
. See, e.g., Thomas, supra note 39 (quoting one state legislator who described a proposed bill
as “creating a special class of victims and giving them additional protections [to] hopefully . . . serve[] as
a deterrent if someone were inclined to attack a police officer, this would hopefully give them pause”);
William Douglas & Eleanor Mueller, “Blue Lives Matter”: Push to Raise Penalties for Violence Against
Cops, MCCLATCHY DC (May 26, 2016), https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/
congress/article80058187.html (reporting that law enforcement organizations argue punitive Blue Lives
Matter laws “will send a message and make suspects think twice before targeting officers”).
58
. Deterrence effects in criminal justice are extremely difficult to prove because researchers, in
effect, are attempting to document the rates of events that did not occur. GEORGE F. COLE, CHRISTOPHER
E. SMITH & CHRISTINA DEJONG, THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE 515 (16th ed. 2019).
59
. See Craven, Blue Lives Matter Bills, supra note 36 (explaining that, prior to the enactment
of Blue Lives Matter laws, “[a]ll 50 states . . . [already had] statutes that automatically increase the
penalties for violent attacks on police”).
60
. See, e.g., Laws Raise Concerns, supra note 55 (“[A] criminal law expert at Cornell
University Law School . . . said the new laws ‘reek of political pressure to do something symbolic as a
way of expressing solidarity with police officers.’”).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 471
and training, and providing financial support for the families of
heroes killed in the line of duty.
61
Although the website’s language focuses on attacks against police officers,
the organization’s efforts can be broader at specific moments, such as raising
money for an officer’s infant son who needed a heart transplant.
62
If Blue
Lives Matter could fully adopt this broader focus—moving beyond a reactive
posture toward Black Lives Matter and a preoccupation with officers’
victimization—what might that mean for the advocacy of beneficial policies?
One conservative commentator who was critical of the enactment of punitive
Blue Lives Matter laws argued in favor of a broader approach by saying we
should “support police with equipment, grants, research and training
programs.”
63
Yet, even this broader view of the support that police officers
actually need does not fully capture the breadth of policies that would
improve officers’ well-being and law enforcement effectiveness.
64
A. Resources
Policing is a profession that includes risks of violent victimization,
65
as
well as significant levels of health-harming stress,
66
with attendant risks of
suicide.
67
A broader view of harms experienced by police reveals that policies
should account for psychological risks and harms to officers and their
families, and should ask whether counselors and psychologists have
sufficient understanding of police culture to provide effective help.
68
With respect to the Blue Lives Matter preoccupation with lethal attacks
on police, there is certainly a need to ensure that officers throughout the
61
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
62
. Gabrielle Fonrouge & Katherine Lavacca, Blue Lives Matter Raises Money for Cop’s
Newborn with Rare Disease, N.Y. POST (Jan. 18, 2019), https://nypost.com/2019/01/18/blue-lives-
matter-raises-money-for-cops-newborn-with-rare-disease/.
63
. Seibler, supra note 43.
64
. See infra Part II.B (discussing the physical and mental challenges police face on the job and
the ways to best remedy them).
65
. David M. Bierie, Paul J. Detar & Sarah W. Craun, Firearm Violence Directed at Police, 62
CRIME & DELINQ. 501, 501–02 (2013).
66
. Lily Chi-Fang Tsai, Claire Angelique R.I. Nolasco & Michael S. Vaughn, Modeling Job
Stress Among Police Officers: Interplay of Work Environment, Counseling Support, and Family
Discussion with Co-Workers, 19 POLICE PRAC. & RES. 253, 255 (2018); Ronald J. Burke, Stress in
Policing: An Overview, in STRESS IN POLICING 3 (Ronald J. Burke ed., 2017).
67
. See generally John M. Violanti et al., Correlates of Hopelessness in the High Suicide Risk
Police Occupation, 17 POLICE PRAC. & RES. 408, 408 (2016).
68
. See ELLEN KIRSCHMAN, MARK KAMENA & JOEL FAY, COUNSELING COPS: WHAT
CLINICIANS NEED TO KNOW 1 (2014) (“[Police] overcame their natural resistance to asking for help, only
to be turned off by well-meaning, and occasionally not so well-meaning, clinicians who didn’t understand
the law enforcement culture . . . .”).
472 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
country have access to protective gear, communications systems, and video
equipment. These tools impede physical attacks,
69
accelerate calls for
backup,
70
and generate evidence about what happened during encounters,
respectively.
71
Recent reports suggest that not every police department
currently requires officers to wear protective vests.
72
Some departments
make exceptions for police administrators, even for those administrators who
may arrive at a warrant-execution or crime-in-progress event to supervise
officers.
73
In addition, there are questions about sufficient availability of the
highest-strength body armor to reduce instances in which officers wearing
weaker vests are killed by assailants using high-powered rifles.
74
Thinking
more broadly about protective vests, equipping all police dogs with bullet-
proof vests, making them less easily incapacitated by gunfire during
encounters with armed assailants, might further reduce risks to officers.
75
Blue Lives Matter advocates primarily focus on a purported “war on
cops,”
76
with an attendant prescriptive emphasis on both delegitimizing
Black Lives Matter claims and promoting punitive sentencing laws.
77
They
69
. See, e.g., Noelle Phillips, Two Colorado Deputies Were Killed While Wearing Body Armor.
Do Cops Need Better Protection?, DENVER POST (Feb. 5, 2018), https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/
05/do-colorado-police-need-better-protection/ (reporting that many police officers wear protective vests
that are ineffective against certain high-powered weapons available to the public).
70
. See, e.g., Jeremy G. Carter, Eric L. Piza & Eric Grommon, Leveraging Wireless Broadband
to Improve Police Land Mobile Radio Programming: Estimating the Resource Impact, 42 J. CRIME &
JUST. 60, 60–61 (2019) (identifying benefits to policing of wireless broadband radio programming that
police departments do not yet widely utilize).
71
. See, e.g., Kimberly Kindy, Some U.S. Police Departments Dump Body-Camera Programs
Amid High Costs, WASH. POST (Jan. 21, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/some-us-
police-departments-dump-body-camera-programs-amid-high-costs/2019/01/21/991f0e66-03ad-11e9-
b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html?utm_term=.3b59373bf1ba (explaining that the costs of body cameras and
data retention make such devices too costly for small police departments).
72
. See, e.g., Rob Low, Not All Police Departments Mandate Body Armor for Officers, FOX31
DENVER (May 9, 2018), https://kdvr.com/2018/05/09/not-all-police-departments-mandate-body-armor-
for-officers/ (finding that, of 23 police departments studied, 4 did not require officers to wear protective
vests); Sydney Smith, Body Armor Mandatory for Most Area Officers, TIMES HERALD (Aug. 25, 2016),
https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2016/08/25/body-armor-mandatory-most-area-
officers/89331722/ (reporting that, in the Port Huron, Michigan, area, body armor was mandatory for
officers in the field but not always mandatory at the police station).
73
. Amy R. Connolly, Georgia Police Officer Killed While Serving Warrant, Not Wearing Vest,
UNITED PRESS INT’L (Feb. 12, 2016), https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/02/12/Georgia-police-
officer-killed-while-serving-warrant-not-wearing-vest/2451455273003/.
74
. Phillips, supra note 69.
75
. Cf. Aileen Wingblad, Ready for Action: Protective Vests Donated to Police Canines,
OAKLAND PRESS (Apr. 27, 2018), https://www.theoaklandpress.com/news/nation-world-news/ready-for-
action-protective-vests-donated-to-police-canines/article_5f3a4d05-5f70-5882-a0ab-0dc0b207aaf4.html
(noting incidents where police dogs were killed in confrontations because they were not wearing
protective vests).
76
. Douglas & Mueller, supra note 57.
77
. Id.
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 473
also recognize that broadening law enforcement resources is a desirable
means to improve safety for police and the public.
78
Yet, while the Blue Lives
Matter organization explicitly says, “[we] will continue to support law
enforcement in any way when there is a need,”
79
their protect-the-police
rhetoric does not address the psychological burdens and harms suffered by
police.
80
A true commitment to protecting and supporting police officers
should presumably encompass concern for and advocacy about harmful
psychological problems affecting police officers, including suicide risk,
81
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
82
mental illness,
83
and injury risk
associated with chronic fatigue.
84
These and related issues
85
deserve
additional attention and resources, because they impact officers’ well-being
and effectiveness.
86
As these examples indicate, a genuine commitment to
protecting and supporting police officers requires a broader awareness of the
risks and harms police officers experience and an abandonment of the myopic
preoccupation with reacting against the Black Lives Matter social
movement.
87
Indeed, a comprehensive effort to protect and support police
78
. See BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1 (“We will work to provide law enforcement with
life-saving equipment and training . . . .”); Josh Koehn, Blue Lives Matter, Police Union Miss Key Moment
for Change by Attacking Black Lives Matter, SAN JOSE INSIDE (July 25, 2016), http://www.sanjoseinside.
com/2016/07/25/blue-lives-matter-sj-police-union-miss-key-moment-for-change-by-attacking-black-
lives-matter/ (reporting on a press release issued by the San Jose Police Officers Association, an
organization overtly critical of Black Lives Matter that echoes Blue Lives Matter claims and arguments,
saying: “It is past time for our political leaders to step up and support law enforcement with the necessary
staffing and equipment . . . .”).
79
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
80
. Id.
81
. See, e.g., Ian Stanley, Melanie Horn & Thomas Joiner, A Systematic Review of Suicidal
Thoughts and Behaviors Among Police Officers, Firefighters, EMTs, and Paramedics, 44 CLINICAL
PSYCH. REV. 25, 41 (2016) (finding, based on a review of empirical data, that police officers may be more
susceptible to suicidal thoughts).
82
. See Brian Chopko, Patrick Palmieri & Richard Adams, Critical Incident History
Questionnaire Replication: Frequency and Severity of Trauma Exposure Among Officers from Small and
Midsize Police Departments, 28 J. TRAUMATIC STRESS 157, 159 (2015) (examining the contribution of
traumatic events to police officers’ experiences of PTSD).
83
. See generally Sean Bell & Yarin Eski, “Break a Leg—It’s All in the Mind”: Police Officers’
Attitudes Toward Colleagues with Mental Health Issues, 10 POLICING 95 (2016) (identifying challenges
with police organizational culture for those officers with mental illness issues).
84
. See, e.g., Desta Fekedulegn et al., Fatigue and On-Duty Injury Among Police Officers, 60 J.
SAFETY RES. 43, 50 (2017) (providing evidence of association between fatigue and on-duty injuries for
police officers).
85
. See, e.g., Kerry Karaffa et al., Perceived Impact of Police Work on Marital Relationships,
23 FAM. J. 120, 121 (2015) (examining occupational factors that can affect police officers’ marital
relationships).
86
. See generally John Violanti et al., Police Stressors and Health: A State-of-the-Art Review,
40 POLICING 642 (2017) (showing psychological and physiological effects of stress on police).
87
. Koehn, supra note 78.
474 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
officers actually requires consideration of larger social and political issues
that affect the work—and everyday risks—of policing.
88
B. Public Policy
The foregoing discussion of the police need for protective armor—both
physical and psychological—focused narrowly on supporting officers
directly, without considering the social forces and contexts that increase the
risks and threats faced by officers.
89
Yet, these contexts are obviously
important to protecting and supporting police officers, because the frequency
and probability of harm police officers experience varies in different
situations.
90
Thus, a comprehensive effort to value and protect officers must
consider a broad array of policy initiatives, including those not typically
associated with enhanced safety for the police and public.
91
For example, officers face the risk of needle-stick injuries and attendant
possibilities for harm from bloodborne pathogens, especially when
conducting frisk searches.
92
While improved equipment and training can
diminish risk and reduce harm,
93
it is possible to think more broadly about
drugs and drug-related enforcement matters that may also affect the
frequency of these risk exposures.
94
For example, needle-exchange programs
may reduce the number of shared and contaminated needles in circulation on
the streets.
95
Moreover, organizations in Canada and other countries offer
intravenous drug users supervised-injection sites, primarily to facilitate
immediate response to potentially fatal overdoses and also to reduce risks of
bloodborne illnesses by providing clean needles.
96
Supervised-injection
centers could also reduce the number of people carrying injection needles,
88
. Id.
89
. See supra Part II.A.
90
. See, e.g., Jennifer C. Gibbs, Jonathan Lee, Joseph Moloney & Steven Olson, Exploring the
Neighbourhood Context of Serious Assaults on Police, 28 POLICING & SOC’Y 898, 904 (2018) (describing
the correlation of areas of concentrated disadvantage and high rates of emergency calls with assaults on
police in Baltimore).
91
. See infra notes 92–130.
92
. Merie De Perio, Kerton Victory & Matthew Groenewold, Poster Abstract, Needlestick
Injuries and Other Potential Exposures to Bloodborne Pathogens Among Police Officers in a City Police
Department, 2011-2016, 5 OPEN F. INFECTIOUS DISEASES S348 (2018), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pmc/articles/PMC6253865/pdf/ofy210.991.pdf.
93
. Id.
94
. See, e.g., ALEX S. VITALE, THE END OF POLICING 150–51 (2017) (discussing needle
exchange programs and supervised-injection sites).
95
. Id.
96
. Elana Gordon, What’s the Evidence That Supervised Injection Sites Save Lives?, NPR
(Sept. 7, 2018), https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/07/645609248/whats-the-evidence-
that-supervised-drug-injection-sites-save-lives.
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 475
which would reduce the risks of exposure to HIV and Hepatitis C for officers
conducting frisk searches.
97
Obviously, considering and introducing any
policy changes requires careful examination of costs, benefits, and
outcomes.
98
Yet, the fundamental point is that a genuine commitment to
protecting and supporting police officers should include a willingness to
think broadly about the sources of risk and harm for police officers, as well
as the wide array of policy initiatives that may have a positive impact in
countering specific threats.
99
Potentially dramatic changes in American drug policy, such as providing
injection sites, risk colliding with political impediments from ingrained
assumptions and beliefs about crime held by politicians, the public, and the
police themselves—even when research supports these changes.
100
Such
impediments may loom even larger with respect to policy proposals that
advance beyond the boundaries of criminal justice or that trigger issues of
ideological identity and demarcation in our politically polarized society.
101
Yet, one must consider these broader issues in any genuine examination of
how to protect and support police officers. As illustrated pointedly, for
example, in the words of columnist Josh Koehn: “The Blue Lives Matter
movement has a nation ready and willing to support police officers, so why
doesn’t it do something about the number of guns on our streets? Why
doesn’t it actually address the dangers of deteriorating mental health when
people possess these guns?”
102
The Blue Lives Matter organization and its
supporters obviously do not control gun policy
103
or resources devoted to
mental health treatment.
104
Instead, Koehn’s questions challenge the
97
. Because the availability of supervised injection sites is “associated with less outdoor drug
use,” presumably there could be a corresponding reduction in drug users carrying needles as injection
sites provide “a safe space [and] clean injection supplies.” Id.
98
. See Daniel Mears, Towards Rational and Evidence-Based Crime Policy, 35 J. CRIM. JUST.
667, 678–79 (2007) (describing the desirability of and impediments to the development of evidence-based
crime policy).
99
. Koehn, supra note 78.
100
. See generally Arie Freiberg & W.G. Carson, The Limits of Evidence-Based Policy: Evidence,
Emotion, and Criminal Justice, 69 AUSTL. J. PUB. ADMIN. 152 (2010) (explaining that law-and-order
policies often resonate with the public and the public’s psychological needs).
101
. See, e.g., Frank Newport & Andrew Dugan, Partisan Differences Growing on a Number of
Issues, GALLUP (Aug. 3, 2017), https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/215210/partisan-
differences-growing-number-issues.aspx (reporting on the dramatic growth in the gap between
Republicans’ and Democrats’ views on gun control, health care, police conduct, and other issues since the
turn of the century).
102
. Koehn, supra note 78.
103
. See Gretchen Frazee, Why States, Not Congress, Are Passing More Gun Laws, PBS (Mar. 23,
2018), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/why-states-not-congress-are-passing-more-gun-laws (stating
that state legislatures and Congress control gun laws and policies).
104
. See Norm Ornstein, How to Fix a Broken Mental-Health System, ATLANTIC (June 8, 2016),
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/getting-mental-health-on-the-docket/485996/
476 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
organization and its supporters to become advocates for a wider array of
policies in order to advance their purported goals.
105
A major challenge for police officers in many jurisdictions is handling
encounters with people whose mental illness issues have placed them in a
moment of behavioral crisis, whether threatening or harming others, harming
themselves, or alarming the public with unusual behavior.
106
This is not to
say that people suffering from mental illnesses typically pose a lethal threat
to police,
107
although such events have occurred.
108
Officers face injury risks
in any circumstance when people resist arrest, especially young men under
the influence of alcohol, whether suffering from mental illnesses or not.
109
Yet, special concerns exist if police overestimate the dangers posed by
encounters with people suffering from mental illnesses.
110
There are risks of
highly publicized, tragic police-use-of-force events produced by such
overreactions,
111
which generate conflict between police and the public
112
[hereinafter Ornstein, Mental-Health System] (stating that mental health laws and policy are defined by
legislatures).
105
. Koehn, supra note 78.
106
. See generally Jennifer D. Wood & Amy C. Watson, Improving Police Interventions During
Mental Health-Related Encounters: Past, Present and Future, 27 POLICING & SOC’Y 289 (2017)
(providing an overview of issues concerning police officers’ encounters with people suffering from mental
illnesses).
107
. See, e.g., Jeffrey W. Swanson et al., Gun Violence, Mental Illness, and Laws That Prohibit
Gun Possession: Evidence from Two Florida Counties, 35 HEALTH AFF. 1067, 1072 (2016)
(“Epidemiological studies have shown that a diagnosis of mental illness alone contributes very little to
the overall risk of interpersonal violence . . . .”); see also Xueyi Xing, The Impact of Deinstitutionalization
on Murders of Law Enforcement Officers, at iv (2016) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of
South Carolina),
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&a
rticle=4853&context=etd (finding that the deinstitutionalization movement’s effect of moving people
suffering from mental illness out of institutions and into community settings did not lead to an increase in
fatal attacks on police).
108
. See, e.g., Rachel Polansky, Man Accused of Shooting Police Officer Has History of Mental
Illness, NBC2 NEWS (July 23, 2018), https://www.nbc-2.com/story/38709794/man-accused-of-shooting-
police-officer-has-history-of-mental-illness (reporting that a man previously found incompetent to stand
trial and confined to a state mental hospital was accused of shooting a police officer in Florida).
109
. See generally David M. Bierie, Assault of Police, 63 CRIME & DELINQ. 899 (2017)
(reviewing data and literature on assaults against police officers).
110
. See Melissa Schaefer Morabito & Kelly M. Socia, Is Dangerousness a Myth? Injuries and
Police Encounters with People with Mental Illnesses, 14 CRIMINOLOGY & PUB. POL’Y 253, 254 (2015)
(comparing police officers’ perceptions about the risks of encounters with people suffering from mental
illnesses to the data on police encounters with the mentally ill).
111
. See VITALE, supra note 94, at 94–95 (describing seemingly needless police shootings of
people in New Mexico and California suffering from mental illnesses and erroneously perceived as
threatening to the officers).
112
. See, e.g., Bill Chappell, Albuquerque Protest of Fatal Police Shootings Turns into Chaos,
NPR (Mar. 31, 2014), https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/03/31/297163938/albuquerque-
protest-of-fatal-police-shootings-turns-into-chaos (reporting on public protests after police shot a
homeless man who lived on a hillside and suffered from mental illness).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 477
and pose psychological harms for officers who struggle with the burden,
including possible PTSD, of causing injuries and deaths.
113
Many cities now
train officers for such situations or gain intervention assistance from social
workers, indicating progress.
114
However, these interventions affecting
specific individuals do not address mental health needs to the same extent as
would broader policies, such as universal health care to provide medication
and treatment options for everyone, mental health courts, and in-patient
psychiatric treatment for anyone who needs such help.
115
In addition, the
police—and society—would benefit from investments in parallel initiatives
to address homelessness and to coordinate mental health assessments and
referrals between the criminal justice system and mental health treatment
providers.
116
These issues may not seem directly related to protecting and
supporting police officers, and they certainly are not the focus of advocacy
by the Blue Lives Matter organization and its supporters.
117
Yet, such efforts
can reduce harms to officers, including PTSD from injuring others
118
and
risks from incidents that deteriorate police-community relations.
119
Gun control policy is clearly relevant to officer safety.
120
Yet, it
constitutes a broadly controversial policy issue that is not the focus of the
Blue Lives Matter organization and its advocates.
121
Indeed, quite the
opposite, as the co-founder of Blue Lives Matter and Editor-in-Chief of its
113
. See Irina Komarovskaya et al., The Impact of Killing and Injuring Others on Mental Health
Symptoms Among Police Officers, 45 J. PSYCHIATRIC RES. 1332, 1334 (2011) (reporting results of a
survey showing that 10% of officers report seriously injuring or killing someone in the first three years of
a career, with attendant increases in risks of PTSD for officers).
114
. See generally, e.g., Stephanie Frantz & Randy Borum, Crisis Intervention Teams May
Prevent Arrests of People with Mental Illnesses, 12 POLICE PRAC. & RES. 265 (2011) (offering Crisis
Intervention Teams as one example of increased co-training and coordination between police and mental
health professionals).
115
. Norman J. Ornstein, How a Bad Law and a Big Mistake Drove My Mentally-Ill Son Away,
N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 6, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/guns-mental-health-baker-
act.html (recounting a father’s loss of his mentally ill son and addressing the need for stricter gun-control
laws and adequate health care); Ornstein, Mental-Health System, supra note 104 (discussing the need for
legislative action to address mental illness).
116
. See Laurence Roy et al., Profiles of Criminal Justice Involvement of Mentally Ill Homeless
Adults, 45 INT’L J.L. & PSYCH. 75, 79–80 (2016) (providing recommendations for integrated services
based on a study of homeless, mentally ill adults).
117
. See supra text accompanying note 36 (explaining that Blue Lives Matter has focused its
policy advocacy on securing even harsher punishments for crimes against police).
118
. Komarovskaya et al., supra note 113, at 1334.
119
. See infra notes 152–54 and accompanying text.
120
. Koehn, supra note 78; Phillips, supra note 69.
121
. SnarkyCop, It’s Time for Anti-Gun Crowd to Stop Pretending Gun Control Is Pro-Cop, BLUE
LIVES MATTER (Dec. 31, 2017), https://defensemaven.io/bluelivesmatter/news/it-s-time-for-anti-gun-
crowd-to-stop-pretending-gun-control-is-pro-cop-nzGWBK_-XkCMd1ZCpY1mYw/ (bashing, under the
pseudonym “SnarkyCop,” gun-control groups for arguing that gun-control would improve police safety).
478 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
website actually published an opinion column with the title, It’s Time for
Anti-Gun Crowd to Stop Pretending Gun Control Is Pro-Cop.
122
Police officers unquestionably face special risks,
123
for example, when
responding to active-shooter events involving the criminal use of military-
style weapons with high-capacity magazines.
124
Police officers also put their
lives on the line when acting as first responders who intervene when armed
people are enraged,
125
desperate,
126
mentally disturbed,
127
or otherwise
behaving in a threatening manner.
128
And, of course, police officers are
sometimes specifically targeted by people with guns.
129
Moreover, in their
roles as first responders who must render first aid and comfort to victims,
police officers’ exposure to people injured or killed by firearms—whether
122
. Id.; Christopher Berg, About Me, BLUE LIVES MATTER, https://defensemaven.io/bluelives
matter/user/@SnarkyCop/ (last visited Apr. 20, 2020) (stating that “SnarkyCop” is the Twitter handle of
Blue Lives Matter co-founder, Christopher Berg).
123
. See, e.g., Jeffrey Collins, South Carolina Police Ambush Suspect Had Estimated 129 Guns
in the Home, CHI. SUN-TIMES (Oct. 16, 2018), https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/terrence-carraway-
frederick-hopkins-129-guns-south-carolina-police-ambush-suspect/ (reporting that the man who shot
seven police officers in South Carolina used military-style rifles and had a large arsenal of weapons in his
home).
124
. For example, the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater mass-shooting that killed 12 and wounded
58 involved the perpetrator’s use of an AR-15 military-style rifle with a 100-round magazine that could
fire 60 rounds in a minute. Matt Pearce, Gun’s Magazine Shaped the Pace of Colorado Theater Massacre,
L.A. TIMES (July 22, 2012), http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/22/nation/la-na-nn-theater-shooting-
magazine-20120722.
125
. See, e.g., Frank Main, Officer Jimenez Was on Routine Mail Run When He Rushed to Mercy
Hospital, CHI. SUN-TIMES (Nov. 21, 2018), https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/officer-samuel-jimenez-
routine-mail-run-mercy-hospital-shooting-juan-lopez/ (reporting that the shooting that resulted in the
death of a police officer and two other victims began with an angry confrontation between the shooter and
his ex-fiancée).
126
. See, e.g., Nichole Manna, “We Don’t Have Peace Here Anymore,” Neighbor Says of
Robbers Who Shot Ft. Worth Cop, FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM (Sept. 14, 2018), https://www.star-
telegram.com/news/local/crime/article218397960.html (explaining that a police officer was shot as
desperate robbery suspects sought to escape).
127
. See, e.g., Gus Burns, Mental Illness Played a Role in These 13 Michigan Cop Killings,
MLIVE (Jan. 9, 2019), https://www.mlive.com/expo/news/g66l-2019/01/b5ef4daaec4964/mental-illness-
played-a-role-i.html (asserting that a number of police deaths are attributable to shooters who show
evidence of suffering from mental illnesses that affect their behavior).
128
. See, e.g., Amanda Garrett, Barberton Officer Shot, New Franklin Man Killed After an 8-
Hour Standoff, AKRON BEACON J. (Feb. 8, 2019), https://www.ohio.com/news/20190208/barberton-
officer-shot-new-franklin-man-killed-after-8-hour-standoff-ends-in-gunfire (reporting that a man with a
gun barricaded himself inside an apartment and fired a shot through the door when officers arrived in
response to a domestic violence call).
129
. See Sniper Ambush, supra note 28 (reporting that a lone gunman killed five police officers
in Dallas); Visser, supra note 29 (reporting that an individual used a semi-automatic rifle to kill three
police officers).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 479
suicides, accidents, or intentional acts—can contribute to physical and
psychological symptoms of PTSD during routine policing work.
130
In light of the threats posed to police by the ubiquity and ease of
acquiring firearms in the United States,
131
one might expect Blue Lives
Matter and other law enforcement organizations to unify at the forefront of
efforts to regulate and limit the carrying of firearms.
132
There are divisions in
perspectives and advocacy on this issue, however, most notably with big-city
police chiefs advocating for gun control and elected sheriffs in small
jurisdictions often opposed to such restrictions.
133
The divergence of police
chiefs’ perspectives from that of many officers was particularly striking when
an online publication for rank-and-file law enforcement officers conducted a
survey of its registered members and received responses from 15,000 verified
current and former officers about gun-control policies.
134
The survey did not
utilize a true scientific sample, because it was limited to registered members
of a specific online publication.
135
Moreover, the phrasing of its questions
has been challenged as biased due to the questions’ focus on whether
proposals would stop mass shootings or reduce violent crime, rather than
examining the broader issue of public safety.
136
Yet, given the large number
of respondents to the survey and the near-consensus in responses, the results
presumably say something about views in the law enforcement
community.
137
For example, 91% believed a ban on military-style assault
130
. See generally Shira Maguen et al., Routine Work Environment Stress and PTSD Symptoms
in Police Officers, 197 J. NERVOUS & MENTAL DISEASE 754 (2009) (finding clear evidence that officers
who experience incidents of critical stress, especially life-threatening incidents, are more likely to develop
PTSD).
131
. America’s Gun Culture in Charts, BBC (Oct. 27, 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
us-canada-41488081 (highlighting the number of guns and high rates of killings involving firearms in the
United States compared to other countries).
132
. Martin Kaste, Gun Debate Divides Nation’s Police Officers, Too, NPR (Oct. 9, 2015),
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/09/446866939/gun-debate-divides-nations-police-officers-too (explaining
that gun-control legislation enjoyed broad support from law enforcement in the past, but the issue has
grown more contentious).
133
. Jessica Glenza & Lois Beckett, Gun Control Still “Not the Issue” for Law Enforcement
Despite Police Attacks, GUARDIAN (July 19, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/19/
gun-control-police-open-carry-law.
134
. PoliceOne.com Releases Survey of 15,000 Law Enforcement Professionals About Gun
Control Policies, POLICEONE.COM (Apr. 8, 2013), https://www.policeone.com/police-products/press-
releases/6188461-PoliceOne-com-Releases-Survey-of-15-000-Law-Enforcement-Professionals-about-
U-S-Gun-Control-Policies/ [hereinafter PoliceOne.com Survey].
135
. MICHAEL G. MAXFIELD & EARL BABBIE, RESEARCH METHODS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND
CRIMINOLOGY 218–21 (3d ed. 2001) (explaining that when researchers use population samples to conduct
a study there are inherent risks which may limit the researchers’ ability to obtain an accurate representation
of the population).
136
. See Lori Robertson, NRA Misrepresents Police Survey, Legislation, FACTCHECK (Apr. 18,
2013), https://www.factcheck.org/2013/04/nra-misrepresents-police-survey-legislation/.
137
. PoliceOne.com Survey, supra note 134.
480 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
weapons would have no impact on violent crime, and 81% favored arming
teachers and school administrators who had received weapons training.
138
Even more striking, 71% supported decisions by local law enforcement
leaders to refuse to enforce restrictive gun laws in their jurisdictions.
139
If
those active in Blue Lives Matter share the viewpoints of these survey
respondents, it is no surprise that the organization and its supporters do not
address gun control as part of their advocacy for officer health and safety.
140
Thus, it is common to see police organizations endorse political candidates
who actively oppose gun control measures, such as candidates who receive
“A” grades and campaign contributions from the National Rifle
Association.
141
C. Respecting Black Lives Matter
Paradoxically, in light of the origins of Blue Lives Matter,
142
a genuine
commitment to the health and safety of police officers would require police
departments to be self-critical and listen to the claims of the Black Lives
Matter organization and like-minded community residents.
143
In the
aftermath of George Zimmerman’s 2013 acquittal for stalking and killing
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager, Black Lives Matter arose from
concerns about racial discrimination in a justice system that did not merely
138
. Ron Avery, Police Gun Control Survey: Are Legally-Armed Citizens the Best Solution to
Gun Violence?, POLICEONE.COM (Apr. 8, 2013), https://www.policeone.com/gun-legislation-law-enforcement/
articles/6186552-Police-Gun-Control-Survey-Are-legally-armed-citizens-the-best-solution-to-gun-
violence/.
139
. PoliceOne.com Survey, supra note 134.
140
. See SnarkyCop, supra note 121 (providing an example of a Blue Lives Matter voice who
ardently believes gun control puts officers at risk).
141
. For example, in the Florida gubernatorial race in 2018, the Florida Police Benevolent
Association endorsed the Republican candidate who had an “A” rating from the NRA and who has
accepted campaign contributions from the NRA during his political career. See Anthony Man, Police
Union Endorses Republican Ron DeSantis for Governor—Four Years After Endorsing Democrat, S. FLA.
SUN SENTINEL (Oct. 3, 2018), https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-ron-desantis-police-
endorsement-20181003-story.html (reporting that a major police union endorsed Ron DeSantis for
governor of Florida); Skyler Swisher, NRA’s Grades for Florida Candidates Are out. Who Got an A+?,
S. FLA. SUN SENTINEL (July 17, 2018), https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-reg-florida-nra-
grades-20180717-story.html (reporting that the NRA gave Ron DeSantis an “A” grade); Emmanuella
Grinberg & Kate Grise, These Florida Lawmakers Accepted Money from the National Rifle Association,
CNN (Feb. 21, 2018), https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/19/politics/nra-pvf-contributions-florida-politicians/
index.html (reporting that then-Rep. Ron DeSantis received a $1,000 contribution from the NRA during
the 2016 election).
142
. See supra text accompanying note 26 (showing that Blue Lives Matter has defined itself in
defiant opposition to Black Lives Matter from its very beginning).
143
. See, e.g., infra text accompanying notes 152–55 (discussing what should be a point of
common ground between Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter—i.e., improving trust between police
and the communities they serve).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 481
disadvantage communities of color, but also undervalued their lives and
endangered them.
144
Racial discrimination in the American justice system is
well-documented in both research findings
145
and narrative reports of
individuals’ observations and experiences.
146
Participation in protests and
prominence of the organization’s slogan grew nationwide in the aftermath of
Officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,
and Wilson’s subsequent avoidance of any criminal charges in 2014.
147
This
expansion of Black Lives Matter as an organization and a social movement
included a significant focus on the need for increased police
accountability.
148
The reactive founding of Blue Lives Matter was based on
an explicit rejection of Black Lives Matter and its claims about police
misconduct,
149
and thereby raises questions about whether the participating
officers and their supporters are opponents of constructive criticism of
police
150
as well as police reform.
151
Police departments’ relationships with people in the communities that
they serve can affect citizens’ interactions with individual officers
152
and can
144
. Day, supra note 9.
145
. See, e.g., Traci Burch, Skin Color and the Criminal Justice System: Beyond Black-White
Disparities in Sentencing, 12 J. EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUD. 395, 397 (2015) (demonstrating that more severe
sentences are given to minority group members, with greater severity for those with darker skin tones);
William Y. Chin, Racial Cumulative Disadvantage: The Cumulative Effects of Racial Bias at Multiple
Decision Points in the Criminal Justice System, 6 WAKE FOREST J.L. & POL’Y 441, 441 (2016) (reviewing
studies documenting the existence of racial discrimination and disparities through the stages of the
American criminal justice process).
146
. See, e.g., Victor M. Rios, Nikita Carney & Jasmine Kelekay, Ethnographies of Race, Crime,
and Justice: Toward Sociological Double-Consciousness, 43 ANN. REV. SOC. 493, 499 (2017) (reviewing
qualitative research and providing narratives about racial discrimination and inequality in the criminal
justice system); Christopher E. Smith, What I Learned About Stop-and-Frisk From Watching My Black
Son, ATLANTIC (Apr. 1, 2014), https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/what-i-learned-
about-stop-and-frisk-from-watching-my-black-son/359962/ [hereinafter Smith, What I Learned About
Stop-and-Frisk] (describing police practices targeting African-Americans without adhering to
constitutional rules).
147
. Hafner, supra note 17.
148
. Id.
149
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
150
. Cf. Seth Stoughton, Geoffrey Alpert & Jeff Noble, Why Police Need Constructive Criticism,
ATLANTIC (Dec. 23, 2015), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/officer-porter-mistrial-
police-culture/421656/ (discussing police resistance to constructive criticism, even when such criticism
comes from fellow officers).
151
. See Ed Krayewski, Four Police Brutality Reforms to Focus on: A Libertarian Take, REASON
(Sept. 2, 2014), https://reason.com/archives/2014/09/02/four-issue-to-focus-on-in-police-brutali/ (describing
police resistance to police accountability reforms).
152
. See, e.g., Mengyan Dai, James Frank & Ivan Sun, Procedural Justice During Police-Citizen
Encounters: The Effects of Process-Based Policing on Citizen Compliance and Demeanor, 39 J. CRIM.
JUST. 159, 164 (2011) (finding that police officers’ demeanor and willingness to listen to citizens during
encounters can reduce disrespect and noncompliance experienced by officers in those encounters).
482 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
reduce citizens’ willingness to provide information about crimes.
153
As
summarized by one justice research organization:
[D]amaged police-community relations make it more difficult for
police to execute their most critical responsibility: to respond to
violent crime and protect public safety. In those communities
where distrust in police is high, people are less likely to report a
crime or offer witness testimony, which impedes effective
policing.
154
Clearly, many police executives recognize the importance of good
police-community relations, as reflected in their departments’ participation
in organizations such as Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community
Trust (ALPACT).
155
Despite the potential benefits to police from listening to
community members,
156
the Blue Lives Matter organization manifests what
can be termed occupational umbrage,
157
namely a reflexive defensiveness
about criticism directed at police officers.
158
Reflexive defensiveness can
exist in other professions, too,
159
but it is especially damaging for the
profession of policing, which needs to listen to and understand community
concerns in order to be effective.
160
The Blue Lives Matter organization’s
explicit mischaracterization of Black Lives Matter as a “movement[]”—not
just an organization—“whose goal [is] the vilification of law enforcement”
161
reveals an unwillingness to listen, understand, and seriously consider the
legitimate concerns that motivate many people who speak and act under the
153
. See, e.g., Matthew Desmond, Andrew V. Papachristos & David S. Kirk, Police Violence and
Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community, 81 AM. SOC. REV. 857, 859 (2016) (finding that high-
profile cases of police violence can reduce citizens’ willingness to cooperate in providing information
about crimes).
154
. Jim Parsons, Policing, VERA INST. JUST., https://www.vera.org/centers/policing (last visited
Apr. 11, 2020).
155
. Jonathan Oosting, Michigan Police Shootings Have Prompted Anger, Not Violence, As
Leaders Build Relationships, MLIVE (May 8, 2015), https://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/
2015/05/michigan_alpact_terrance_kello.html (explaining that ALPACT originated from concerns about
racial profiling by police—its goal is to improve relations between the police and the community).
156
. Dai, Frank & Sun, supra note 152, at 164–68.
157
. This is a descriptive term coined by the Author.
158
. Id.
159
. See, e.g., Pamela Oliver, Taking Criticism While Privileged, INSIDE HIGHER ED. (July 18,
2018), https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/07/18/advice-dealing-criticism-person-privilege-
academe-opinion (“Many professors . . . [are] outraged if anyone expects them to take criticism about the
way they give criticism to others.”).
160
. See supra notes 152–55 and accompanying text (noting the importance of a positive
relationship between police and the communities they serve).
161
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 483
Black Lives Matter slogan.
162
In fact, the Black Lives Matter organization
suggested policy goals,
163
which, whether or not one agrees with each one,
reflect genuine debates about how best to organize and practice policing in
American society.
164
The list set forward by Black Lives Matter includes the following goals:
Ending “broken windows” policing, which aggressively polices
minor crimes . . .[;]
[U]sing community oversight for misconduct rather than
[permitting] police to decide what consequences officers face[;]
[M]aking standards for reporting police use of deadly force[;]
[I]ndependently investigating and prosecuting police
misconduct[;]
[H]aving the racial makeup of police departments reflect [the
diversity of] the communities they serve[;]
[R]equiring officers to wear body cameras[;]
[P]roviding more training for police officers[;]
[E]nding for-profit policing practices[;]
[E]nding the police use of military equipment[;]
[I]mplementing police union contracts that hold officers
accountable for misconduct[.]
165
162
. Black Lives Matter leaders have advocated reforms related to police accountability and
police strategies that are excessively enforcement-oriented in certain communities. Black Lives Matter
Activists Outline Policy Goals, BBC NEWS (Aug. 21, 2015), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-
canada-34023751 [hereinafter Black Lives Matter Activists].
163
. Id.
164
. For example, many issues related to the goals of Black Lives Matter were examined and
discussed in the report of the presidential task force on improving policing. See PRESIDENT’S TASK FORCE
ON 21ST CENTURY POLICING, FINAL REPORT 9–10 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/
taskforce_finalreport.pdf (stating the report’s goal was to build trust between the police and community,
particularly minority communities, thus reducing biases in policing).
165
. Black Lives Matter Activists, supra note 162.
484 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
Even if there are individuals who commit acts of property damage and
violence during a Black Lives Matter event,
166
or leaders of autonomously
operated local Black Lives Matter chapters who make unwise statements,
167
those improprieties are not a valid excuse for reflexively dismissing Black
Lives Matter’s underlying policy concerns.
168
In fact, by dismissing Black
Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter invites the conclusion that it is actually the
entity pursuing the kind of objective—“vilification” of an organization and
movement
169
—that it inaccurately describes as the heart of Black Lives
Matter’s purpose.
170
Blue Lives Matter supporters need to step back from the defensive
myopia of occupational umbrage in order to consider what Black Lives
Matter advocates observe.
171
If Blue Lives Matter supporters are willing to
do so, they might recognize both the legitimacy of Black Lives Matter’s
concerns
172
and the ways in which individual incidents harm the positive
relationships that police departments need with the communities they
serve.
173
One might look, for example, at two different cases—one in North
Charleston, South Carolina,
174
and the other in Chicago
175
—in which police
166
. See Minnesota Protesters Throw Fireworks, Rocks at Police in I-94 Shutdown, USA TODAY
(July 10, 2016), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/10/officers-injured-
minnesota-i-94-shutdown/86915122/.
167
. See Cameron Knight, Should Protesters Arm Themselves? Black Lives Matter Group Sees
Need for Self-Defense, CINCINNATI ENQUIRER (Nov. 28, 2017), https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/
politics/2017/11/28/cincinnatis-black-lives-matter-brings-old-question-new-protesters-should-we-
protestors-arm-themselve/739145001/ (second alteration in original) (quoting a local Black Lives Matter
organizer: “We are not pacifists . . . . We do everything to minimize violence . . . but we will defend
ourselves if attacked to the degree necessary to free ourselves from harm.”).
168
. See supra text accompanying notes 163–65 (laying out Black Lives Matter’s policy
objectives).
169
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
170
. Compare id. (describing Black Lives Matter as seeking “the vilification of law
enforcement”), with Black Lives Matter Activists, supra note 162 (summarizing Black Lives Matter’s core
goals as reducing violence, improving police-community relations, and achieving accountability).
171
. It can be difficult for members of one group to have an empathetic understanding of those
whose lives are different from their own. Walter G. Stephan & Krystina Fry, The Role of Empathy in
Improving Intergroup Relations, 55 J. SOC. ISSUES 729, 729 (1999).
172
. See supra text accompanying notes 163–65 (outlining Black Lives Matter’s policy
objectives).
173
. See supra notes 152–54 and accompanying text (describing some of the consequences of
distrust between communities and the police that serve them).
174
. Alan Blinder, Michael Slager, Officer in Walter Scott Shooting, Gets 20-Year Sentence, N.Y.
TIMES (Dec. 7, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/us/michael-slager-sentence-walter-
scott.html (reporting that the officer received a 20-year sentence after shooting an African-American
motorist in the back as the motorist ran away).
175
. Aamer Madhani, Chicago Cop Jason Van Dyke Sentenced to More Than 6 Years for Murder
of Laquan McDonald, USA TODAY (last updated Jan. 18, 2019), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/
2019/01/18/laquan-mcdonald-jason-van-dyke-sentencing/2602213002/ (reporting that the officer
received a sentence of over 6 years after shooting Laquan McDonald, an African-American teenager).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 485
officers were actually held criminally responsible for unjustified killings of
African-American men.
176
One troubling aspect of both cases is the reality
that neither officer would have been criminally charged for firing multiple
bullets into the backs of people posing no lethal threat if not for the
unexpected emergence of video evidence of what the officers had actually
done.
177
In the North Charleston case, the officer shot and killed an unarmed,
alleged traffic-code violator who ran away from the officer on foot.
178
Advocates of racial justice and police accountability expressed concern about
the North Charleston police department’s quick decision to publicize the
officer’s version of events, namely the false claim that the victim had taken
the officer’s TASER and attempted to use the weapon against the officer.
179
In the Chicago case, police responded to a report of someone breaking
into vehicles.
180
As the knife-carrying suspect ignored an officer’s command
to stop, he retreated from officers and damaged a police vehicle with the
knife.
181
The officers followed him slowly for several minutes while waiting
for an officer with a TASER to arrive.
182
Instead, another officer arrived and
immediately fired more than a dozen rounds, killing the teenager.
183
The
initial news reports carried a police union leader’s description and
justification of the event: the shooting was justified because the officers
legitimately feared for their lives when the armed suspect approached
them.
184
Chicago officials withheld the police dashboard video until a judge
ordered its release more than a year after the event due to pressure from the
176
. Id.
177
. See Marcos Breton, Video or No Video, Here’s Why Cops Can Kill and Not Be Prosecuted,
SACRAMENTO BEE (Jan. 29, 2017), https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-
breton/article129377699.html (“The video [in the North Charleston case], captured by a bystander,
contradicted what the officer initially had told his supervisors about the shooting.”); P.R. Lockhart, Did
Chicago Police Cover Up the Laquan McDonald Shooting? A Judge Is About to Decide, VOX (Jan. 17,
2019), https://www.vox.com/2019/1/17/18184158/chicago-police-conspiracy-trial-verdict-mcdonald-
van-dyke (“The Laquan McDonald shooting rocked Chicago, in part because Van Dyke shot the teenager
some 16 times, and later claimed that [the victim] ‘lunged’ at him while holding a knife. But this account
was not backed up by video of the shooting released a year later.”).
178
. Blinder, supra note 174.
179
. Melissa Boughton, Family of Man Shot by North Charleston Officer: “All We Want Is the
Truth”, CHARLESTON POST & COURIER (Apr. 4, 2015), https://www.postandcourier.com/archives/
family-of-man-shot-by-north-charleston-officer-all-we/article_cfe86187-d60c-5614-95d6-
fc5a8ad95f85.html.
180
. Kory Rumore & Chad Yoder, Minute by Minute: How Jason Van Dyke Shot Laquan
McDonald, CHI. TRIBUNE (Jan. 18, 2019), https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/laquanmcdonald/ct-
jason-vandyke-laquan-mcdonald-timeline-htmlstory.html.
181
. Id.
182
. Id.
183
. Id.
184
. Marissa Bailey, Police Shoot, Kill Knife-Wielding Teen on South Side, CBS2 CHI. (Oct. 21,
2014), https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/10/21/police-shoot-kill-knife-wielding-teen-on-south-side/.
486 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
news media.
185
Just before the video’s release, the district attorney suddenly
charged the officer, and the public learned that the deceased victim had 16
bullet wounds, including 9 in his back.
186
The timing of events gave the
appearance of a cover-up and raised questions about whether the officer
would have been charged at all if not for the media pressure that led to the
release of the video.
187
In both instances, prominent spokespersons for police
organizations publicly justified the lethal actions prior to any investigation of
the events.
188
For those concerned about police accountability and the valuing
of African-Americans’ lives, these incidents convey the impression that
police automatically protect their own, and they raise doubts that
investigations will be unbiased.
189
The Chicago case, in particular,
illuminated such concerns, as witnesses in the vicinity of the shooting were
told to leave the area without being interviewed by police.
190
Witnesses were
not even asked for their names so that they could be contacted for a later
investigation.
191
There is a well-documented problem with some officers and
departments concerning a police code of silence that enables abusive officers
to act with little fear that their colleagues will report them.
192
Moreover, self-
interested prosecutors can turn a blind eye to evidence of police misconduct
that emerges as cases move through the courts.
193
Prosecutors have also
mounted concerted public relations campaigns to slander victims of police
violence as a means to justify their own decisions to forgo prosecuting
185
. Kyung Lah, Laquan McDonald Shooting: Why Did It Take 13 Months to Release Video?,
CNN (Dec. 2, 2015), https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/us/chicago-police-shooting-explainer/index.html.
186
. Id.
187
. Id.
188
. Boughton, supra note 179; Bailey, supra note 184.
189
. See, e.g., Curtis Black, How Chicago Tried to Cover Up a Police Execution, CHI. REP.
(Nov. 24, 2015), https://www.chicagoreporter.com/how-chicago-tried-to-cover-up-a-police-execution/
(reporting that a journalist “tracked down a witness to the [Laquan McDonald] shooting, who said he and
other witnesses had been ‘shooed away’ from the scene with no statements or contact information taken”).
190
. Id.
191
. Id.
192
. Sanja Kutnjak Ivković, Maki Haberfeld & Robert Peacock, Decoding the Code of Silence,
29 CRIM. JUST. POL’Y REV. 172, 172 (2018); Aziz Z. Huq & Richard H. McAdams, Litigating the Blue
Wall of Silence: How to Challenge the Police Privilege to Delay Investigation, 2016 U. CHI. LEGAL F.
213, 264; Jerome Skolnick, Corruption and the Blue Code of Silence, 3 POLICE PRAC. & RES. 7, 7 (2002);
John Kleinig, The Blue Wall of Silence: An Ethical Analysis, 15 INT’L J. APPLIED PHIL. 1, 1 (2001);
Myriam E. Gilles, Breaking the Code of Silence: Rediscovering “Custom” in Section 1983 Municipal
Liability, 80 B.U. L. REV. 17, 63–64 (2000); Gabriel J. Chin & Scott C. Wells, The “Blue Wall of Silence”
as Evidence of Bias and Motive to Lie: A New Approach to Police Perjury, 59 U. PITT. L. REV. 233, 234–
37 (1998).
193
. NICOLE GONZALEZ VAN CLEVE, CROOK COUNTY: RACISM AND INJUSTICE IN AMERICA’S
LARGEST CRIMINAL COURT 148–55 (2016).
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 487
officers.
194
These practices diminish the likelihood of accountability for
abusive police behavior, which parallels the penal harm philosophy in the
realm of corrections.
195
Namely, this phenomenon involves police officers—
like corrections officers—improperly inflicting harm
196
to punish those who
disobey, fail to show respect, violate officers’ expectations about behavior,
or, even worse, simply are members of a demographic group against which
the officers harbor animus.
197
Such punishment can include unjustified stop-
and-frisk searches, automobile searches, issuance of traffic tickets and other
citations, use of force, and arrests.
198
When done to punish or inflict harm,
these actions by police officers are contrary to law.
199
Officers are not
authorized to mete out discretionary punishments.
200
Rather, in the criminal
justice system, judges impose punishment and the government’s corrections
system carries it out only after an individual is convicted after a criminal
proceeding that respects due process and constitutional rights.
201
There is abundant evidence that African-Americans disproportionately
experience the harm inflicted through the improper and abusive exercise of
194
. Sam Levin, Killed by Police, Then Vilified: How America’s Prosecutors Blame Victims,
GUARDIAN (Mar. 21, 2019), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/20/us-police-killings-
district-attorney-prosecutor-
reports?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX1VTTW9ybmluZ0JyaWVmaW5nLTE5MDMyMQ%3D%3D&u
tm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=USMorningBriefing&CMP=usbriefing_email.
195
. See TODD. R. CLEAR, HARM IN AMERICAN PENOLOGY 32 (1994) (“The pedagogical
technique they use is to harm, intentionally. . . . The offender gets the unintended lesson: harm and
violence are acceptable if you have the power to get away with it.”).
196
. See Rachel Feinstein, A Qualitative Analysis of Police Interactions and Disproportionate
Minority Contact, 13 J. ETHNICITY CRIM. JUST. 159, 171–73 (2015) (noting instances of officers using
unjustified force against minority children).
197
. See, e.g., U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, THE FERGUSON REPORT 47 (The New Press 2015) (“Many
officers are quick to escalate encounters with subjects they perceive to be disobeying their orders or
resisting arrest. . . . Some incidents of excessive force result from stops or arrests that have no basis in
law. Others are punitive and retaliatory.”).
198
. See id. at 28–30, 36–37, 42–47 (providing numerous examples of police using unjustified
force or taking discriminatory actions).
199
. For example, police officers’ legitimate actions are based on authority derived from judicial
interpretations of constitutional provisions and statutes, as well as departmental policies. COLE, SMITH &
DEJONG, supra note 58, at 188, 231. Thus, warrantless searches without reasonable suspicion, arrests
without probable cause, traffic stops without proper justification, and applications of force beyond those
permitted by policy and judicial interpretations of law are all improper and violate citizens’ legal
protections. See id. at 326–33, 344–83 (describing requirements governing the legal exercise of police
authority to conduct searches, make arrests, and use force).
200
. See id. at 218–19 (defining the functions and goals of police to include order maintenance,
investigation, and apprehension of criminal law violators, and various service activities—they do not
include decisions about the formal imposition of punishment by the criminal justice system).
201
. Id. In addition to the imposition of punishment being outside the scope of authorized police
functions and goals, the U.S. Supreme Court defines the constitutional term “punishments” in the Eighth
Amendment as limited to post-conviction treatment of individuals by the criminal justice system.
Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 664 (1977).
488 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
police power as an unavoidable part of their everyday lives in American
society.
202
The Blue Lives Matter founders’ mission of defensively
disparaging those who experience this victimization, urge reform, and
advocate police accountability only serves to enhance suspicion of police and
discourage people who might otherwise provide information to officers about
existing dangers and unsolved crimes.
203
Research shows that racial profiling
and other encounters with police perceived as unfair by community members
affect people’s willingness to cooperate with and provide information to the
police.
204
By contrast, making blues lives matter would be best advanced by
genuinely listening to community members, self-critically recognizing
problems, and thereby joining in the effort to improve police training,
supervision, and accountability.
205
Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the Blue
202
. See generally EMMA PIERSON ET AL., STANFORD COMPUTATIONAL POLICY LAB, A LARGE-
SCALE ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN POLICE STOPS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES (2019),
https://5harad.com/papers/100M-stops.pdf (finding that minority drivers were much more likely than
white drivers to have their cars searched during traffic stops); accord Sharad Goel & Cheryl Phillips,
Police Data Suggests Black and Hispanic Drivers Are Searched More Often Than Whites, SLATE (June 19,
2017), https://slate.com/technology/2017/06/statistical-analysis-of-data-from-20-states-suggests-evidence-
of-racially-biased-policing.html; see also U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, supra note 197 (providing numerous
examples of police taking discriminatory actions); CHARLES R. EPP, STEVEN MAYNARD MOODY &
DONALD HAIDER-MARKEL, PULLED OVER: HOW POLICE STOPS DEFINE RACE AND CITIZENSHIP 1 (2014)
(narrating the experience of an African-American man who felt violated when he was pulled over without
cause); Feinstein, supra note 196, at 171–73 (describing instances of unjustified force used by police in
confrontations with minority children); Smith, What I Learned About Stop-and-Frisk, supra note 146
(describing the Author’s son’s experience with pervasive discrimination at the hands of law enforcement);
Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan & Alex Kiss, An Analysis of the New York City Police Department’s
“Stop-and-Frisk” Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias, 102 J. AM. STAT. ASS’N 813, 813–23
(2007) (finding that New York City Police implementing the “Stop-and-Frisk” tactic disproportionately
stopped people from racial minority groups).
203
. Tom R. Tyler & Jeffrey Fagan, Legitimacy and Cooperation: Why Do People Help Police
Fight Crime in Their Communities?, 6 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 231, 262–65 (2008); see also Kristina
Murphy, Lyn Hinds & Jenny Fleming, Encouraging Public Cooperation and Support for Police, 18
POLICING & SOC’Y 136, 152 (2008) (providing evidence concerning the role of police legitimacy in
positively affecting public cooperation in Australia).
204
. Tyler & Fagan, supra note 203, at 262–65.
205
. The first three recommendations in the final report of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st
Century Policing made exactly these points:
1.1 Recommendation: Law enforcement culture should embrace a guardian
mindset to build public trust and legitimacy. Toward that end, police and
sheriffs’ departments should adopt procedural justice as the guiding principle
for internal and external policies and practices to guide their interactions with
the citizens they serve.
. . . .
1.2 Recommendation: Law enforcement agencies should acknowledge the role
of policing in past and present injustice and discrimination and how it is a hurdle
to the promotion of community trust.
. . . .
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 489
Lives Matter organization’s founders seems to reflect a close-minded and
counterproductive viewpoint of even constructive criticism of police.
206
CONCLUSION
What should be done by those who truly care about the well-being of
police officers and genuinely want to “make blue lives matter”?
Unfortunately, those who originally trumpeted this slogan in the aftermath of
civil disorder in Ferguson, Missouri, appear to be blind to useful approaches
for advancing their purported goal, due to a myopic preoccupation with
vilifying Black Lives Matter as an organization, slogan, and social
movement.
207
There is strong evidence that the Blue Lives Matter slogan is
motivated by defensiveness, occupational umbrage, and an unwillingness to
undertake critical examination of both police practices and the social
problems that affect officers’ well-being.
208
The specific policy initiative
1.3 Recommendation: Law enforcement agencies should establish a culture of
transparency and accountability in order to build public trust and legitimacy.
PRESIDENT’S TASK FORCE ON 21ST CENTURY POLICING, supra note 164, at 11–12.
206
. The rhetoric of the Blue Lives Matter organization is most pointedly antagonistic in
contesting the characterization of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that mobilized
Black Lives Matter supporters. The Blue Lives Matter website characterizes Officer Darren Wilson as
“heroic” for shooting the unarmed teenager at least six times. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1; see
Ryan Devereaux, A Complete Guide to the Shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson (Nov. 20, 2014),
https://theintercept.com/2014/11/20/everything-know-shooting-michael-brown-darren-wilson/ (chronicling
the amount of times Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown). At best, Wilson is a tragic figure who was
socialized into an organizational culture of a city government and police department that, as described in
great detail by the U.S. Department’s investigative report, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, supra note 197,
dedicated itself to engaging in racial discrimination and harassment in order to generate revenue for the
city through abusive practices directed at poor, black people. Jake Halpern, The Cop, NEW YORKER
(Aug. 3, 2015), https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/the-cop. At worst, Wilson is an
official who went free after committing a possibly criminal homicide, because the local justice system
protected him through a bizarrely biased grand jury procedure in which the prosecutor permitted Wilson
to be the first witness, incorrectly instructed the grand jurors about applicable law, and knowingly
permitted other witnesses to provide false testimony. See COLE, SMITH & DEJONG, supra note 58, at 440–
41. The procedures used to help him avoid prosecution appeared to be so flawed and biased that calls to
reopen the case continued for years afterward. See, e.g., Justin Hansford, Reopen the Michael Brown
Investigation, WASH. POST (Aug. 10, 2018), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reopen-the-
michael-brown-investigation/2018/08/10/37c28e80-9bee-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html?utm_
term=.9ed03db3273a (arguing that the case against Darren Wilson should be reopened); accord Charles
Jaco, It’s Time for a New Darren Wilson Grand Jury, ST. LOUIS AM. (Nov. 16, 2018),
http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/charles_jaco/it-s-time-for-a-new-darren-wilson-grand-
jury/article_79a7deca-e9bb-11e8-9b91-4b0a76895793.html. It is easy for people to perceive that
Wilson’s action was consistent with the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigative findings about his
department in which officers took unjustified and plainly non-heroic “punitive and retaliatory” use-of-
force actions against those who disobeyed their orders. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, supra note 197, at 47.
207
. BLUE LIVES MATTER, supra note 1.
208
. See, e.g., supra note 27; see also supra text accompanying notes 120–22, 161–62.
490 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 44:463
undertaken by several states under the Blue Lives Matter slogan—increasing
the severity of sentences for those who attack police officers—represents
merely symbolic action directed at crimes that were already severely
punished.
209
By contrast, a genuine commitment to protecting and supporting
police officers requires recognizing the actual factors that increase or
diminish risks for officers and taking a broader view of the social policies
and police practices that would actually increase officers’ safety and well-
being.
210
Viewed through this broader lens, policy actions to protect and
support police officers should look to officers’ resources,
211
public policies
that address problems such as gun control and treatment for mental illness,
212
and empathic practices that increase positive police-community relations and
police reform.
213
Unfortunately, our prospects for progress on genuinely “making blue
lives matter” are hindered in the current political era by certain politicians’
efforts to divide the nation through racial animus
214
and the politics of fear
215
and by a longstanding law enforcement culture that contributes to the
defensive rejection of criticism.
216
Moreover, the Trump Administration’s
decision to end federal scrutiny of and pressure on police departments whose
policies and practices facilitate abusive police conduct diminishes the
impetus for evaluating and reforming policing.
217
Hopefully, enlightened
police leaders will recognize the benefits of departmental self-analysis and
209
. See supra Part I.B.
210
. See, e.g., Koehn, supra note 78 (“But if we really want to protect our police officers, why
hasn’t the Blue Lives Matter movement taken a firm position on greater gun control and mental health
initiatives?”).
211
. See supra Part II.A (discussing the physical safety and mental health challenges that police
officers face).
212
. See supra notes 92–130 and accompanying text.
213
. See supra notes 142–70, 202–06 and accompanying text.
214
. See, e.g., German Lopez, Donald Trump’s Long History of Racism, from the 1970s to 2019,
VOX, https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history (last updated
July 15, 2019) (“On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and otherwise bigoted
remarks, from calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists to proposing a ban on all Muslims
entering the US to suggesting a judge should recuse himself from a case solely because of the judge’s
Mexican heritage.”).
215
. See, e.g., Sasha Abramsky, Trump’s GOP Is Running Harder Than Ever on the Politics of
Fear, L.A. TIMES (Sept. 23, 2018), https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-abramsky-trump-
politics-of-fear-midterms-20180923-story.html (“[I]n the 2018 election season, Republicans have no
other game but fear to play. They pander to, and seek to stimulate, white distrust of black people and
brown people . . . .”).
216
. See supra notes 171–94 and accompanying text.
217
. Devlin Barrett, Justice Department Ends Program Scrutinizing Local Police Forces, WASH.
POST (Sept. 15, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-
ends-program-scrutinizing-local-police-forces/2017/09/15/ee88d02e-9a3d-11e7-82e4-
f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.3e6b9dea4ca0.
2020] Blue Lives Matter Versus Black Lives Matter 491
community dialogue, as well as the impact of broader social problems on
police effectiveness and safety.
218
Citizen pressure
219
and news media
attention will undoubtedly continue to focus on issues of police
accountability and reform.
220
But attaining real change will require internal
law enforcement leadership to turn away from the misguided attacks on
Black Lives Matter and push forward with the broader, self-critical
perspective needed to truly “make blue lives matter.”
221
218
. See, e.g., Tom Jackman, New Orleans Police Pioneer New Way to Stop Misconduct, Remove
“Blue Wall of Silence”, WASH. POST (Jan. 24, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-
law/2019/01/24/new-orleans-police-pioneer-new-way-stop-misconduct-remove-blue-wall-
silence/?utm_term=.0806ce234ec4 (reporting on a reform-minded police chief bringing community
dialogue and police-ethics reform to Baltimore after making improvements in New Orleans); accord
David McFadden, Baltimore’s New Police Chief Eager to Transform Department, ASSOCIATED PRESS
(Jan. 9, 2019), https://www.apnews.com/d2d42d410e14430e975dd9318f555713.
219
. See, e.g., Tim Elfrink, Sacramento Police Arrest Reporter, 84 Protesters at March Against Stephon
Clark Shooting, WASH. POST (Mar. 5, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/05/sacramento-
police-arrest-reporter-protesters-march-against-stephon-clark-shooting/?utm_term=.972fcbfa8806 (observing
an instance of vigorous public pressure on police after the shooting of an unarmed black man in 2018).
220
. Id.
221
. See supra note 218.
