A Blue Lives Matter bulletin board was found destroyed at Dartmouth College shortly after its reveal. Administrators found the board replaced with an overwhelming amount of Black Lives Matter material.
According to Dartmouth Review, flyers that read “You cannot co-opt the movement against state violence to memorialize its perpetrators. #blacklivesmatter” were slapped all over the bulletin board, located in the school’s student center. The display was set up by the College Republicans, who received permission from school administrators Friday in honor of National Police Week.
A Black Lives Matter activists posted the following to Facebook shortly after the defacement:
Eventually administrators allowed Black Lives Matter activists to have control over a nearby board. However, the decision did not go over well with the College Republicans, who asked for equal treatment in a letter to the college president and board of Trustees.
“All we ask is that the protections and freedoms of self-expression afforded to other student organizations be extended to us,” the letter said. “We do not see the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements as mutually exclusive.
“It is possible to recognize the service and contributions of law enforcement officers while simultaneously pushing for reform to correct the grave mistakes of the small minority of officers. On National Law Enforcement Appreciation Week, we just hoped to highlight the monumental sacrifices made by these officers to protect us every day.”
The president of the College Republicans, Michelle Knesbach, joined On the Record to explain the full story. She said that the school’s administration applied a double standard by letting Black Lives Matter have their own billboard without making them go through the three-week process to get approved.
In a school-wide email, Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon called the vandalism “an unacceptable violation of freedom of expression.” But a Black Lives Matter activist explained why the board was so offensive, to the point where she had to take the material down.
“It was taken down by students and replaced because it actively co-opted a movement that is supposed to comment on police brutality against black individuals in this country,”said Mikala Williams, one of the many students who helped tarnish the original display. “It took that and by framing that as ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ it normalizes and naturalizes violence against people of color in this country. And that is not okay. That is in no way okay.”
Does she have a point? Sound off in the comments below.
