‘Black Lives Matter has created hostility & division in America’
While creating a divide in US society, Black Lives Matter has done a really good thing for the police and for Donald Trump’s campaign, which is all about law and order. It is working in his favor right now, says 'MailOnline' columnist Katie Hopkins.
As Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place while the US Republic National Convention was underway RT spoke to Carl Dix, founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and Katie Hopkins, 'MailOnline' Columnist, to discuss police violence in the US.
RT: During the Convention, there was a major Black Lives Matter demo and counter demo. You also took part in the gathering. What were your main impressions of the people who took part?
Katie Hopkins: It got quite aggressive there yesterday in the square. The police were doing a fantastic job of trying to keep people separate from each other…. People are here to protest because they love to protest. There was someone I met dressed as a wall protesting about Trump. Somebody else is protesting about the fact that he wants to cull immigration. Someone else is protesting about the fact that he is Islamophobic. Everybody is here to protest about something. But what I came away with from Black Lives Matter is that really they have created the divide. Black Lives Matter has created a divide. Because they’ve said: “Black Lives Matter more”. Pick a side, which side are you on? I think that has really created hostility. That is why people are applauding the police in the streets because people are now on the side of the police. I think Black Lives Matter has done a really good thing for the police and for Donald Trump’s campaign, which is all about law and order. They are really working in his favor right now.
RT: Trump has said the movement is dividing the nation and criticized alleged calls to honor the sniper who shot dead five Dallas police officers this month. Do you agree with the nominee?
Carl Dix: Ms. Hopkins is talking like she knows nothing of the reality here in this country. Because the problem is that this country has said from day one that the lives of the Black people matter for nothing unless they can be exploited and savagely oppressed to build up the wealth of America - from slavery, from sharecropping, Jim Crow segregation and Lynch mob terror. And today, police terror, with the police replacing the lynching mobs, and lynching Black people and other oppressed people here. That is the problem. Black Lives Matter represents saying Black lives no longer can be treated as if they don’t matter. That’s what those people are saying. And I stand with them in many protests and demonstrations. But the other thing I say is that this violence of the police is actually them playing the role of front-line enforcers for a capitalist-imperialist system that enforces vicious exploitation and savage oppression on Black people and other people here in this country, to say nothing of what it does around the world.
We need a revolution to get rid of this system and to bring in a totally different, far better system…I am talking reality. Let’s talk about Alton Sterling, a man who was beaten down, tasered, pinned down on the ground and then police pull out a gun after they immobilized him and shoot him several times. Let’s talk about Eric Garner; a man who was doing nothing wrong and police choked him to death. Let’s talk about the fact that those and all other hundreds of other killer cops have all been exonerated. That is the reality that no one should accept. Don’t tell me the stuff about police having a tough job because it is not hard not to murder people. You just have to not shoot them in the back, choke them to death, tase them to death, beat them to death. That’s not that hard.
RT: The Black Lives Matter movement surely has a point. We've seen dozens of unarmed black people killed by the police this year alone. Surely you accept something has to be done?
Katie Hopkins: I think that you are taking a small slice of this argument. What you need to look at is that black-on-black killing is far greater, it is off the chart; gang killing is off the chart. And these guys are just making a protest statement, they are creating hostility, and as a result in Baton Rouge cops are being gunned down. These gentlemen and ladies are out here doing a fantastic job protecting civilians. That is what we need. And people like Carl are creating the very kind of environment that Trump will flourish in because he is talking about law and order. And what we need is people that will stand up because Blue lives matter and Black lives do not matter more.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
