Blue lives should matter.

After two Los Angeles police officers were ambushed in an act of cowardice and shot in their car, protestors blocked the emergency room entrance of a nearby hospital, shouting “We hope they die!” and trying to prevent those officers from getting care. This isn’t just one incident, though. Over the last several years, we have seen acts of violence targeting law enforcement all over the country.

Routinely, conservatives are mocked when they say that “blue lives matter.” After all, BLM activists will be quick to tell you that “policeman” is not a race, and policemen are the ones who committed the violence that led to BLM becoming a movement in the first place. In fact, you have at least one NAACP leader attacking the idea that “blue lives matter.”

The point of saying “black lives matter” though is to recognize that every life is equally important. Every life deserves a chance to live life to its fullest extent. The reason people say “black lives matter” is because they seek to ensure that black lives matter as much as white lives (or any other lives for that matter) do. So, when extremist activists attack, shoot at, kill, or celebrate the deaths of police officers, it comes across as more than a little hypocritical.

Yes, it is just a small portion of the “black lives matter” movement that truly believes police departments should be completely defunded, believes cops should be killed, want to see them suffer, etc. It is also true that it’s a small portion of police officers who are responsible for the acts that have led to the BLM movement. A few bad apples can ruin both bunches.

But when people on either side refuse to come out and condemn the extremist actions and violence committed by their “allies,” it begins to look very much like this violence is not only condoned but encouraged, and those extremists are motivated to continue doing it. That’s why it’s so important for both sides to take stock of their own sides’ actions and do something when one of their own goes off the deep end like this.

We are told that black lives matter just as much as all other lives. That includes white lives and it includes blue lives. Some of the people saying that, though, are also silently approving of the actions of a lunatic who tried to gun down two officers in a parked car. If you want all lives to matter, you have to make sure that everyone on your side agrees to those same rules you’re establishing. If you don’t, it is less that all lives matter and more that you believe a different class should be the one that doesn’t matter anymore.

And we have to do better than that. The black lives matter protestors have to put a stop to the violence within their ranks. They have to stop the lunatics from continuing to not only harm their own cause, but the actual lives of other people. If they cannot do that, then their movement will become entirely defined by violence and chaos, and their cause will be shattered because of it.

We have become so broken that we have completely devalued human life from conception on. We have placed so little value on human life we are literally dehumanizing someone based on not just the color of their skin but on their chosen career. Black lives, blue lives, we don’t care. And if we can’t come back from this, then there isn’t anything that can save us.