It is legal in several states to shoot at a police officer who is actively engaged in threatening your life, liberty, and property. It's what the 2nd amendment was written for, as a check on unchecked state power.

Such a rule does not allow for firing on random police officers and civilians in public, like the horrific situation in Downtown Dallas. What are some better ways to hold killer cops accountable and reform a broken justice system without causing any harm to innocent people?

What's clear is this, over 500 people have been killed by police in 2016. The recent killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling have sparked protests and outrage across America and the #blacklivesmatter ethos means more today than ever, yet this won't stop the criticism, the privilege, the damnation of a cause hijacked by those willing to kill in its name in Dallas.

I'm in solidarity with you  #blacklivesmatter and never compromise or be ashamed for doing what's right when it comes to injustice, hate, racism, disadvantages. In this supposedly United States they all call America. Thank God the activists in the 50-60-70's never backed down blacks would still be in chains. The walls tumbling and God is always on the side of making wrongs right. I respectfully applaud you.

Successful civil rights efforts in the United States have always leveraged buy-in across races and class in order to accomplish their objectives. The fact is that the sorry state of American law enforcement does affect everyone even if African-Americans bear the brunt of the problem. It would be great if new leadership did emerge out of this since the current crop have been pretty ineffective and are obviously out of touch with the people they serve. The people doing the hard yards trying to make things better are out there working quietly and you won't read about them in liberal media.


The movement is about the treatment of black people by the US justice system. Co-opting the movement to include all races completely undermines and ignores the disproportionate amount of black people killed or facing lengthy prison sentences, that's why #AllLivesMatter is a smokescreen.

Other races are welcomed, but changing the entire basis of the campaign is such a great exercise in white privilege.

It's unfortunate that most people who are white will never understand what it's like to walk in a black man or woman's shoes. I know black educated head executives in corporations dealing with this type of institutional racism but it is quietly kept in secret. Those talking about #AllLivesMatter will never understand this type of pain when you did everything right according to society yet are still looked down on, disrespected, and can be killed because of your skin color.

The police in most places seem to need serious retraining or we should raise the educational levels that are used in most places for hiring. They are mostly males and predominantly white and they since 9-11 have been over equipped with all sorts of violent equipment which I believe is adding to what is adding to the existing firestorm.

Dallas shows nothing but violence begetting violence and leading to nothing but irreperable harm to society. Sometimes you just don't understand what triggers such inhumane behaviours. Makes you feel angry.
Obama is stewarding over this horrendous deteriation in race relations in the US. That's obviously a problem. You see, it's just that Obama has not tackled the 'race' issue (always weird to use that word; but it looks like it doesn't bother the Americans). And the Black communitythought that he would. They believed that his election would better their ever-worsening condition. They've been wronged and that is a lowdown, dirty, real shame.

Capitalism cannot exist without racism, blaming it is a step forward from blaming the Republicans. The Democrats are equally loyal to racist American capitalism, even if they sometimes pretend not to be.

The movement to defend black people's rights will definitely benefit from being international, but if the slogan "workers of the world unite" isn't adopted, the movement will remain toothless.

America does have a black problem. Black Americans have been slaves, then segregated, second-class citizens and had to fight for their rights for years. It wasn't an altruistic change in the attitudes amongst the 'ruling class' that liberated black people, it was a capitulation to the pressure brought about by black people to have their voices heard and not have to use separate entrances and restaurant tables etc. So, surely, this is going to have knock-on effects for black people going forwards. Especially when you consider factors like entrenched poverty, ghettoisation, demonisation of black youths in the media etc.

This isn't a hashtag, it's a real political force and we can not allow terrorists with no conception for true race relations to hijack its strength and courage by killing in its name. They are nothing, the proponents of the movement are everything.

This article was written by  Saurav Dutt for American Herald Tribune on July 08,2016. Saurav Dutt is the Guardian Books and LA Times Book short-listed British author of fiction and nonfiction works. He wrote for The Guardian, The Independent; he is a novelist, independent film producer, playwright, screenwriter, graphic design illustrator and above all, an accomplished author and writer.