A sniper shot thugs present at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. (Initial reports said there were two snipers, but there was only one.) The protest was tranquil before the shooting started.

The sniper was angry about thugs' violence, with impunity, against blacks.

The thugs are more sinning than sinned against, but it's wrong to respond to their occasional violence with intentional violence. That conduct is as bad as the worst things thugs do.

However, the anger was and is justified, even though its expression was wrong, and the thugs are morally responsible for their own wrongs that provoke anger.

My anger at thugs began as I read about many incidents in which they attacked protesters and framed them. They generally don't kill the protesters, just beat them up and try to put them in jail, but that is bad enough. This repression threatens all of society, because it endangers democracy and justice.

Only a few thugs commit unjustified violence, and I think most would not do it. However, when one thug commits brutality, and lies to put the blame on the victim, the other thugs who were present generally support the lies with their own mouths. That makes them, too, thugs.

Very few cops resist the pressure to lie to support a thug. Those few, I respect and admire, and I call them "police officers".

Thugs will now cite the Dallas killings to demand to maintain their impunity and even increase it. Supporters of repression have already seized on this to attack the idea that Black Lives Matter.

"Bring the Dallas murderers to justice. And the killers of black people too."