Office Jackson was killed today: he wrote a message 9 days ago for those who pre-judge police and those who pre-judge Black Lives Matter, both:

Photo: Imgur

Montrell Jackson offered these words on July 8th amid the protests, 9 days before he was killed:

From Corti, our web master, a sweet and powerful message on Facebook: 

“What happened in Dallas and now Baton Rouge is horrendous. It is the act of sick people who have no moral compass and went against all logic to murder their fellow humans.

Being a police officer is a service job. These men and women are serving our communities to keep the peace. I appreciate them and support them! I can also still believe in the absolutely peaceful #BlackLivesMatter movement and hope that we can continue to speak about racism in this country. I can also be against the war-mongering our government supports and also support our Armed Forces and speak out about the lack of support we give veterans. None of these views are mutually exclusive.

Whether murderers are claiming they killed in the name of religion, human rights, political movements or the violent unicorns in their head, it is all mental illness. Someone who thinks it’s okay to kill another person in cold blood is mentally ill. And we need to reach out to people who are mentally ill and find out how we can help.

Let’s come together to mourn with families who have lost. And come together to listen to each other, find the areas of division, address the very specific problems within the systems and address them one by one. Broad generalizations about race, police, muslims, sexual orientation, etc only serve to divide us. Let’s get specific and listen. Ask uncomfortable questions, don’t be afraid to say the wrong thing and be willing to learn.

Let’s talk with our friends, our coworkers, our children, our neighbors and even strangers. Look for the people in your community who are disenfranchised and disconnected—connect with them on a human level. Do it in love. Do it to make progress for our society. Do it because you want a better future for all people. I love you.”

From a Redditor: “I work at a business that Officer Jackson worked security for late at night on his off hours. He was always a very kind individual and was very serious about his job. After he would sign in he’d always tell me “if anyone comes by starting trouble, don’t worry I’ll be out here.” With a big guy like that around we’d always feel safe to do our jobs even in this crazy city. It’s horrible that a guy like this was taken from us as he was definitely a person that was about helping our community and trying to make things a better place. My heart goes out to his family and wish I could’ve offered him more free food and drinks when I had the chance. Never forget that when you hate indiscriminately, these are the kind of people that get hurt.”