Good morning. Let’s hope this week is an improvement over the last one.

1. Updates after Dallas.

You undoubtedly know by now that five police officers were killed Thursday night in Dallas, after a peaceful protest against police brutality following the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Black Lives Matter was blamed, of course; take this race war-baiting tweet by former Congressman Joe Walsh:

Meanwhile, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani let us know who the real racists are.

In his Sunday interview, Giuliani proposed no police reforms other than a “zero tolerance” policy toward “disrespect.”

As for the Black Lives Matter movement, he said its members “sing rap songs about killing police officers” and “yell it out at rallies.”

“When you say ‘black lives matter,’ that’s inherently racist,” the ex-mayor said. “Black lives matter, white lives matter, Asian lives matter, Hispanic lives matter. That’s anti-American and it’s racist.”

So if we can get this straight: Micah Johnson, the Dallas Shooter, represented everyone in Black Lives Matter; Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub shooter, represented all Muslims; and Dylann Roof, the Charleston church shooter, was a “loner.” Funny how all of that works.

Anyway, vigils were held in both Raleigh and Durham on Friday night to remember those who have died in encounters with the police. From the Raleigh vigil:

Over the weekend, a slew of protesters, including noted activist DeRay Mckesson, and even journalists (including Lee Stranahan from Breitbart, a right-wing site) were rounded up and arrested during a protest in Baton Rouge. President Obama, who will speak at the funeral service for the five Dallas police officers along with former President George W. Bush, spoke on the aftermath.

“Whenever those of us who are concerned about fairness in the criminal justice system attack police officers, you are doing a disservice to the cause,” said Mr. Obama, speaking in Spain after a meeting with the country’s interim prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.

[…]

In protest movements, he said, “there’s always going to be some folks who say things that are stupid or imprudent or over-generalize, or are harsh.”

While Mr. Obama said it was unfair to characterize an entire movement by a few dissonant voices, he said inflammatory words could hinder legitimate efforts to reform the justice system.

“Even rhetorically,” Mr. Obama said, “if we paint police officers with a broad brush — without recognizing that the vast majority of police officers are doing a really good job and are trying to protect people, and do so fairly and without racial bias — if the rhetoric does not recognize that, then we’re going to lose allies in the reform process.”

For more news on Baton Rouge, we highly suggest you check out the coverage that Baton Rouge alt-weekly the Advocate is doing on this terrible story.

2. T. Greg Doucette had some things to say.

T. Greg Doucette, a criminal defense attorney who has gained national notoriety for being a vocal about the failures of the criminal justice system, and who also happens to be running for state senate as a libertarian Republican, had some things to say about both the recent protests and the body camera bill that had (unfortunately) broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate; in the upper house, only Democrat Jeff Jackson and Republican Chad Barefoot voted against the bill.