Black Lives Matter.

It seems a simple phrase and one that few of us can really disagree with in spirit. While we may counter that all lives matter, few would disagree that black lives fall into that category. So sure, they matter. Just like anyone else’s should.

However, when all the words are capitalized like that, it’s not a phrase. It’s an organization, a movement. It’s an entity with goals of its own that may or may not move beyond simply saying black Americans have a right to live.

In Chicago following a night of senseless looting, over a hundred arrests were made. The looting didn’t accompany a protest that got out of hand, either. It was just looting for the sake of looting.

Now, Black Lives Matter held a rally. It wasn’t to stop the violence, to stop the looting that may turn public opinion against their organization. Oh no. It was demanding the release of all those arrested.

Black Lives Matter members in Chicago held a rally on Monday to support the more than 100 arrested last night following widespread looting and rioting that caused at least $60 million in property damage and saw 13 police officers injured, according to a report.

The rally was organized by Black Lives Matter Chicago and was held at a police station in the South Loop where organizers say individuals are currently being held in custody. At least one organizer called the looting tantamount to “reparations.”

“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” said Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, according to NBC Chicago. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”

“That is reparations,” Atkins continued. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”

In other words, any degree of lawlessness carried out by African-Americans is somehow justified because of the sins from a century and a half ago and woe be unto you if you disagree.

Now, unlike on Monday, we know what prompted the looting.

The unrest was prompted by a social media post urging people to converge on Chicago’s business district after police shot a man on the South Side around 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Officers had responded to a call about a man with a gun in the Englewood neighborhood. While being pursued by police, the man, who was on foot, “turned and fired shots” at officers before being struck himself and taken to a local hospital, Deputy Chief Delonda Tally told Fox 32 Chicago.

Latrell Allen, 20, was charged with attempted murder Monday after firing on officers, according to Chicago police. A video posted on Facebook around 6:30 p.m. falsely claimed that officers had shot and killed a 15-year-old boy.

An armed man fired at police, and that was cause for looting?

And now Black Lives Matter somehow seems to believe that looting is justified because…what? People are poor? Because someone owned someone else down your genealogical line, someone you’ve never met?

Sorry, that doesn’t fly.

Looting isn’t reparations. It’s smash and grab robbery on a grander scale. It doesn’t benefit the community. It doesn’t expunge the evils of slavery. It doesn’t even address income disparity.

It does nothing except suggest that Black Lives Matter is everything horrible they’ve been accused of being. It makes it even more difficult to believe their claims that white supremacists infiltrated their protests and sparked the riots that swept the nation. It’s impossible to buy that because look at what we’re seeing now.

In the process, we see the real agenda of Black Lives Matter. It’s not to raise awareness of police brutality against the black community. It’s not to call for police reform or anything of the sort.

No, it’s to justify lawlessness on behalf of that same black community. It’s to demand a world where there are zero repercussions against African American criminals who commit crimes for whatever reason. It’s to create a different set of rules for black Americans than applies to anyone else.

And that won’t go the way Black Lives Matter thinks it will.