In the wake of shocking, deadly acts of violence, many in the media have been quick to tie the recent slayings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to the Black Lives Matter movement, which advocates for the civil rights of those disproportionately affected by police violence.
Reporters even asked the family of Alton Sterling, the black man whose death at the hands of Baton Rouge police on July 5 ignited days of protests around the country, to condemn violence against police, a move widely criticized on social media.
But while the killers in Dallas and Baton Rouge were both black men who had expressed anger over police violence prior to their deaths, they had something else in common: Both were U.S. military veterans.