A black man named Montrell Jackson was executed in cold blood in America yesterday.

A hooded assassin drove hundreds of miles to deliberately shoot him and two of his white co-workers dead in the street with an AR-15.

It was a senseless, callous, horrific act of violence that left a wife without a husband and a baby 4-month old son without a father.

Montrell was by all accounts a decent, generous and loving man.

A ‘gentle giant’ who was ‘always about peace.’

Colleagues said he worked hard, often seven days a week.

Friends spoke of his humorous streak and addiction to shoes.

He was a big fan of the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Cowboys.

Montrell Jackson was executed in cold blood yesterday. Montrell was by all accounts a decent, generous and loving man and the father of a baby boy

Beyoncé stopped her Glasgow concert to read out a rally-cry for justice for the men who had been killed weeks earlier, but Montrell has gotten none of that support or rage

Yet today he is dead.

Snuffed out in the prime of his life, aged just 32.

Last week, after two black men of similar age were shot dead, there was national outrage.

The black community rose as one to demand action against the perpetrators.

There was fury in the streets from New York to Los Angeles.

Men, women and children marching as one, baring placards screaming ‘Black Lives Matter!’

Beyoncé even stopped a concert to read out a rally-cry for justice for the men who had been killed.

Yet for THIS black victim, there was a very different reaction from that same black community.

Where are the protests?

Where are the placards?

Where’s the incendiary Beyoncé statement?

Where’s the RAGE?

Sadly for Montrell Jackson, he simply didn’t matter as much as those other two men to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Why?

Because he was a police officer.

This, to many Black Lives Matter activists, made him the enemy.

When two black men of similar age were shot dead in recent weeks, there was national outrage. The black community rose as one to demand action against the perpetrators. Yet for THIS black victim, there was a very different reaction

In an eloquent Facebook post he wrote on July 8, the day after five other police officers were shot dead in Dallas, Montrell spoke of the difficulties he faced as black law enforcer.

‘I’m tired, physically and emotionally,’ he said. ‘Disappointed in some family, friends, and officers for some reckless comments. I still love you all because hate takes too much energy, but I definitely won’t be looking at you the same.’

Montrell thanked those who had reached out to him and his wife.

In an eloquent Facebook post he wrote on July 8, the day after five other police officers were shot dead in Dallas, Montrell spoke of the difficulties he faced as black law enforcer

‘It was needed and appreciated,’ he said. ‘I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat. When people you know begin to question your integrity you realize they don’t really know you at all. Look at my actions, they speak LOUD and CLEAR.’

He then issued a heartfelt plea: ‘Finally, I personally want to send prayers out to everyone directly affected by this tragedy. These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better. I’m working in these streets so any protestors, officers, friends, family, or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you.’

Today, just ten days later, Montrell Jackson is dead, targeted as he worked by another black man, a former Marine named Gavin Eugene Long from Kansas City who believed the only way to successfully protest was ‘through bloodshed’.

Such was Long’s hatred of the police that he didn’t care that one of the men he was killing was black.

So a black man full of hate and violence murdered another peace-loving black man because he wanted to exact revenge for the deaths of black men.

This is how twisted the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement has now become in the wrong minds and the wrong gun-toting hands.

Montrell Jackson’s sister found out he was dead when she was sitting in church and the pastor asked the congregation to send prayers to her family.

Jocelyn Jackson, 49, instantly broke down.

Later, she spoke out and said she understood the anger behind the Black Lives Matter movement, but added: ‘God gives nobody the right to kill and take another person’s life. It’s coming to the point where no lives matter, whether you’re black, or white, or Hispanic or whatever.’

She’s absolutely right, it is.

When the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag first sprang up on social media, I responded by tweeting #AllLivesMatter and got roundly abused for exercising my supposed ‘racist white privilege’.

But my issue with the movement was not born from any notion that blacks don’t get an unfair deal from American society, because they absolutely do.

Centuries of institutional racism have left African-Americans with higher poverty rates, worse education due to poorly funded schools, appallingly higher rates of incarceration and a far greater statistical likelihood of being targeted by police.

No, my issue was born from a serious concern that this particular movement, named as it is, would lead to more, not less division in an already race-charged country.

The original premise of Black Lives Matter is not that black lives matter more than anybody else’s, it’s that black lives should matter as much as anybody else’s.

As comedian and activist Franchesca Ramsey put it: ‘It’s OK for a movement to focus on issues specific to one marginalized group. Gay bars aren’t unfair to straight people. ‘Save the Rainforest’ isn’t saying you hate all other trees.’

The problem with Black Lives Matter is that the movement’s been hijacked by those with a more violent concept of how to achieve justice, egged on by angry rhetoric they’re hearing from high profile people

But the problem with Black Lives Matter is that the movement’s been hijacked by those with a more violent concept of how to achieve equality and justice.

And I fear they’ve been inspired and egged on by the angry rhetoric they’re hearing from high profile people in their own community.

After the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Beyoncé demanded justice.

‘We are sick and tired of the killings of young men and women in our communities,’ she said. ‘It’s up to us to take a stand and demand they stop killing us. We’re going to stand up as a community and fight against anyone who believes that murder or any violent action by those who are sworn to protect us should consistently go unpunished.’

I knew what she meant, but did Gavin Eugene Long?

Or did he think this gave him licence to go kill a cop?

Last night, during another concert, Beyoncé dedicated her song Halo to the victims of the Turkey uprising.

She said nothing about Montrell Williams.

Black Lives Matter was a well-intentioned idea that’s gone bad very quickly and now represents a real and present danger to all police officers, of all colours.

The bottom line is this: if black lives matter so much, why are black Americans executing black Americans?

It makes no sense.

It’s time we come together to agree that ‘All Lives Matter’ equally, and strive to achieve that goal.

Or as Montrell Jackson’s sister said: ‘No Lives Matter.’