In a now-deleted tweet, ThinkProgress editor Zack Ford argued that, absent convictions of cops who shoot black men, vigilantes might take justice into their own hands. The blowback was immense, and Ford soon deleted the tweet in question. But not before several screenshots of it were grabbed.

“Given how police haven’t been held accountable for murdering black people,” he said, “it’s no surprise some are taking justice into their own hands.” That, my friends is exactly what justification for killing cops looks like.

If you were to give Ford the benefit of the doubt, then you could maybe see where he’s trying to go here. But, it’s mangled so badly that you have to do a lot of stretching to get to the less-repulsive point he may have been trying to make. The use of the word “justice” in the tweet, however, quite understandably leads virtually every reader to see this as a justification for the deaths of multiple police officers in Baton Rouge today.

Whether insensitive to the plight of the officers or downright malicious toward all law enforcement, Ford’s tweet is a stellar example of how to politicize something in the most grotesque manner.