Garrett Yrigoyen responds to Bekah Martinez after she criticized his support of police amid protests

Garrett Yrigoyen was recently slammed by fellow Bachelor Nation star Bekah Martinez, 25, for showing solidarity with law enforcement amid nation-wide protests.

And on Friday, Yrigoyen, 31, responded to Martinez’s criticism pertaining to his past views and the social media ‘silence’ he exhibited in the wake of George Floyd‘s death. 

‘You made a mistake for judging me in the past without knowing me…needless to say you never got to know me, still don’t know me,’ wrote Garrett on his Instagram Story.

Yrigoyen – who is currently engaged to Bekah’s the Bachelor pal Becca Kufrin, 30 – said Bekah is ‘no longer invited over’ to his and Kufrin’s home.

He also claimed that Bekah once told his fiancee ‘how much [she] loved [him].’ 

In regards to posting a caption-less black square in ‘support’ of Black Lives Matter, Garrett said that he ‘was advised to not post [a] caption with [his] black square’ because of his past.  

The ‘black square’ was a social media trend that occurred Tuesday for ‘#BlackOutTuesday’ on Instagram,  which required users to post the square as a way of bringing attention to Black Lives Matter. 

He continued: ‘I had written a message about peace, racism, and change…because I believe BLM is important, I still got ridiculed.’

‘I’m also showing my love & support for others at this time as well, and still get ridiculed. Doesn’t make me a racist nor does it take away from BLM. 

He concluded his rant by encouraging Bekah to ‘try having conversations with people before judging and labeling.’ 

Bekah went on to respond to Garrett’s Instagram Story, where she first refuted his claim that she said she ‘loved’ him to his fiancee Becca.

‘Lmao definitely not my words. I said “tell garrett I’m sorry I gave him so much s**t” and at the time I meant it because I thought you actually cared about changing,’ she clarified.

Garrett shared his direct message conversation with Bekah to his Instagram Story, as well, where he continued to defend his position.

‘What is wrong with supporting Black Lives and Cops at the same time?,’ Yriygoyen wrote.

‘I have grown and become more educated in the past two years. If you saying by me posting that and supporting everyone isn’t change…then what about you jumping to conclusions and running your thumbs on my page, AGAIN, has changed,’ concluded the reality star. 

The feud between the fellow Bachelor alums began on Thursday, when Garrett shared a ‘black square’ to his Instagram page that had a ‘thin blue line’ running through it to represent ‘each officer protecting protestors, properties, and businesses while being threatened, attacked, shot, shot at, hit with vehicles, and other forms of brutality.’ 

‘With so many friends and family in law enforcement I couldn’t sit back and not support them and the hundreds of thousands of men and women of all races that represent this Thin Blue Line as well. It’s important for me to recognize the ones who stand in the gap and put their lives on the line each and every single day for humans of different race and ethnicity, including those who hate them.’ 

He insisted that ‘we can’t judge an entire group of people by the actions of a few’ and that we also cannot ‘judge peaceful protesters by the actions of the few violent protesters, and we sure can’t judge all cops by the actions of a few bad ones.’

Yrigoyen concluded his long-winded post to reiterating that police officers are ‘still humans, with raw emotion’ and that they ‘make mistakes.’  

Bekah then took to Garrett’s comment section and attempted to explain to him that ‘law enforcement CHOOSES to put on a blue uniform,’ where as ‘Black people don’t choose to be black.’

‘You’ve made your views known before and here’s a great reminder that not much has changed.’ 

She also found it ‘interesting that [he stayed] silent about black lives but just HAD to speak out about cops.’

She would go on to make an entire post of her own on her Instagram page, where she broke down her argument regarding the nonexistence of ‘blue lives.’     

‘Here’s the thing: being black is not a uniform you can remove on your days off, it definitely does not protect you from the justice system, it is not something you get PAID to be, and it is most certainly not something you can quit or retire from. STOP COMPARING THE EXPERIENCE OF A CHOSEN CAREER TO THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING BLACK.

‘You can love a cop, marry a cop, have a brother who’s a cop…and you can still hate the Blue Lives Matter movement and what it represents.

‘You can choose to support cops AND understand that the ‘thin blue line’ flag now represents and signals BLUE LIVES MATTER to the majority of the population.’

She continued in the comments of her post, writing, ‘that flag means so much more than just ‘I respect and honor our first responders!’ and you all know it.’

‘You know EXACTLY what the subtext is when someone flies that flag on their car or home,’ she continued. ‘You KNOW it is in direct opposition to Black Lives Matter, regardless of whatever it was originally intended to represent. THAT’S why it’s in the toilet, not because I hate cops or don’t think their lives matter.’