These are not either/or. We need more and better policing. We need more EFFECTIVE social programs. I am a trauma surgeon. I have yet to care for someone shot by police, while seeing many shot by others. I live in the ghetto, police are not the problem.
It has never been an either/or issue. The NYPD, for instance, is 27% Hispanic, 15% black, and 7% Asian. Why should people in NYC demonize a group that is so ethnically diverse? It makes no sense to me.
Thank you for what you do saving lives. You and all in the medical profession are truly remarkable individuals. Where we disagree is the need for more social programs. I used to believe that but after 50 years of watching that failed experiment have come to believe that much of the tragedy was caused by state intervention although the intentions where noble.
You are to kind. I agree I have serious doubt about the efficacy of any state sanctioned program but am trying to be open to the thought. Having been in the USN there is no doubt the marines(more then the Navy) does an amazing job of cultural and attitude adjustment. At least they did in the past.
Bari is providing us w/ superb reporting, both hers and her guest reporters. Been a PI for 40 years. I started as an investigator for the prosecutor's office in KC in the late 70's. Worked w/ Claire McCaskill who started her career as a prosecutor. I have known cops working in KC, Chicago and Wisconsin. I have cops who are friends and know cops I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. I have a lot to say on this topic. But, it's time for my daily walk so I'll be brief. Leighton Woodhouse NAILED this issue. You see, I've known many people who lived in high crime inner city. They know what I know. There are good cops and bad ones. They get to know specifically which ones are good and which ones are bad. But, when you are a victim of a crime, particularly a violent one, you just want a cop and you need them quickly. There are bad operators in every profession and walk of life. I worked med malpractice and legal malpractice cases, defending docs and attorneys as a PI. Some of them should not be allowed to practice, causing harm to those they are supposed to help. Never once have I heard anyone propose defunding those professions. That's stupid, just as this defund the police is.
Agree- excellent reporting! I'd also recommend Megyn Kelly's podcast (#131 - first interview is with Larry Elder) where she interviews Don and Sondra Samuels, community activists from North Minneapolis who beautiful articulate the same sentiment! Definitely worth a listen!
On the other hand, there is a major difference between the police and the medical and legal professions: when a physician or lawyer is charged with malpractice, the AMA or ABA do not jump to their defense, try to dig up dirt on their accuser, make public statements minimizing the seriousness of their ethical breach, or provide them with legal representation for their defense before ethics boards. Police unions do all those things for bad cops.
Besides police misbehavior, one of the bases for calling for "defunding the police" is the lavish spending police departments undertake to be more like the military: acquiring APCs, grenade launchers and the like. Since one of the causes both of police misbehavior and of this urge to acquire military-style hardward is the attitude that they are always in a combat situation (justifiable in some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods of our cities where the residents would like policing), as I have in other online forums, I would like here to suggest some ways in which the police might be made more like the military to the benefit of all:
(1) not being allowed to unionize (cf. my first paragraph),
(2) ordinary cops getting as much deescalation training as members of the military with police duties (MPs) get,
(3) rules of engagement as restrictive as those we give our troops in counter-insurgency theaters (note: I specifically chose counter-insurgency operations, because there, as in policing, one cannot always readily identify who is a threat),
(4) consequences analogous to those soldiers receive for killing non-combatants (in the police context read unarmed civilians) if done in breach of their rules of engagement, and
(5) a cultural shift so that being discharged from a police force for cause is as dark a blot on one's employment history as a dishonorable discharge from the military.
LOL! If you don't think docs and attorneys protect each other, as much, if not more, than cops then you are horribly uninformed. When I worked malpractice cases, I defended docs, attorneys, who were bad. But, I usually got hired when the plaintiff was bad, either lying or embellishing their claim. Watch Dr Death if you want to see how the medical profession protects their own.
Regarding your specifics. Firstly, I can tell you are anti-cop. That's fine. I understand that mentality. Unions should be disallowed for ALL govt. employees, including cops. So, we agree on the no unions for cops, almost certainly you don't agree w/ the blanket no unions for govt employees? FDR saw the foibles of govt employee unions.
On deescalation training we are simpatico. I've long thought all cops should have a martial arts black belt or required to attain that within 3 years. That can put a shitbird in cuffs w/o much force at all.
Rules of engagement, again I agree. And I concur w/ the analogous consequences if rules of engagement are breached.
We agree on #5 as well. Not only do I think being discharged for cause should disqualify you from future employment as a cop, I think a 3 strikes in the use of force should mean termination. Maybe even less than 3 strikes if a violation were egregious.
I didn't get the sense that DNY is "anti-cop". I'm certainly not. One doesn't have to be anti cop to see how the problems and entrenched ethnic tensions between police and their communities are exacerbated by police unions, particularly the ones in crusty old cities like NYC, Phily, Boston and Chicago where political machines are still operating in some form.
I have tremendous empathy for police officers who put themselves in harm's way everyday for our safety but this is a complex issue that requires compassion from both sides for those on the other side. Without it, nothing will change.
One of the most thoughtful essays I've read on this topic was written by Matt Taibbi just last month:
Yeah, the Taibbi post is good, esp. in the summary of cops' mishaps:
"Saying it’s all about race or white supremacy isn’t just inaccurate, it lets bad actors off the hook — especially city politicians; and their *upscale yuppie* donors, who vote for these interventionist policies, and are all too happy to see badge-wearing social janitors from *middle-class* towns in Long Island or Westchester *take the rap* when things go bad."
As long as upscale yuppie donors get to see badge-wearing social janitors from *middle-class* towns *take the rap*, there'll be no compassion from both sides.
As long as the MSM is dominated by such upscale yuppie types, their Social Inferiors will always be the fall guys.
Reading such stuff, one would never guess, that cops *are* trained in what can be called Rules of engagement, known to them as the Use of Force Model, see e.g.
Those are good suggestions. Re the "militarization" stuff, though, that has almost all been foisted on local depts by FEDERAL grants aiming to spend, spend, spend , more, more, more on the Military Industrial Complex
I had some experience (indirect thankfully) with a really bad doctor in Houston, TX. He was known as "Eric the Red" for reasons that were as horrible then, as they are now. How long did "Eric the Red' get away with his crimes. For a long, long, time. Was he protected by parts of the medical profession? Yes, he was. Quote from Texas Monthly
"Houston orthopedic surgeon ERIC SCHEFFEY has been sued 78 times. He’s paid out some $13 million to settle malpractice cases. At least five of his patients have died, and hundreds more have been seriously injured. So why did it take 24 years for state regulators—and his colleagues in the medical community—to stop him?"
Peter, I only worked med malpractice cases in Illinois and Wisconsin. But, apparently Texas is one of the worst of protecting their own. It happens, to varying degrees, in every state.
NS, The story has a 'happy' (not really) ending Apparently, Eric Scheffey was run out of the state of Texas and continued his criminal career in Colorado. He was arrested in 2005. He may have gotten off. Reddit says that he is now a 'respected' member of the arts community in Denver.
Police unions do what all unions do: protect the interests of its members. They all protect deadbeats and bad actors, in factories, schools, and police precincts. Good workers and police don’t like this, but accept it as the price to prevent being steamrolled by management. Otherwise you’d find traffic cops being harrassed or fired for ticketing the mayor’s wife. This system leaves a lot to be desired, would like to see some ideas for addressing the legitimate concerns of unions without the bad side effects.
I grew up in a union family. My old man was a jet engine mechanic for Pratt&Whitney. He saw how his union, and other unions, end up protecting the shitbirds that the vast majority of workers want to get fired. That is how EVERY union devolves.
It's world class hypocrisy. Almost everyone in the photo of that BLM/Defund the Police protest is young, white and woke, virtue signaling their solidarity with "oppressed people of color" like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibrahim Kendi. But I've got news for those young, white zealots. Your guru Robin DiAngelo says you can "do the work" until the cows come home, but you'll always be a racist because -- "white privilege/white fragility."
Cori Bush is another hypocrite, a Marie Antoinette for the 21st century. She demands that we stop funding the police, as she nests inside a private security cocoon. She asks, "Would you rather see me die?" but throws her very own constituents under the bus because defunding the police would lead to more violence, more murders, more tragedies in the communities she represents. Murders are up, you say. Oh well, let them eat cake.
Cat Brooks is the worst of all. If this failed actress, the daughter of a white, radical activist and a black felon, got her wish, there would be no police and no prisons.. None. The US would quickly degenerate into chaos. And Cat Brooks would finally win an Oscar for producing, directing, and starring in the real life reenactment of Mad Max: The Road Warrior.
Meanwhile, the real heroes, Chief Armstrong and Antoine Towers, the hardworking people who actually live in these communities and try to keep the residents safe are denounced. If 2021 were a work of fiction, no one would ever believe it.
Because the people behind BLM and Defund don’t really care about the impact of crime in poorer neighborhoods, there will be no end to this madness until the real victims decide to rise up against the hypocrites. But the odds of that happening are low, especially since the ruling class likes the way things are going, because it keeps them in power.
“Their job is to maintain the status quo. And the status quo is race-based capitalism. And so they are the front line soldiers of the larger system of white supremacy, which is the engine of this country, both here locally and globally.”
This is what fundamentalism looks like. It doesn't require evidence. It isn't subject to scrutiny. It begins with a pre-determined conclusion that the evidence must adhere to. Contradicting evidence is heretical. Anyone who proposes or considers this evidence is an agent of this heresy. They need to do the work to correct their thinking.
I would like to believe that enlightenment values will persevere but fundamentalism is a powerful drug. It distills the complexity of the world into a binary of good and evil. There is no nuance or compromise. The "lived experience" of advocates for safer neighborhoods through more policing becomes a straw man for the existence of "evil" in the system. That is the "lens" of fundamentalism.
So tell me - just where to these congressmen get seemingly-unlimited funds to afford things like private security? I didn't think that job paid so well.
I agree. We really do need a thorough investigative journalism article on exactly which billionaires or foreign governments are funding BLM, CRT, and the transactivist movements.
For anyone who wants to understand how things like CRT and the trans agenda suddenly take over society like some kind of juggernaut, this article provides the blueprint. It doesn't speak to those two issues specifically, but outlines how a given agenda gets pushed from seemingly every direction while really only coming from a relative handful of billionaire elites. It's long but eye-opening. Worth your time.
Thank you for the link, Leah. What a nightmare -- the tangled web of woke billionaire philanthropy chokes the life and sense out of our the entire society through social engineering.
No doubt they are using their taxpayer paid office funding. Most likely diverting campaign contributions as well. And I’m sure Soros through some puppet cut out is giving them money to further his quest to have all DAs refuse to prosecute.
Indeed. It is ludicrous to act as though personal income or net worth is a bellweather of material quality of life when political actors whose private wealth is ostensibly meager routinely enjoy luxuries commensurate with those of private sector billionaires.
They use campaign funds: the information on Cori Bush--and a number of other news items lately--has come from publicly available FEC filings. As an aside, this is how Trump pays his lawyers too.
Why are so many of the defund the police protestors shown in video and photos young white people? Most, if not all of whom, I'd wager have never had a police encounter. Lenin called these types useful idiots.
The tale of Michael Brown and Ferguson, MO is mentioned in passing. The true story has nothing to do with Ferguson’s revenue needs and a lot to do with Michael Brown’s (mis)conduct.
MB was walking down the center of a street when first approached by Darren Wilson (the police officer). He attacked DW and tried to grab his gun. He then charged DW and ended up dead as a consequence. It turns out the MB robbed a store shortly before his confrontation with DW.
The encounter between MB and DW has been subject to numerous investigations. All of them have concluded that MB was entirely guilty and DW was entirely innocent.
The first investigation was by the Grand Jury in MO. Of course, it concluded that DW had committed no crime The second investigation was by the Obama administration. Of course, this was actual Eric Holder’s Justice Department. You can find the report online at “Justice Department Announces Findings of Two Civil Rights Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri” (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-findings-two-civil-rights-investigations-ferguson-missouri)
““On March 4, 2015, the federal investigation cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. The investigation concluded there was no evidence upon which prosecutors could rely to disprove Wilson's asserted belief that he feared for his safety, that witnesses who contradicted Wilson were not credible, that forensic evidence and credible witnesses corroborated Wilson's account, and that the facts did not support the filing of criminal charges against Wilson.[13][50][51] Credible witnesses did not support accounts that Brown had his hands up in surrender. He was not shot in the back. Forensic evidence showed he was moving toward Wilson. Numerous witnesses were found to have given accounts of actions they were unable to see from their vantage points, or to be recounting others' accounts.[13][50][51]””
So what did Obama do about this? He baldly lied and got away with it. Here is a quote from Obama
“The finding that was made [by the Department of Justice] was that it was not unreasonable to determine that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Officer [Darren] Wilson. That was an objective, thorough, independent federal investigation”
That’s not true either. Obama could have told the truth, that Wilson was innocent and Brown was guilty, but choose not to.
Why did Obama lie about Ferguson? Because he could. Had Obama thought there was any chance that MSNBC/CNN/CBS/the NYT would call him a ‘liar’ he would have shown more caution. However, he knew that MSNBC/CNN/CBS/the NYT would cover for him and protect him and he was right.
He could have said “I had the Department of Justice investigate this case and we found that the Wilson was innocent’. But of course, he didn’t. Instead he relied on Al Sharpton as one of his principal advisers.
The original DA who didn’t indict Darren Wilson, lost his bid for reelection. His opponent promised to ‘right the historic wrong’ by finally indicting Darren Wilson (the police officer). The new DA then managed to reach the same conclusion as every other party that has investigated the case (Michael Brown was a dangerous violent criminal and Darren Wilson acted properly). No indictment was forthcoming. Now the ‘activists’ are rather predictably attacking the new DA.
In the leftist world of false narratives facts don't matter. Mark Twain once said: "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on it's shoes." Anyone with half a brain knows that the wage gap is just one of the many lies that stream from the left. They are able to get away with this deceit because the have a relative monopoly on their growing propaganda machine. There isn't a time or place that escapes their drumbeat of deceit. We can no longer watch commercials, late night talk shows, or sporting events without being bombarded with their woke messaging. We are quickly losing this battle. When Warren and Harris were campaigning in the Democratic Primary they both paid homage to the Gentle Giant on his death day; as if that thug deserves a day of honor. What's most horrifying about Warren and Harris referring to the justified police shooting of MB as the "MURDER of MB" is that they are both attorneys. Harris was a career prosecutor and knows damn well that Darren Wilson was exonerated by Obama and Holder's DOJ. Darren Wilson should have sued both of them for defamation as they both clearly and knowingly knew what they were saying was false. I'm sure he doesn't want to subject himself to the threats and hate that would come his way were he to emerge from his hiding spot. I read the 96 page DOJ report you referenced years ago. It's excellent and everyone should read it; probably the most extensive investigations in DOJ history. Keep up the good fight my friend.
Actually, Mark Twain probably didn't say "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on it's shoes.". See https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/ for some details. Of course, this is a minor point and the truth is that BLM is based on a lie. Worse, a lie that the media lets them get away with.
Last year 14 Blacks were killed by police. 14. And 51 cops were killed. You would think that thousands of Blacks were killed by police if you listen to the “Defund Police” crowd. And those 14 people killed by police were just walking around minding their own business when a cop shot them? Is that what Cori Bush thinks? No one believes her. It’s outrageous. We need more cops in crime ridden neighborhoods, not less.
HI Kathy, I think you mean the number of unarmed black men shot (and it is shootings) by police in 2020....it's actually 17. There was also 1 black unarmed woman . The Washington Post maintains a database of police shootings.
(BTW, during the same period there were 26 white people and 10 hispanic people who were unarmed and were shot by the police. Maybe 2 Asians.....as that group is not identified specifically.)
Actually, I thank you for that, madaboutmd. I read the whole thing. It's relatively high-quality writing and analysis. I feel like I learned a lot. Mostly, it reinforced my strong belief that partisanship distorts and contorts people's vision of reality. And the more partisan you are, the more distorted your vision is.
That last line couldnt possibly be more true. If we could just find our common ground and start our conversation there... maybe we could really solve something, anything is a start.
Yes. We've forgotten that we are all Americans. Think of the last time one of our leaders helped us unite over something, anything. All they do is demonize the other side. How does this help actual people?
I truly believe that the American people have more in common with each other than with our leadership. If we could just see that, maybe we could get somewhere.
People sure talk a lot about gun violence. As if a gun picks itself up and starts spraying bullets all over the place. I guess there is no knife violence because knives just sit there. Same with baseball bats and hammers, inanimate injects that just sit there quietly.
Rarely is there talk about the pathologies of those who use guns to commit violence. Or those who use knives, hammers, baseball bats and for that matter fists and feet. It’s always the guns. Quite frankly it’s very lazy and much easier than trying to figure out why certain groups are way more prone to violence than others. Stating the obvious would lead to cries of racism et al.
So It’s much easier to blame the man or whites or anything but where the blame actually belongs. And the hypocritical communist congress people sure have their constituents conned (great alliteration no?) with the willing help of the DNC press. Not one of the congress things or even the regressive activists give a hoot about actually fixing things, it’s all about money and power for them.
I don’t know where it’s going to end up, but it’s a given that it will only get worse and may never get better.
It is a dismaying fact that if one disaggregates American murder rates by the ancestral region of origin of the perpetrator, they track the murder rates in those other part of the world: hardly any Scandinavian-Americans commit murder, the rate is only slightly higher for those whose ancestry traces to the British Isles, Russian-Americans are more prone to lethal violence than are other European-Americans, murder rates among American Latinos track those in Latin America, and yes, murder rates among Black Americans are similar to those in West Africa. If one decides one must condemn facts as "racist", one makes opposition to racism into an exercise in fantasy, not a good idea as a basis for public policy.
And, yes, there are white cultural problems underlying mass shootings -- the refusal to properly treat mental illnesses as illnesses, seeing it as a failure of will, so that men afflicted with mental illness are told "man up" or "pull yourself together" rather than provided with treatment -- and financial crime -- the notion that one should take pride in and be happy with wealth qua wealth, not with the accomplishments that earned the wealth, and the failure to inculcate "thou shalt not steal" into recent generations with enough force and enough breadth of interpretation to make clear that embezzlement, insider trading and Ponzi schemes are all species of theft.
(Substack giving no editing window, this is a corrected version of the comment deleted below, corrected to fix a typo.)
Instead of trying to score regressive white supremacy points, I suggest you look at the reality of what happens in Baltimore, Chicago, NYC, Oakland, St Louis, etc. blacks shooting blacks and black children caught in the crossfire as collateral damage. Why don’t you care about those children?
I do care about those children. More police might help in the short term. But we have to look at our public safety policies and ask ourselves honestly: Are we reducing harm? Because that's the central question to ask. And our current system of criminal punishment doesn't do much to reduce harm. So it's time to look at what strategies would be more effective. I lean toward solutions that reduce poverty and increase opportunities to build skills and knowledge and address mental health and substance abuse.
(This post replaces one I deleted because I used the wrong word.)
Matt, you're missing the forest for the trees, as well as putting words in peoples' mouths and citing made up statistics. There is a human pulling every trigger, and police additions to overall crime numbers barely constitute a rounding error. While policing always can and should be improved, the larger issue is dysfunctional households plagued with addiction issues, the absence of an intact family (i.e. missing father in many cases), unsafe streets (defunding the police isn't helping) and poor public education. Before the explosion of entitlements under LBJ families were much healthier. In fact, the rate of 2-parent households was virtually identical across all racial groups. Poor government policies are the biggest culprit, with disastrous public school education - especially in poorer areas - a close second.
I saw the Great Society from the time of its origin, and literally trillions of government dollars spent in pursuit of "reducing poverty" and "skill-building." Also a myriad of attempts to reduce crime. No external program in the U.S. has worked. What reportedly DOES work is the Chinese system, where the prisoner is given an indefinite sentence and required to attend hours of re-education classes every day. They know they will never be released until they can convince their jailers that they have really "reformed." Of course the CCP doesn't care if they are reformed; it wants them to be internally convinced that they must COMPLY.
One thing that has worked in the U.S. is a strong nuclear family; few people know that when negroes' families were generally intact - especially the 1950s - their crime rate was far lower. It's very instructive to read Charles Murray's last book. Our entire nation is under some sort of delusion, searching for explanations for black crime (It's those murdering cops, it is!) when the answer is under our very noses. And as they say, facts don't care about your or my feelings.
I am personally interested in the cultural components of behavior. Loved Sowells book “Black rednecks and white liberals”. There are different cultural norms.
I have noted many of the white mass shooters are having a schizophrenic break or are noted by EVERYONE they knew as exceptionally troubled prior to the shooting.
It's easy to say it's cultural. But we have to take into account the factors that created the culture. The kids growing up in the worst parts of Chicago would be leading very different lives if they grew up in a wealthy suburb.
You seriously need to read White Guilt by Shelby Steele. It wasn't always this way and you can thank Democrats who put inner city residents in housing projects (Chicago in particular) to hasten the madness.
"On the national stage, though, the “KKKop” message has real resonance. Cori Bush has compared policing to slavery. So has Jamaal Bowman, a recently elected congressman from the Bronx. Rep. Rashida Tlaib has called policing “inherently and intentionally racist” and said that it “can’t be reformed.” The same arguments have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times."
It's time the following questions were asked: to WHOM does this message have real resonance? The "national stage"? What the hell is that? The 8% of Americans (almost all White) who take this vile nihilism seriously? That's the "national stage"?? Something has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times makes it real, makes it important?
Good article but just more of the same. What did we learn? Nothing new for me. Bush is just one more unfortunate example of why many Americans (not immigrants) of African ancestry will continue to be trapped in the cult of victimology. Their neighborhoods will remain unfortunate places of despair as long as they continue to believe the propagandists that push BS down their throats with the support of the self-flagellating white elites from the democrat club who enjoy the safety of Echo Park. the upper west of Manhattan and yes the soy-boy strong hold of Brooklyn where white folk insist on showing off their one black acquaintance like some trophy as proof they are the good white people. You know the type. The ones with the signs in front of their houses that state "This house believes all lives matter-this house believes no one is illegal-this house believes in love, kindness and on and on" Watch out for that bunch. Bari loves to throw that group a life line after their years of encouraging the mob and now find themselves on the receiving end of their toxic hate. But they never truly learn and most likely will continue to secretly pull the lever for the corrupt Cori Bushes of the world over a sane non democrat. Their cry's for help are suspect like that winey British banjo player (M & SONS) that went on some ridiculous apology tour because he liked a book that the book burners just didn't. He spent an hour on Baris podcast crying about how tragic his life has become between gulps of chardonnay and caviar covered pita chips. Silly.
As for our fellow Americans trapped in these violent neighborhoods, please stop voting for these people. Seek the truth, reliable sources and true allies. They are out there. Stay away from the white liberals that insists you are oppressed and you need their help. They really don't care about you. They are driven by fear and toxic altruism.....Good Luck!
Great comment. I'm not going to pick on Bari Weis as she at least has come to the party, however late. We need as many allies to fight this authoritarian tyranny as possible. I've written before about how I need to hear some level of contrition and explanation from the Bret Weinstein's, the Dave Rubin's, the Bill Maher's, who seek solace and acceptance from moderates and conservatives when the monster that they helped create begins to devour them. I welcome them as "better late than never's," but I would like them to expound on why they only began speaking out against this Marxist propaganda after they were victimized by the hate mongers. I'll admit that I sometimes refrained from speaking my mind on political issues for fear of job security so I get it. I was a special education teacher for 13 years teaching diverse groups of adolescents with learning and behavior problems and was then a public defender in the Chicago area for the next 20 years before I was horribly slandered by 2 of my leftist sisters; called, you guessed it, a RACIST because I dared to disagree with the BLM narrative that the biggest threat to black lives comes from homicidal racist police officers. But even though I was a public defender and a Democrat I didn't lose my capacity to understand the facts that Heather McDonald and others have compiled that highlight a different and compelling narrative on the cause of the disproportionate number of black men being killed by police. It would have been easy for me to adopt the false narratives and leftist mantra's of "systemic racism," "the gender wage gap," "the school to prison pipeline," "mass incarceration," "white privilege," "micro aggressions," and "implicit bias." After all, I was a PUBLIC DEFENDER! And yes some cops lied on the stand when I questioned them and some were heavy handed but not all and not most; too many yes but even in the 30 years that I've been a criminal defense attorney I can clearly say I've seen significant progress in policing. My grandfather and another person in my family were Chicago police officers. Today, white police officers in the city are often working side by side with female, Black, and Hispanic officers. Because of this diversity, body cameras, and better training, our police officers are far less likely to engage in misbehavior today. I have personal knowledge from many current Chicago police officers that most of the good law abiding black people they talk to in these high crime neighborhoods repeatedly tell them, "we don't hate the police, we don't want to defund the police, we want MORE police!" This of course isn't something you'll ever hear of CNN or MSNBC. We need to recognize that progress is being made and stop exaggerating the prevalence of bad cops. This of course is being driven by the Democratic Party and their biased allies in the media. The culture of violence that is too prevalent in our inner city neighborhoods is the product of many things that include the fractured black family. Fatherlessness is a significant problem that must be fixed for any real change to occur. I consider myself an independent moderate. I've voted for Democrats about 80% of the time and yes, I voted for Obama twice, only to realize that he was a wolf in sheep's skin. I only saw this after his second election. What that man did to race relations in this country was a sin. I'm sorry, but it was Obama who helped usher in this toxic cop hating, white privilege, identity politics, implicit bias, safe space insanity that is now pervading our great country. I wanted to believe in him but now see him as emblematic of a Democratic Party that spreads despair, anger, and victimology in these black neighborhoods for pure political gain. Keeping blacks in this state of despair and anger by pedaling these false narratives is an evil and immoral ploy to keep blacks dependent and voting Democrat; and the only way we're going to change this nightmare is to vote only for moderate Democrats (which no longer exist) or vote for moderate Republicans. Yes Trump was a problem; but Trump didn't bring hatred and division, division and hatred brought Trump. He needs to go away now though. Sorry Trump fans. No, you're not deplorables but we need a moderate Republican who can unite our country right now.
A moderate Republican will just get us to communism and the death of the country later rather than sooner. We need someone who stands athwart and says enough.
White "progressive" Democrats the Squad and their ilk don't care about what's going on in poor neighborhoods in Oakland, Chicago,. Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis................. It's just a continuation of the Democrat party's pro slavery and pro Jim Crow past.
I don't think it's only the far left. There are a ton of what we used to call "limousine liberals", now called the "Woke" or the "Elect" by John McWhorter, who reflexively support the progressive cause du jour.
You don't think we have problems with people on the far right? Go read the comments section at Breitbart. That's the base of the Republican Party showing the world their true selves. Not pretty.
But irrelevant in this matter. Read the article rather than just trolling the comments. It's about leftist politicians and total crackpots oppressing the poor, black, latino and the rest.
How do you know that the comments section of Breitbart is reprehensive of the Republican Party base? On what basis are you demonizing a whole political party?
Why do blacks keep voting for insanity- the Democrat Party has done nothing for them? In fact, Democrat policies hold blacks back….but they keep voting for insanity. So should I really care? You can take a horse to water….
(1) Welfare policies that financially disincentivize women from having a live-in partner, (2) public schools that overall produce some of the worse academic outcomes in the developed world (see PISA scores), won't fire bad teachers and won't allow competition that seeks to improve student outcomes even from fellow public schools, (3) "Defund the Police" nonsense even though >80% of African Americans want the same or more police presence in their communities, (4) open borders that undercut job opportunities for African Americans by introducing millions of under the table workers who earn an average of $4/day in their own countries. Those particular Dem policies, Penny.
Republicans, like all establishment politicians, are a big part of the problem but to say the GOP is making it more difficult to vote is patently false.
I read through the link. Typical of CNN reporting we are told about restrictions related to mail in ballots, drop boxes, drive through voting and new rules for citizens with disabilities. And it wouldn’t be a CNN piece without the heavy inference that peoples of color are specifically targeted. What CNN neglects to talk about are the reasons for the new rules which actually expand and honor the franchise for all by eliminating sources of suspect ballots and the chain of custody issues associated with those suspect ballots.
Penny, Neil answered your question with 4 great examples, which I'll add to, but you didn't respond to his answer. You conveniently shifted to another topic. Allow me to add a few more Dem policies that hold black people back: (5) The promotion of hopelessness, despair, and rage in black communities with false narratives of "systemic racism" and the disproportionate killing of black men by homicidal racist police (the truth is that when measured against DISPROPORTIONATE BLACK CRIME RATES the police actually SHOOT MORE WHITES THAN BLACKS - read Heather McDonald's book "The War on Cops.") (6) Policies that rely on manipulating white guilt, that promote the idea that all white people are collectively responsible for historical racism against blacks, and that do this with terms like "white privilege" and CRT/Diversity programs; programs in the workplace, and now even in our grammar schools, that are designed to manipulate white people into feeling responsible for racism, and made to feel this way based solely on the color of their white skin and without regard to the content of their character. The objective of stoking this white guilt is to silence any white resistance or opposition to this Marxist divisiveness. (Read Shelby Steele's article: "Is White Guilt Destroying the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement.") (7) The election and anointing of radical and divisive black leaders into positions of power: Maxine Waters, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton (Obama had Al Sharpton, one of the most incendiary, hateful, and deceitful "leaders" of our era, to the White House 85 times over 8 years). (8) The election of black prosecutors like Chicago's own Kim Fox who have implemented policies that have led to an explosion of violence and murder against mostly other blacks. (9) Policies on the number of black students that can be suspended or expelled from school (See Obama's "Dear Colleague Letter" that Biden has replicated.) This policy makes it harder for well behaved students in our schools to get a proper education. I could go on but I think you get the point. And yes, all of these "particular Dem policies" are hurting black people and holding them back. It's called enabling behavior and it's coming from mostly scared white people who have been bullied into creating protective personas of "wokeness," and who are perpetually working to ward off any possible stigma that they are racist through constant virtue signaling; signaling on their Facebook, their car bumpers, or with their "I'm Not A Racist" yard signs. I am both astounded and sickened to see how many white people are willing to allow our schools to herd groups of black and brown children into segregated groups where they are told they are oppressed by white people. (this is very detrimental to a child's sense of self and a horrible thing to do in a diverse school environment). And I'm even more sickened to see these same white people, these parents, allowing their own little 3rd graders to be herded into segregated groups of white children and told by a teacher, yes a teacher........ that they are "oppressors!" This merde (pardon my French) is madness and Orwellian to the highest degree!! THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPS OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN (AND WOMEN) TO DO NOTHING ===Edmund Burke
Thank you, Penny, for your sensible comments on James' point #7. Any comments on the other 6? I'd be interested how a self-described "progressive" (whatever that really means) views some of the points raised.
That is simply not true, i have read every word of 3 of the 5 election reform bills. If you really are concerned with making it easier for poor folks to vote, read it. You will be happy to see that in GA, u dont need a state ID, they'll deliver ballots to jails, colleges and hospitals. They've added language that ensures votibg hours are expanded, Saturdays are mandatory and funds are to be distributed equally. They even allow water ... in a cooler, for voters to take. What is scary, is that no one is saying these things, on either side of the isle. The GA bill is the easiest read. It's 95 pages, short and sweet. They've published the edited version. Things removed are crossed out but readable, things added are underlined. The original bill language that is not removed is in normal font (neither underlined or striken through). The fight isnt partisan... because even Kemp refuses to elaborate on the points I listed above. Im happy to share the link and the pages to where all of this can be found, if you are interested. But truly, they've made it a lot easier. In fact, they will even come to your home to correct a problematic ballot. Why isnt anyone, right or left, sharing the facts. No state ID required... so why not tell people?
The slogans of the social justice warriors are more “feel good” than substantive. The farther away from the day-to-day problem, the more fervent their application.
If “equity” were one of this movement’s actual goals, then a shifting of police ressources away from the low crime and affluent neighborhoods to the high crime lower income ones would be an appropriate response.
From all the rhetoric, one might think the “Defund the Police” stance is but one tactic in the larger strategy of replacing our governmental and economic systems in which, it goes without saying, the SJWs take the lead and make to “right” decisions that we have already proven to their satisfaction are incapable of making ourselves. Their audacity is nearly as breathtaking as their hypocrisy and lack of insight.
Two comments: 1) there are few things more vile than a white person referring to a black person as a token or an Uncle Tom ( especially when they grew up with privileges that the vast majority of black and white Americans could only dream of) , and 2) activists who seek to defund police departments never seem to find the time to focus on the utter failure of inner city schools to educate poor kids ( education arguably being the best way to improve the lives of those children).
These are not either/or. We need more and better policing. We need more EFFECTIVE social programs. I am a trauma surgeon. I have yet to care for someone shot by police, while seeing many shot by others. I live in the ghetto, police are not the problem.
It has never been an either/or issue. The NYPD, for instance, is 27% Hispanic, 15% black, and 7% Asian. Why should people in NYC demonize a group that is so ethnically diverse? It makes no sense to me.
Thank you for what you do saving lives. You and all in the medical profession are truly remarkable individuals. Where we disagree is the need for more social programs. I used to believe that but after 50 years of watching that failed experiment have come to believe that much of the tragedy was caused by state intervention although the intentions where noble.
You are to kind. I agree I have serious doubt about the efficacy of any state sanctioned program but am trying to be open to the thought. Having been in the USN there is no doubt the marines(more then the Navy) does an amazing job of cultural and attitude adjustment. At least they did in the past.
“In the past” is the operative phrase. Now they’re learning how to obsess over each other’s race. Another travesty.
Bari is providing us w/ superb reporting, both hers and her guest reporters. Been a PI for 40 years. I started as an investigator for the prosecutor's office in KC in the late 70's. Worked w/ Claire McCaskill who started her career as a prosecutor. I have known cops working in KC, Chicago and Wisconsin. I have cops who are friends and know cops I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. I have a lot to say on this topic. But, it's time for my daily walk so I'll be brief. Leighton Woodhouse NAILED this issue. You see, I've known many people who lived in high crime inner city. They know what I know. There are good cops and bad ones. They get to know specifically which ones are good and which ones are bad. But, when you are a victim of a crime, particularly a violent one, you just want a cop and you need them quickly. There are bad operators in every profession and walk of life. I worked med malpractice and legal malpractice cases, defending docs and attorneys as a PI. Some of them should not be allowed to practice, causing harm to those they are supposed to help. Never once have I heard anyone propose defunding those professions. That's stupid, just as this defund the police is.
Agree- excellent reporting! I'd also recommend Megyn Kelly's podcast (#131 - first interview is with Larry Elder) where she interviews Don and Sondra Samuels, community activists from North Minneapolis who beautiful articulate the same sentiment! Definitely worth a listen!
I agree...Kelly's interview with this couple was very inspiring.
On the other hand, there is a major difference between the police and the medical and legal professions: when a physician or lawyer is charged with malpractice, the AMA or ABA do not jump to their defense, try to dig up dirt on their accuser, make public statements minimizing the seriousness of their ethical breach, or provide them with legal representation for their defense before ethics boards. Police unions do all those things for bad cops.
Besides police misbehavior, one of the bases for calling for "defunding the police" is the lavish spending police departments undertake to be more like the military: acquiring APCs, grenade launchers and the like. Since one of the causes both of police misbehavior and of this urge to acquire military-style hardward is the attitude that they are always in a combat situation (justifiable in some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods of our cities where the residents would like policing), as I have in other online forums, I would like here to suggest some ways in which the police might be made more like the military to the benefit of all:
(1) not being allowed to unionize (cf. my first paragraph),
(2) ordinary cops getting as much deescalation training as members of the military with police duties (MPs) get,
(3) rules of engagement as restrictive as those we give our troops in counter-insurgency theaters (note: I specifically chose counter-insurgency operations, because there, as in policing, one cannot always readily identify who is a threat),
(4) consequences analogous to those soldiers receive for killing non-combatants (in the police context read unarmed civilians) if done in breach of their rules of engagement, and
(5) a cultural shift so that being discharged from a police force for cause is as dark a blot on one's employment history as a dishonorable discharge from the military.
LOL! If you don't think docs and attorneys protect each other, as much, if not more, than cops then you are horribly uninformed. When I worked malpractice cases, I defended docs, attorneys, who were bad. But, I usually got hired when the plaintiff was bad, either lying or embellishing their claim. Watch Dr Death if you want to see how the medical profession protects their own.
Regarding your specifics. Firstly, I can tell you are anti-cop. That's fine. I understand that mentality. Unions should be disallowed for ALL govt. employees, including cops. So, we agree on the no unions for cops, almost certainly you don't agree w/ the blanket no unions for govt employees? FDR saw the foibles of govt employee unions.
On deescalation training we are simpatico. I've long thought all cops should have a martial arts black belt or required to attain that within 3 years. That can put a shitbird in cuffs w/o much force at all.
Rules of engagement, again I agree. And I concur w/ the analogous consequences if rules of engagement are breached.
We agree on #5 as well. Not only do I think being discharged for cause should disqualify you from future employment as a cop, I think a 3 strikes in the use of force should mean termination. Maybe even less than 3 strikes if a violation were egregious.
I didn't get the sense that DNY is "anti-cop". I'm certainly not. One doesn't have to be anti cop to see how the problems and entrenched ethnic tensions between police and their communities are exacerbated by police unions, particularly the ones in crusty old cities like NYC, Phily, Boston and Chicago where political machines are still operating in some form.
I have tremendous empathy for police officers who put themselves in harm's way everyday for our safety but this is a complex issue that requires compassion from both sides for those on the other side. Without it, nothing will change.
One of the most thoughtful essays I've read on this topic was written by Matt Taibbi just last month:
The Overlooked Factors in Police Abuse Cases
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-overlooked-factors-in-police
Yeah, the Taibbi post is good, esp. in the summary of cops' mishaps:
"Saying it’s all about race or white supremacy isn’t just inaccurate, it lets bad actors off the hook — especially city politicians; and their *upscale yuppie* donors, who vote for these interventionist policies, and are all too happy to see badge-wearing social janitors from *middle-class* towns in Long Island or Westchester *take the rap* when things go bad."
As long as upscale yuppie donors get to see badge-wearing social janitors from *middle-class* towns *take the rap*, there'll be no compassion from both sides.
As long as the MSM is dominated by such upscale yuppie types, their Social Inferiors will always be the fall guys.
Reading such stuff, one would never guess, that cops *are* trained in what can be called Rules of engagement, known to them as the Use of Force Model, see e.g.
https://www.aele.org/Continuum2014.pdf .
If you can give a link to a page, on what you'd see as good Rules of engagement, that'd help.
Many physicians did their damnedest to try and stop Dr. Death from practicing medicine. They all got sued.
Even more physicians covered for him.
Unions are cancer to all professions. Haven’t seen a case outside of West Virginia coal miners where they did a lick of good!
I feel that way about all unions. You either allow or don't allow unions. If one group deserves representation, all groups deserve representation.
Those are good suggestions. Re the "militarization" stuff, though, that has almost all been foisted on local depts by FEDERAL grants aiming to spend, spend, spend , more, more, more on the Military Industrial Complex
I had some experience (indirect thankfully) with a really bad doctor in Houston, TX. He was known as "Eric the Red" for reasons that were as horrible then, as they are now. How long did "Eric the Red' get away with his crimes. For a long, long, time. Was he protected by parts of the medical profession? Yes, he was. Quote from Texas Monthly
"Houston orthopedic surgeon ERIC SCHEFFEY has been sued 78 times. He’s paid out some $13 million to settle malpractice cases. At least five of his patients have died, and hundreds more have been seriously injured. So why did it take 24 years for state regulators—and his colleagues in the medical community—to stop him?"
Peter, I only worked med malpractice cases in Illinois and Wisconsin. But, apparently Texas is one of the worst of protecting their own. It happens, to varying degrees, in every state.
NS, The story has a 'happy' (not really) ending Apparently, Eric Scheffey was run out of the state of Texas and continued his criminal career in Colorado. He was arrested in 2005. He may have gotten off. Reddit says that he is now a 'respected' member of the arts community in Denver.
A criminal doctor transformed to a respected member of the arts community? Sounds like a sociopath to me. Lol.
Peter, I checked Pacer[Federal Courts] database. No criminal records.
Police unions do what all unions do: protect the interests of its members. They all protect deadbeats and bad actors, in factories, schools, and police precincts. Good workers and police don’t like this, but accept it as the price to prevent being steamrolled by management. Otherwise you’d find traffic cops being harrassed or fired for ticketing the mayor’s wife. This system leaves a lot to be desired, would like to see some ideas for addressing the legitimate concerns of unions without the bad side effects.
I grew up in a union family. My old man was a jet engine mechanic for Pratt&Whitney. He saw how his union, and other unions, end up protecting the shitbirds that the vast majority of workers want to get fired. That is how EVERY union devolves.
This is also too true. Teachers’ unions do the same, as does any collective for fear of losing authority.
You are correct… when a physician or lawyer makes an error nobody hears about it
It's world class hypocrisy. Almost everyone in the photo of that BLM/Defund the Police protest is young, white and woke, virtue signaling their solidarity with "oppressed people of color" like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibrahim Kendi. But I've got news for those young, white zealots. Your guru Robin DiAngelo says you can "do the work" until the cows come home, but you'll always be a racist because -- "white privilege/white fragility."
Cori Bush is another hypocrite, a Marie Antoinette for the 21st century. She demands that we stop funding the police, as she nests inside a private security cocoon. She asks, "Would you rather see me die?" but throws her very own constituents under the bus because defunding the police would lead to more violence, more murders, more tragedies in the communities she represents. Murders are up, you say. Oh well, let them eat cake.
Cat Brooks is the worst of all. If this failed actress, the daughter of a white, radical activist and a black felon, got her wish, there would be no police and no prisons.. None. The US would quickly degenerate into chaos. And Cat Brooks would finally win an Oscar for producing, directing, and starring in the real life reenactment of Mad Max: The Road Warrior.
Meanwhile, the real heroes, Chief Armstrong and Antoine Towers, the hardworking people who actually live in these communities and try to keep the residents safe are denounced. If 2021 were a work of fiction, no one would ever believe it.
Because the people behind BLM and Defund don’t really care about the impact of crime in poorer neighborhoods, there will be no end to this madness until the real victims decide to rise up against the hypocrites. But the odds of that happening are low, especially since the ruling class likes the way things are going, because it keeps them in power.
“Their job is to maintain the status quo. And the status quo is race-based capitalism. And so they are the front line soldiers of the larger system of white supremacy, which is the engine of this country, both here locally and globally.”
This is what fundamentalism looks like. It doesn't require evidence. It isn't subject to scrutiny. It begins with a pre-determined conclusion that the evidence must adhere to. Contradicting evidence is heretical. Anyone who proposes or considers this evidence is an agent of this heresy. They need to do the work to correct their thinking.
I would like to believe that enlightenment values will persevere but fundamentalism is a powerful drug. It distills the complexity of the world into a binary of good and evil. There is no nuance or compromise. The "lived experience" of advocates for safer neighborhoods through more policing becomes a straw man for the existence of "evil" in the system. That is the "lens" of fundamentalism.
^^^^This!
So tell me - just where to these congressmen get seemingly-unlimited funds to afford things like private security? I didn't think that job paid so well.
This question could form the basis of a very enlightening piece of investigative journalism.
I agree. We really do need a thorough investigative journalism article on exactly which billionaires or foreign governments are funding BLM, CRT, and the transactivist movements.
For anyone who wants to understand how things like CRT and the trans agenda suddenly take over society like some kind of juggernaut, this article provides the blueprint. It doesn't speak to those two issues specifically, but outlines how a given agenda gets pushed from seemingly every direction while really only coming from a relative handful of billionaire elites. It's long but eye-opening. Worth your time.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/29/the-billionaire-takeover-of-civil-society/
Thank you for the link, Leah. What a nightmare -- the tangled web of woke billionaire philanthropy chokes the life and sense out of our the entire society through social engineering.
A-freaking-men. That’s the perfect encapsulation.
Jennifer Bilek has been investigating and reporting on the billionaires behind transactivism for years. Her 11th Hour Blog is worth subscribing to. Here's a sample of her work: https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/gender-identity-ideology-in-k-12-schools-how-did-it-happen
Yes.... tx for link!
Thanks so much for the link! Follow the money.
Yup. She’s been doing exactly that and it’s pretty frightening, honestly.
No doubt they are using their taxpayer paid office funding. Most likely diverting campaign contributions as well. And I’m sure Soros through some puppet cut out is giving them money to further his quest to have all DAs refuse to prosecute.
Maybe they get as lucky with their stock and option picks as Nancy Pelosi does.
Indeed. It is ludicrous to act as though personal income or net worth is a bellweather of material quality of life when political actors whose private wealth is ostensibly meager routinely enjoy luxuries commensurate with those of private sector billionaires.
They use campaign funds: the information on Cori Bush--and a number of other news items lately--has come from publicly available FEC filings. As an aside, this is how Trump pays his lawyers too.
From the article:
"Yet her campaign expenditure filings show that over a two-and-a-half month period this year, she spent nearly $70,000 on a private security detail."
https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00638767/1527081/sb/ALL
Why are so many of the defund the police protestors shown in video and photos young white people? Most, if not all of whom, I'd wager have never had a police encounter. Lenin called these types useful idiots.
They are the shock troops of the left marinated in the cesspools of woke universities.
Shock troops of the left marinated in cesspools of woke universities. Some people can say more with less. Brilliant and succinct!
The tale of Michael Brown and Ferguson, MO is mentioned in passing. The true story has nothing to do with Ferguson’s revenue needs and a lot to do with Michael Brown’s (mis)conduct.
MB was walking down the center of a street when first approached by Darren Wilson (the police officer). He attacked DW and tried to grab his gun. He then charged DW and ended up dead as a consequence. It turns out the MB robbed a store shortly before his confrontation with DW.
The encounter between MB and DW has been subject to numerous investigations. All of them have concluded that MB was entirely guilty and DW was entirely innocent.
The first investigation was by the Grand Jury in MO. Of course, it concluded that DW had committed no crime The second investigation was by the Obama administration. Of course, this was actual Eric Holder’s Justice Department. You can find the report online at “Justice Department Announces Findings of Two Civil Rights Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri” (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-findings-two-civil-rights-investigations-ferguson-missouri)
From “Shooting of Michael Brown” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown#DOJ_investigation_into_the_Ferguson_Police_Department)
““On March 4, 2015, the federal investigation cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. The investigation concluded there was no evidence upon which prosecutors could rely to disprove Wilson's asserted belief that he feared for his safety, that witnesses who contradicted Wilson were not credible, that forensic evidence and credible witnesses corroborated Wilson's account, and that the facts did not support the filing of criminal charges against Wilson.[13][50][51] Credible witnesses did not support accounts that Brown had his hands up in surrender. He was not shot in the back. Forensic evidence showed he was moving toward Wilson. Numerous witnesses were found to have given accounts of actions they were unable to see from their vantage points, or to be recounting others' accounts.[13][50][51]””
So what did Obama do about this? He baldly lied and got away with it. Here is a quote from Obama
“The finding that was made [by the Department of Justice] was that it was not unreasonable to determine that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Officer [Darren] Wilson. That was an objective, thorough, independent federal investigation”
That’s not true either. Obama could have told the truth, that Wilson was innocent and Brown was guilty, but choose not to.
Why did Obama lie about Ferguson? Because he could. Had Obama thought there was any chance that MSNBC/CNN/CBS/the NYT would call him a ‘liar’ he would have shown more caution. However, he knew that MSNBC/CNN/CBS/the NYT would cover for him and protect him and he was right.
He could have said “I had the Department of Justice investigate this case and we found that the Wilson was innocent’. But of course, he didn’t. Instead he relied on Al Sharpton as one of his principal advisers.
Of course, the lying never stops. Kamala Harris is still talking about the ‘murder’ of MB. See “Harris, Warren Wrong About Brown Shooting” (https://www.factcheck.org/2019/08/harris-warren-wrong-about-brown-shooting/)
The original DA who didn’t indict Darren Wilson, lost his bid for reelection. His opponent promised to ‘right the historic wrong’ by finally indicting Darren Wilson (the police officer). The new DA then managed to reach the same conclusion as every other party that has investigated the case (Michael Brown was a dangerous violent criminal and Darren Wilson acted properly). No indictment was forthcoming. Now the ‘activists’ are rather predictably attacking the new DA.
In the leftist world of false narratives facts don't matter. Mark Twain once said: "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on it's shoes." Anyone with half a brain knows that the wage gap is just one of the many lies that stream from the left. They are able to get away with this deceit because the have a relative monopoly on their growing propaganda machine. There isn't a time or place that escapes their drumbeat of deceit. We can no longer watch commercials, late night talk shows, or sporting events without being bombarded with their woke messaging. We are quickly losing this battle. When Warren and Harris were campaigning in the Democratic Primary they both paid homage to the Gentle Giant on his death day; as if that thug deserves a day of honor. What's most horrifying about Warren and Harris referring to the justified police shooting of MB as the "MURDER of MB" is that they are both attorneys. Harris was a career prosecutor and knows damn well that Darren Wilson was exonerated by Obama and Holder's DOJ. Darren Wilson should have sued both of them for defamation as they both clearly and knowingly knew what they were saying was false. I'm sure he doesn't want to subject himself to the threats and hate that would come his way were he to emerge from his hiding spot. I read the 96 page DOJ report you referenced years ago. It's excellent and everyone should read it; probably the most extensive investigations in DOJ history. Keep up the good fight my friend.
Actually, Mark Twain probably didn't say "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on it's shoes.". See https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/ for some details. Of course, this is a minor point and the truth is that BLM is based on a lie. Worse, a lie that the media lets them get away with.
Last year 14 Blacks were killed by police. 14. And 51 cops were killed. You would think that thousands of Blacks were killed by police if you listen to the “Defund Police” crowd. And those 14 people killed by police were just walking around minding their own business when a cop shot them? Is that what Cori Bush thinks? No one believes her. It’s outrageous. We need more cops in crime ridden neighborhoods, not less.
HI Kathy, I think you mean the number of unarmed black men shot (and it is shootings) by police in 2020....it's actually 17. There was also 1 black unarmed woman . The Washington Post maintains a database of police shootings.
(BTW, during the same period there were 26 white people and 10 hispanic people who were unarmed and were shot by the police. Maybe 2 Asians.....as that group is not identified specifically.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
Better check your statistics. The police kill nearly a thousand people a year. And you think only 14 of them were Black?
This is a long one but it's time you educate yourself! Sit down with your favorite cup of coffee or beer. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/social-construction-racism-united-states?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=392e2887-204d-4c3d-ae9e-3c3f45b2d0b5#notes
Actually, I thank you for that, madaboutmd. I read the whole thing. It's relatively high-quality writing and analysis. I feel like I learned a lot. Mostly, it reinforced my strong belief that partisanship distorts and contorts people's vision of reality. And the more partisan you are, the more distorted your vision is.
That last line couldnt possibly be more true. If we could just find our common ground and start our conversation there... maybe we could really solve something, anything is a start.
Yes. We've forgotten that we are all Americans. Think of the last time one of our leaders helped us unite over something, anything. All they do is demonize the other side. How does this help actual people?
I truly believe that the American people have more in common with each other than with our leadership. If we could just see that, maybe we could get somewhere.
Which is precisely why facts matter and well, the MSM truly sucks!
The number if unarmed people killed by police is a small percentage of those killed. The rest were armed.
I’m using the FBI statistics.
People sure talk a lot about gun violence. As if a gun picks itself up and starts spraying bullets all over the place. I guess there is no knife violence because knives just sit there. Same with baseball bats and hammers, inanimate injects that just sit there quietly.
Rarely is there talk about the pathologies of those who use guns to commit violence. Or those who use knives, hammers, baseball bats and for that matter fists and feet. It’s always the guns. Quite frankly it’s very lazy and much easier than trying to figure out why certain groups are way more prone to violence than others. Stating the obvious would lead to cries of racism et al.
So It’s much easier to blame the man or whites or anything but where the blame actually belongs. And the hypocritical communist congress people sure have their constituents conned (great alliteration no?) with the willing help of the DNC press. Not one of the congress things or even the regressive activists give a hoot about actually fixing things, it’s all about money and power for them.
I don’t know where it’s going to end up, but it’s a given that it will only get worse and may never get better.
Agreed. It is a culture problem.
Stating the obvious? You mean: "Black people are the real problem. It's their culture."
Yeah, I can see why some people might call that racist.
Most mass shootings are committed by White males. Do you say "White males are the real problem. It's their culture."?
Most financial crimes are committed by White people. Do you say "White people are the real problem. It's their culture."?
It is a dismaying fact that if one disaggregates American murder rates by the ancestral region of origin of the perpetrator, they track the murder rates in those other part of the world: hardly any Scandinavian-Americans commit murder, the rate is only slightly higher for those whose ancestry traces to the British Isles, Russian-Americans are more prone to lethal violence than are other European-Americans, murder rates among American Latinos track those in Latin America, and yes, murder rates among Black Americans are similar to those in West Africa. If one decides one must condemn facts as "racist", one makes opposition to racism into an exercise in fantasy, not a good idea as a basis for public policy.
And, yes, there are white cultural problems underlying mass shootings -- the refusal to properly treat mental illnesses as illnesses, seeing it as a failure of will, so that men afflicted with mental illness are told "man up" or "pull yourself together" rather than provided with treatment -- and financial crime -- the notion that one should take pride in and be happy with wealth qua wealth, not with the accomplishments that earned the wealth, and the failure to inculcate "thou shalt not steal" into recent generations with enough force and enough breadth of interpretation to make clear that embezzlement, insider trading and Ponzi schemes are all species of theft.
(Substack giving no editing window, this is a corrected version of the comment deleted below, corrected to fix a typo.)
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Interesting observations.
The only person here stating that "Black people are the real problem" is you
Instead of trying to score regressive white supremacy points, I suggest you look at the reality of what happens in Baltimore, Chicago, NYC, Oakland, St Louis, etc. blacks shooting blacks and black children caught in the crossfire as collateral damage. Why don’t you care about those children?
I do care about those children. More police might help in the short term. But we have to look at our public safety policies and ask ourselves honestly: Are we reducing harm? Because that's the central question to ask. And our current system of criminal punishment doesn't do much to reduce harm. So it's time to look at what strategies would be more effective. I lean toward solutions that reduce poverty and increase opportunities to build skills and knowledge and address mental health and substance abuse.
(This post replaces one I deleted because I used the wrong word.)
Matt, you're missing the forest for the trees, as well as putting words in peoples' mouths and citing made up statistics. There is a human pulling every trigger, and police additions to overall crime numbers barely constitute a rounding error. While policing always can and should be improved, the larger issue is dysfunctional households plagued with addiction issues, the absence of an intact family (i.e. missing father in many cases), unsafe streets (defunding the police isn't helping) and poor public education. Before the explosion of entitlements under LBJ families were much healthier. In fact, the rate of 2-parent households was virtually identical across all racial groups. Poor government policies are the biggest culprit, with disastrous public school education - especially in poorer areas - a close second.
I saw the Great Society from the time of its origin, and literally trillions of government dollars spent in pursuit of "reducing poverty" and "skill-building." Also a myriad of attempts to reduce crime. No external program in the U.S. has worked. What reportedly DOES work is the Chinese system, where the prisoner is given an indefinite sentence and required to attend hours of re-education classes every day. They know they will never be released until they can convince their jailers that they have really "reformed." Of course the CCP doesn't care if they are reformed; it wants them to be internally convinced that they must COMPLY.
One thing that has worked in the U.S. is a strong nuclear family; few people know that when negroes' families were generally intact - especially the 1950s - their crime rate was far lower. It's very instructive to read Charles Murray's last book. Our entire nation is under some sort of delusion, searching for explanations for black crime (It's those murdering cops, it is!) when the answer is under our very noses. And as they say, facts don't care about your or my feelings.
Well-said, James.
I am personally interested in the cultural components of behavior. Loved Sowells book “Black rednecks and white liberals”. There are different cultural norms.
I have noted many of the white mass shooters are having a schizophrenic break or are noted by EVERYONE they knew as exceptionally troubled prior to the shooting.
That was a great book.
Mass shootings are very much in proportion to population representation...
Do you say "White males are the real problem. It's their culture."?
You're goddamned right I do.
Okay then.
It's easy to say it's cultural. But we have to take into account the factors that created the culture. The kids growing up in the worst parts of Chicago would be leading very different lives if they grew up in a wealthy suburb.
You seriously need to read White Guilt by Shelby Steele. It wasn't always this way and you can thank Democrats who put inner city residents in housing projects (Chicago in particular) to hasten the madness.
"On the national stage, though, the “KKKop” message has real resonance. Cori Bush has compared policing to slavery. So has Jamaal Bowman, a recently elected congressman from the Bronx. Rep. Rashida Tlaib has called policing “inherently and intentionally racist” and said that it “can’t be reformed.” The same arguments have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times."
It's time the following questions were asked: to WHOM does this message have real resonance? The "national stage"? What the hell is that? The 8% of Americans (almost all White) who take this vile nihilism seriously? That's the "national stage"?? Something has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times makes it real, makes it important?
You nailed it. I am however beginning to believe that the 8% doesn't but this BS either. They're just freaked out and scared.
Good article but just more of the same. What did we learn? Nothing new for me. Bush is just one more unfortunate example of why many Americans (not immigrants) of African ancestry will continue to be trapped in the cult of victimology. Their neighborhoods will remain unfortunate places of despair as long as they continue to believe the propagandists that push BS down their throats with the support of the self-flagellating white elites from the democrat club who enjoy the safety of Echo Park. the upper west of Manhattan and yes the soy-boy strong hold of Brooklyn where white folk insist on showing off their one black acquaintance like some trophy as proof they are the good white people. You know the type. The ones with the signs in front of their houses that state "This house believes all lives matter-this house believes no one is illegal-this house believes in love, kindness and on and on" Watch out for that bunch. Bari loves to throw that group a life line after their years of encouraging the mob and now find themselves on the receiving end of their toxic hate. But they never truly learn and most likely will continue to secretly pull the lever for the corrupt Cori Bushes of the world over a sane non democrat. Their cry's for help are suspect like that winey British banjo player (M & SONS) that went on some ridiculous apology tour because he liked a book that the book burners just didn't. He spent an hour on Baris podcast crying about how tragic his life has become between gulps of chardonnay and caviar covered pita chips. Silly.
As for our fellow Americans trapped in these violent neighborhoods, please stop voting for these people. Seek the truth, reliable sources and true allies. They are out there. Stay away from the white liberals that insists you are oppressed and you need their help. They really don't care about you. They are driven by fear and toxic altruism.....Good Luck!
Great comment. I'm not going to pick on Bari Weis as she at least has come to the party, however late. We need as many allies to fight this authoritarian tyranny as possible. I've written before about how I need to hear some level of contrition and explanation from the Bret Weinstein's, the Dave Rubin's, the Bill Maher's, who seek solace and acceptance from moderates and conservatives when the monster that they helped create begins to devour them. I welcome them as "better late than never's," but I would like them to expound on why they only began speaking out against this Marxist propaganda after they were victimized by the hate mongers. I'll admit that I sometimes refrained from speaking my mind on political issues for fear of job security so I get it. I was a special education teacher for 13 years teaching diverse groups of adolescents with learning and behavior problems and was then a public defender in the Chicago area for the next 20 years before I was horribly slandered by 2 of my leftist sisters; called, you guessed it, a RACIST because I dared to disagree with the BLM narrative that the biggest threat to black lives comes from homicidal racist police officers. But even though I was a public defender and a Democrat I didn't lose my capacity to understand the facts that Heather McDonald and others have compiled that highlight a different and compelling narrative on the cause of the disproportionate number of black men being killed by police. It would have been easy for me to adopt the false narratives and leftist mantra's of "systemic racism," "the gender wage gap," "the school to prison pipeline," "mass incarceration," "white privilege," "micro aggressions," and "implicit bias." After all, I was a PUBLIC DEFENDER! And yes some cops lied on the stand when I questioned them and some were heavy handed but not all and not most; too many yes but even in the 30 years that I've been a criminal defense attorney I can clearly say I've seen significant progress in policing. My grandfather and another person in my family were Chicago police officers. Today, white police officers in the city are often working side by side with female, Black, and Hispanic officers. Because of this diversity, body cameras, and better training, our police officers are far less likely to engage in misbehavior today. I have personal knowledge from many current Chicago police officers that most of the good law abiding black people they talk to in these high crime neighborhoods repeatedly tell them, "we don't hate the police, we don't want to defund the police, we want MORE police!" This of course isn't something you'll ever hear of CNN or MSNBC. We need to recognize that progress is being made and stop exaggerating the prevalence of bad cops. This of course is being driven by the Democratic Party and their biased allies in the media. The culture of violence that is too prevalent in our inner city neighborhoods is the product of many things that include the fractured black family. Fatherlessness is a significant problem that must be fixed for any real change to occur. I consider myself an independent moderate. I've voted for Democrats about 80% of the time and yes, I voted for Obama twice, only to realize that he was a wolf in sheep's skin. I only saw this after his second election. What that man did to race relations in this country was a sin. I'm sorry, but it was Obama who helped usher in this toxic cop hating, white privilege, identity politics, implicit bias, safe space insanity that is now pervading our great country. I wanted to believe in him but now see him as emblematic of a Democratic Party that spreads despair, anger, and victimology in these black neighborhoods for pure political gain. Keeping blacks in this state of despair and anger by pedaling these false narratives is an evil and immoral ploy to keep blacks dependent and voting Democrat; and the only way we're going to change this nightmare is to vote only for moderate Democrats (which no longer exist) or vote for moderate Republicans. Yes Trump was a problem; but Trump didn't bring hatred and division, division and hatred brought Trump. He needs to go away now though. Sorry Trump fans. No, you're not deplorables but we need a moderate Republican who can unite our country right now.
A moderate Republican will just get us to communism and the death of the country later rather than sooner. We need someone who stands athwart and says enough.
You may be right my friend.
Here's someone who is doing this: https://www.amazon.com/Reality-Bites-Insights-Bridging-American-ebook/dp/B08KHK22YX/ref=zg_bsnr_154855011_8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NVX4DTEB29RNBH330RKV
Very interesting read.
Good comment but just more of the same. What did we learn? Nothing new for me.
;)
White "progressive" Democrats the Squad and their ilk don't care about what's going on in poor neighborhoods in Oakland, Chicago,. Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis................. It's just a continuation of the Democrat party's pro slavery and pro Jim Crow past.
I don't think it's only the far left. There are a ton of what we used to call "limousine liberals", now called the "Woke" or the "Elect" by John McWhorter, who reflexively support the progressive cause du jour.
You don't think we have problems with people on the far right? Go read the comments section at Breitbart. That's the base of the Republican Party showing the world their true selves. Not pretty.
But irrelevant in this matter. Read the article rather than just trolling the comments. It's about leftist politicians and total crackpots oppressing the poor, black, latino and the rest.
How do you know that the comments section of Breitbart is reprehensive of the Republican Party base? On what basis are you demonizing a whole political party?
What's the difference between the voting records of the moderate Left and the Far-Left?
Why do blacks keep voting for insanity- the Democrat Party has done nothing for them? In fact, Democrat policies hold blacks back….but they keep voting for insanity. So should I really care? You can take a horse to water….
(1) Welfare policies that financially disincentivize women from having a live-in partner, (2) public schools that overall produce some of the worse academic outcomes in the developed world (see PISA scores), won't fire bad teachers and won't allow competition that seeks to improve student outcomes even from fellow public schools, (3) "Defund the Police" nonsense even though >80% of African Americans want the same or more police presence in their communities, (4) open borders that undercut job opportunities for African Americans by introducing millions of under the table workers who earn an average of $4/day in their own countries. Those particular Dem policies, Penny.
Republicans, like all establishment politicians, are a big part of the problem but to say the GOP is making it more difficult to vote is patently false.
I read through the link. Typical of CNN reporting we are told about restrictions related to mail in ballots, drop boxes, drive through voting and new rules for citizens with disabilities. And it wouldn’t be a CNN piece without the heavy inference that peoples of color are specifically targeted. What CNN neglects to talk about are the reasons for the new rules which actually expand and honor the franchise for all by eliminating sources of suspect ballots and the chain of custody issues associated with those suspect ballots.
Penny, Neil answered your question with 4 great examples, which I'll add to, but you didn't respond to his answer. You conveniently shifted to another topic. Allow me to add a few more Dem policies that hold black people back: (5) The promotion of hopelessness, despair, and rage in black communities with false narratives of "systemic racism" and the disproportionate killing of black men by homicidal racist police (the truth is that when measured against DISPROPORTIONATE BLACK CRIME RATES the police actually SHOOT MORE WHITES THAN BLACKS - read Heather McDonald's book "The War on Cops.") (6) Policies that rely on manipulating white guilt, that promote the idea that all white people are collectively responsible for historical racism against blacks, and that do this with terms like "white privilege" and CRT/Diversity programs; programs in the workplace, and now even in our grammar schools, that are designed to manipulate white people into feeling responsible for racism, and made to feel this way based solely on the color of their white skin and without regard to the content of their character. The objective of stoking this white guilt is to silence any white resistance or opposition to this Marxist divisiveness. (Read Shelby Steele's article: "Is White Guilt Destroying the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement.") (7) The election and anointing of radical and divisive black leaders into positions of power: Maxine Waters, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton (Obama had Al Sharpton, one of the most incendiary, hateful, and deceitful "leaders" of our era, to the White House 85 times over 8 years). (8) The election of black prosecutors like Chicago's own Kim Fox who have implemented policies that have led to an explosion of violence and murder against mostly other blacks. (9) Policies on the number of black students that can be suspended or expelled from school (See Obama's "Dear Colleague Letter" that Biden has replicated.) This policy makes it harder for well behaved students in our schools to get a proper education. I could go on but I think you get the point. And yes, all of these "particular Dem policies" are hurting black people and holding them back. It's called enabling behavior and it's coming from mostly scared white people who have been bullied into creating protective personas of "wokeness," and who are perpetually working to ward off any possible stigma that they are racist through constant virtue signaling; signaling on their Facebook, their car bumpers, or with their "I'm Not A Racist" yard signs. I am both astounded and sickened to see how many white people are willing to allow our schools to herd groups of black and brown children into segregated groups where they are told they are oppressed by white people. (this is very detrimental to a child's sense of self and a horrible thing to do in a diverse school environment). And I'm even more sickened to see these same white people, these parents, allowing their own little 3rd graders to be herded into segregated groups of white children and told by a teacher, yes a teacher........ that they are "oppressors!" This merde (pardon my French) is madness and Orwellian to the highest degree!! THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPS OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN (AND WOMEN) TO DO NOTHING ===Edmund Burke
Thank you, Penny, for your sensible comments on James' point #7. Any comments on the other 6? I'd be interested how a self-described "progressive" (whatever that really means) views some of the points raised.
That is simply not true, i have read every word of 3 of the 5 election reform bills. If you really are concerned with making it easier for poor folks to vote, read it. You will be happy to see that in GA, u dont need a state ID, they'll deliver ballots to jails, colleges and hospitals. They've added language that ensures votibg hours are expanded, Saturdays are mandatory and funds are to be distributed equally. They even allow water ... in a cooler, for voters to take. What is scary, is that no one is saying these things, on either side of the isle. The GA bill is the easiest read. It's 95 pages, short and sweet. They've published the edited version. Things removed are crossed out but readable, things added are underlined. The original bill language that is not removed is in normal font (neither underlined or striken through). The fight isnt partisan... because even Kemp refuses to elaborate on the points I listed above. Im happy to share the link and the pages to where all of this can be found, if you are interested. But truly, they've made it a lot easier. In fact, they will even come to your home to correct a problematic ballot. Why isnt anyone, right or left, sharing the facts. No state ID required... so why not tell people?
The slogans of the social justice warriors are more “feel good” than substantive. The farther away from the day-to-day problem, the more fervent their application.
If “equity” were one of this movement’s actual goals, then a shifting of police ressources away from the low crime and affluent neighborhoods to the high crime lower income ones would be an appropriate response.
From all the rhetoric, one might think the “Defund the Police” stance is but one tactic in the larger strategy of replacing our governmental and economic systems in which, it goes without saying, the SJWs take the lead and make to “right” decisions that we have already proven to their satisfaction are incapable of making ourselves. Their audacity is nearly as breathtaking as their hypocrisy and lack of insight.
“The farther away from the day-to-day problem, the more fervent their application.” This does appear to be the case. Made me laugh. Thanks.
That picture is worth a thousand words. The first bullet under "What do police actually do?" says "Protect private property".
Marxists. BLM are Marxists. Full stop.
Two comments: 1) there are few things more vile than a white person referring to a black person as a token or an Uncle Tom ( especially when they grew up with privileges that the vast majority of black and white Americans could only dream of) , and 2) activists who seek to defund police departments never seem to find the time to focus on the utter failure of inner city schools to educate poor kids ( education arguably being the best way to improve the lives of those children).