From our correspondent Esteban:
Ronald Reagan once observed that “the trouble with our liberal friends isn’t that they are ignorant, it’s that so much they know isn’t so”. I am repeatedly surprised by Leftists’ ability not to just get something wrong, but to get it spectacularly, 180 degrees wrong.
First, a couple of examples from the archives – some years ago there was an article in the NY Times (or WaPo perhaps) quite distressed that even though crime rates in the U.S. were at historically low levels the percentage of the population in prison was quite high. “Why are we putting so many people in prison when the crime rate is low?” they wondered, seriously. Hmm, how about this – when we put more bad people in prison the crime rate goes down? Keep in mind that the crime rate is what’s happening now, the prison population is who we caught and locked up over the past several years.
Then we had an article in a West Coast newspaper wondering why the homeless population in San Francisco had grown dramatically in recent years despite all the wonderful things the city had done to help them – weekly stipends, free shopping carts, etc. Note that none of this assistance to the homeless enabled them to become independent or required them to better themselves, they were all handouts. How is it that offering lots of goodies to homeless people attracts more of them here?
My point in bringing up these old stories is that it seems impossible that someone could fail to see they had cause and effect reversed. How could someone intelligent enough to write a column get these stories so backwards. The only answer I can see is that their worldview, at least in these areas, flows in only one direction and the underlying premise can never be questioned – putting people in prison is bad, there can be no possible upside, giving homeless people stuff is good, there can be no downside. So, when things get worse it’s a mystery, we can’t reconsider our starting point.
Now, on to current events – our present national convulsion over race, police brutality and “racial justice”. A number of prominent black men have howled that black men are being “hunted”. Actually, the people in the U.S. who are being hunted are Police officers and white people in general.
Let’s start with what’s happening to black men: George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and Jacob Blake are the unholy trinity currently being worshipped by the Left. Let’s assume just for the moment that all three were treated unjustly by the Police. OK, but how is it that they ended up in a confrontation with Police? All three were committing felonies and in all three cases someone called 911 to get the Police to come deal with them (in at least 2 of the 3 cases the call was made by a black person). The Police were not driving around looking for a black man to mess with.
And in all 3 cases the bodycam video and audio shows that the officers treated them calmly, politely and professionally for most of the encounters – in 2 of them until the perps turned violent. And if the 3 men had behaved appropriately (or even mildly belligerently) they wouldn’t have been harmed. That’s some strange idea of “hunting”.
OK, so how do I claim that Police and white people are being hunted? In 2014 two NYPD officers (Ramos and Liu) were shot while sitting in a car by a BLM devotee. BLM marched through the streets of New York chanting “What do we want, dead cops, when do we want it, now”. Five officers were shot in Dallas by a BLM sniper in 2016. Saturday night two LA County sheriff’s deputies were ambushed while sitting in a parked car. BLM “protesters” tried to storm the emergency room where they were being treated while chanting “we hope they die”. This list could go on a very long time.
And white civilians: a 5 year-old white boy (Cannon Hinnant) was shot in the head by a black neighbor. In Georgia a black teenager went into an auto parts store and stabbed an employee in the neck 17 times. He told Police that he “felt the need to find a white male to kill”. He is now suspected of killing a white cellmate. In New York a young black man was passing a 92 year-old white woman on the sidewalk and decided to give her a shove. She hit the pavement and hit her head on a fire hydrant. The video shows him glancing back casually and walking on. A young white mother of two was shot and killed for daring to respond to “black lives matter” with “all lives matter”. A black man posted video of himself kneeling on the neck of a white 2 year-old while his accomplice held the child’s arms with the caption “BLMnowMF”. Again, this list could go on for a very long time.
The claim that black men are being hunted reminds of the meme that sprang up around the time that Michael Brown was shot while attacking a Police officer “No mother should fear for her son’s life every time he robs a liquor store”.
Thanks for the additional info, Esteban. The police being killed would naturally make them extra cautious.
Fox Butterfield was the columnist who famously was unable to put 2 and 2 together to determine why crime was down as the criminals were locked up. “The Butterfield Effect”.
I think it’s rather deceitful to claim that the three you mention were engaged in felonies. George Floyd was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. That is not a serious crime. Rayshard Brooks may have been technically breaking the law due to being over the alchohol limit, but he was asleep in his vehicle when confronted by the police. And Jocob Blake may not have been comitting any crime as the reason for his arrest was that there was a warrant issued. MOre importantly, remember that people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. At the point of… Read more »
Speaking of deceitful: The crimes that caused the police to appear may have been minor. (Blake was violating a restraining order and violating his ex.) The reason they were shot is that they subsequently reacted to arrest in a way that threatened officers’ life. (With Floyd, the evidence is that he simply OD’d on fentanyl, but his notorious restraint was a result of his own conduct.) None of the INITIAL situations were capital offenses. But the deceased ESCALATED the situation through their conduct. “At the point of arrest the police should not be assuming guilt”? At the point of arrest… Read more »
Even if the deceased ESCALATED, as you say, in the case of George Floyd he was killed while unconscious, so no threat to anyone. And he became unconscious after a sustained period in which the police were being warned by bystanders that they were acting dangerously. Remember that there wer four police officers and they had their suspect handcuffed.
How often it happens elsewhere is relevant to exclude the possibility that it was a freak accident which just looks like homicide.
“Looks like homicide.” To “bystanders”. But toxicology said it was a triple Fentanyl overdose. And George reported trouble breathing BEFORE the notorious police restraint.
The autopsy report said no such thing. It showed the presence of fentanyl at 11 ng/mL, which might be fatal to someone who has never taken it before, but this is a drug that the body gets accustomed to. It also showed Norfentanyl at 5.6 ng/mL. This is a substance produced when the body breaks down fentanyl, so this suggests he had taken the fentanyl some time before and its level was falling. This is highly significant because fentanyl is a very quick acting drug, so if someone dies of an overdose it would be expected to be very soon… Read more »
Police shoot more white people than black people just BTW. And while it’s true that they shoot more blacks as a proportion of the population that’s because blacks commit far more violent crime – if you’re going to use the “proportion of the population” argument you have to consider who gets shot – violent criminals. Otherwise why aren’t people upset over the sexism angle – over 90% of the people shot by Police are men, who make up only 50% of the population. The disproportionate sexism dwarfs any racism. In all 3 cases the Police were called by someone else,… Read more »
That’s right; to measure anything, you have to pick the right denominator. A guarantee to black people of equality of result based on total population, a guarantee of 14% of everything in the US, is an entitlement, and like all entitlements, it is notoriously independent of misconduct, such as threatening the life of a police officer during an adversarial stop.
Why people aren’t upset about police’s apparent hatred of all men, is because men’s rights isn’t a thing.
‘Police are less likely to shoot a black perp than a white one.’ An interesting example of black privilege.
I note there were no riots about the Australian woman shot by the police. But of course she was white.
Presumption of innocence. In order to make a lawful arrest, police must believe they have reasonable grounds to believe an arrestable offence has been or is about to be committed. If not the arrest is wrongful and they can be sued. Whether or not an offence has been committed is up to the Courts to decide. Resisting the police is not a capital offence. If you ask any judge/magistrate what the most serious offence is, they will tell you assault on the police because it is an assault on society and the rule of law. Assaults on the police aka… Read more »
Bottom line: Police in the USA are empowered to defend their own lives even when hindsight shows it wasn’t necessary. When Blake evaded restraint, a Taser was ineffective, and he reached into his car, police correctly did not wait to find out what he’d pull out. Rioting for the “unarmed black man” is ill-advised simply because cops need not wait until they KNOW the suspect is armed. Sometimes reaching into a pocket for an object LATER revealed to be a phone has proved deadly. The fault here, again, is lack of a father in the home to give “The Talk.”… Read more »
Yes, sometimes that happens and it’s just very unfortunate. While it may be impossible to tell in any one case, the sheer number of times it happens proves that there is something seriously wrong. Just as it’s not suspicious that someone presents a jackpot-winning lottery ticket, but doing so six times in as many weeks is as good as proof they’re cheating somehow.
Is this the smell of a Democrat wrapping himself in “science”? No, winning six lottery tickets in an improbably brief period is not “as good as proof,” though it’s worth investigating. Manufacturing anecdotes that can be spun as “systemic racism,” in a nation of 320+ million, is not worth investigating except that we are in the middle of a Presidential campaign. There is nothing in this “systemic” problem that is systemic.
Charles, it’s so simple isn’t it? You don’t appear to have a grasp on real life – This is what happens when a black critic of Police brutality gets a lesson in (simulated) reality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmv8nbO5vKI.
The people who get shot are those who resist arrest. These people do not respect ANYONE so will not respect the Police ever.
Resisting arrest is not a captial offence.
Wrestling with a cobra is not a “captial” offense. But it is likely to get one killed. Again, see “The Talk” that Dads, especially black Dads, give to their kids on surviving such encounters. Except that, thanks to the welfare state, Dads are sleeping away from the family and not giving any such talks at all.
If police officers are as dangerous as cobras, and the public need special training to avoid being killed by them, then there is something very seriously wrong with policing.
There are two outcomes here: Go quietly and sort it out at the nick or resist arrest. The second option will have consequences, such as being hurt in the ensuing tussle, being tasered or being shot if the Officer you are resisting happens to be carrying a gun. There are then a number of outcomes if a gun is involved.
And stabbing and murdering people is not a capital offence in the UK, but they shot Usman Khan didn’t they?
Police are not entitled to kill you for resisting arrest. They can only use deadly force in defence of themselves and others. If a suspect is uncooperative, they need to be able to deal with that appropriately. And in the specific case of George Floyd, it is clear, from the many videos that were taken, that at no time was he nor did he appear to be a danger to the police officers, bystanders, or anyone else. If he had come to no harm, those videos could have been used to show that four police officers were too incompetent to… Read more »
Did you read what I posted about consequences? The police are not allowed to break your arm but that is a likely consequence of resisting arrest. It isn’t difficult to understand unless you really, really aren’t interested in understanding.
And the police didn’t kill George Floyd, fentanyl did…….
So it seems. But Charles has firmly established that he “really, really” isn’t interested in understanding. It is indefensible to argue that police must ALWAYS be able to take away a coked-up miscreant without the situation escalating to threaten the officer’s life – and that any counterexample proves “there is something very seriously wrong with policing.”
Yes. And consequnces are also follow when police commit homicide in the course of their duties. And if you think fentanyl killed George Floyd, you clearly haven’t seen the video and read the autopsy report.
“III. No life-threatening injuries identified: A. No facial, oral mucosal, or conjunctival petechiae B. No injuries of anterior muscles of neck or laryngeal structures C. No scalp soft tissue, skull, or brain injuries D. No chest wall soft tissue injuries, rib fractures (other than a single rib fracture from CPR), vertebral column injuries, or visceral injuries E. Incision and subcutaneous dissection of posterior and lateral neck, shoulders, back, flanks, and buttocks negative for occult trauma VI. Toxicology (see attached report for full details; testing performed on antemortem blood specimens collected 5/25/20 at 9:00 p.m. at HHC and on postmortem urine).… Read more »
It is true that some people have died with that level of Fentanyl, but biology is comples. That is why toxicity is often described in terms of LD50 – the dose at which 50% of people (or animals) will die. In the specific case of George Floyd, we have plenty video of him showing no signs of dying of Fentanyl overdose for long after his last chance to have taken it. It is a quick acting drug, and the toxicology also showed Fentanyl metabolites, showing that his body was breaking it down. That means the level was declining, so he… Read more »