Media figures and politicians slammed police following recent officer-involved shootings that came around the time a Minneapolis, Minnesota jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges in the death of George Floyd. But they’re looking in the wrong direction.
Recent deaths by officers include those of:
- Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, as she was about to plunge a large knife into another girl
- Adam Toledo, 13, as he dropped a handgun he’d allegedly used to shoot at passing vehicles
- Daunte Wright, while resisting arrest, when the officer mistook her service weapon for a taser
Because each incident involved the death of an African American at the hands of a white police officer, law enforcement opponents immediately claimed "systemic racism," "police brutality," and called for the need to "defund the police."
Following the Bryant shooting, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist Bree Newsome suggested that police should have just let the girls have at it, because "teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons."
She later compared whiteness to cannibalism and said "it’s time to abolish policing."
Vice President Kamala Harris said that the Chauvin verdict represented "a measure of justice" but was not "the same as equal justice."
She added, "We still must reform the system."
President Joe Biden agreed with Harris, and called Floyd’s homicide an example of "systemic racism that is a stain on our nation's soul, the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans, profound fear and trauma, the pain, the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”
The New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones claimed to CBS News that modern-day policing has its roots in former "slave patrols."
"It’s difficult to reform an institution that, in many ways, is doing the exact function that it was created to do," she said. CBS News never challenged her on that.
As a result of the Toledo shooting, which came at the end of a police chase, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was considering a change in policy.
"No one should die as a result of a foot chase," she said.
Chicago is now reportedly considering requiring officers to get supervisory permission before chasing a suspect on foot.
But they’re all looking in the wrong direction. They should be blaming the criminal instead of the police.
The BBC recently called on Black former Tucson law enforcement officer Brandon Tatum to comment on the Chauvin conviction, especially in light of Biden’s claim that "systemic racism . . . is a stain on our nation's soul."
Tatum told the BBC that, "President Biden is an idiot in my personal opinion."
"We don’t have a problem with racism in our country," he added. "We have a problem with people not following the law. We also have a problem with politicians making up things so they can get re-elected.”
The host countered that the rate of Blacks being killed by police is higher than that of whites, and asked "if that isn’t a systemic racism problem."
Tatum shot back that twice as many whites are killed by police than are blacks. He added that although blacks make up only 13% of the population, they commit over half of the violent crimes, including murder.
He also brought up the name Tony Timpa, who died under circumstances similar to those of George Floyd. Timpa, however, was white, which may be why most people never heard of him.
Apart from the fact that "systemic racism" doesn’t exist in the United States, efforts to defund the police to address this non-existent problem have failed.
Minneapolis was one of the first cities to defund policing, and claimed it would be “one step in a direction to create safety for every single resident of our city.”
Instead they experienced 60% more homicides and 269 violent shootings for the year as of July 2020, equaling all of the shootings from 2019.
In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan predicted that "in police-free zones, we could have a summer of love."
That "summer of love" got her a 525% crime increase the previous month as compared to the same period in 2019.
New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Portland, Oregon. saw similar results.
And it wasn’t an anomaly.
The Washington Times reported earlier this month that crime rates in these cities have continued to escalate.
Cases of police misconduct are rare but will always happen. There’s no need to discard the entire system to address these isolated events.
Defunding the police is just like the Green New Deal, income redistribution, court-packing, gun control and Medicare for All.
They’re solutions in search of a problem — the first sign that Democrats may have way too much timer on their hands.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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