NBC recently published an anti-police diatribe masquerading as a news story.
Authored by a leftist with a press pass, Char Adams, the story is useful for conservatives because it points out just how biased the opposition media is when it comes to law enforcement.
The tipoff comes in the second paragraph: Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is characterized as a "thinker” and a "leader."
Then there is the article lead itself, "The question of how veteran Minnesota police Officer Kim Potter could mistake her gun for a Taser has dominated discourse about the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright so much that, experts say, the true driver of police violence has gone overlooked."
Any time you encounter the phrase "police violence" you are reading a biased writer.
What they never explain is so-called "police violence" is always reactive, what the suspect or detainee does dictates how the civilian-law enforcement encounter proceeds and whether or not violence ensues.
The George Floyd incident of 2020 provides a perfect example.
There were three people in the car with Floyd when the Minneapolis police arrived.
Two of the people, both minorities, were untouched and uninjured after the encounter.
Only Floyd had a bad outcome.
What was the difference?
Floyd resisted arrest.
His two passengers didn’t.
The same principle applies in the mistaken shooting of Daunte Wright although you wouldn’t know it from the lies and half-truths in NBC News coverage.
Neither officer had a weapon drawn until Wright began fighting and resisting arrest. Had he allowed himself to be handcuffed, Wright would be alive today.
He chose to resist arrest and that cost him his life. Adam’s basic ignorance of street-level policing is really obvious when she complains that instead of using the Wright shooting to smear law enforcement nationwide, "the fatal shooting has turned the nation’s attention not to the violent history of policing or its systemic harms but to Tasers."
She seems to believe police adopted Tasers to replace the need for guns.
That's her ignorance speaking.
Tasers were adopted to replace the baton.
Instead of beating a suspect that resists arrest, officers can use a Taser and get compliance without all that ugly baton swinging.
Tasers were supposed to be neat, clean and bad video-proof.
Officers didn’t even have to touch a suspect to gain control of the situation.
There are problems with over-reliance on Tasers, but racism and violence aren’t among them. Adams’ go-to quote machine for anti-police comments is a Harvard grievance-monger named Khalil Gibran Muhammed, with evidently no knowledge of policing, who proclaims, "The conversation about training and the use of Tasers misses the larger culture of policing that sees lethal force as the ultimate tool to suppress crime."
We think there should be a conversation about training, but not for the police.
Without exception, every one of the police shootings that have resulted in "peaceful protests" came after the suspect resisted arrest.
The training needed should be for civilians.
Starting with and in driver’s education classes, civilians should be taught that resisting arrest is always a bad decision. Comply with the officer’s directions and if the officer is wrong there will be plenty of time for lawsuits later, with the added advantage that the plaintiff will still be alive.
It’s really very simple. If the public doesn’t want violence connected in any way with law enforcement, then don’t start fights with cops.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with addedhumor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.