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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
"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!
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.
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….
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
"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!
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.
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….
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.
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).