Category Archives: race relations

America Has a Problem With Poorly Trained Police Officers, Not ‘Systemic Racism’, by Robert Bridge

A lot of what’s been called police racism may really be just police incompetence. From Robert Bridge at strategic-culture.org:

America can expect a future of artificially induced racial tensions as a number of good cops are forced to take the blame for a “systemic racism”

In what just might be the most misguided attempt at ‘utopian’ living ever conceived, progressive Democrats continue to demand the defunding and disbanding of police forces in cities around the country. Yet, like a doctor that has made the wrong diagnosis on a patient, such a radical idea will not bring peace and security to America’s ailing neighborhoods. In fact, it will make them virtually unlivable.

The United States desperately needs a national debate on the root causes of police violence, which the political left has prematurely and wrongly attributed to “systemic racism.” Missing from the bigger picture are questions pertaining to economic hardship, broken homes, drug abuse and street gangs – and perhaps most importantly of all, poorly trained police – as just a few of the contributing factors that have placed law enforcement between a rock and a hard place.

For every Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the murder of George Floyd, there are dozens of cops like Nicholas Reardon, who was forced to make a split-second decision after a Black girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, attempted to stab another teenager. Reardon, who shot and killed Bryant, has found himself something of a celebrity not for potentially saving the life of a young girl, but for being the fresh face of “white supremacy.”

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The New One True Faith, by The Zman

This new one true faith, intolerant and violent, may wipe out Western civilization. From The Zman at theburningplatform.com:

Upon assuming the thrown in 568 AD, the Visigoth king Reccared converted from Arian to Chalcedonian Christianity. This led to some unrest in the kingdom, as the Visigoths had always been Arian. The Arians were mostly tolerant of other religions, including paganism, but the Chalcedonians were not so charitable. Reccared put down the unrest and then oversaw the Third Council of Toledo in 589, where he announced his faith in the Nicene creed and denounced Arianism.

The spiritual differences between Arians and Catholics may be of interest to those with an interest in theology, but what matters to us today is that the trinitarians were the winners in the theological debates within the early church. From that point forward, there was one true faith in the Visigoth kingdom. The people were expected to convert to the new faith. Those who refused could expect some form of repression, ranging from extra taxes to expulsion from the kingdom.

Why Reccared converted to Catholicism is not all that clear. The material benefits, if they existed, have been lost over the centuries. His conversion brought with it new conflicts, especially with the Jews of his kingdom. The Arian kings had been disinterested in the faith of their subjects, which meant they could get along with the Jews, who were quite powerful in parts of the kingdom. That ended with the conversion of Reccared, as the Catholics were not tolerant of Jews.

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Police Problems? Embrace Liberty! by Ron Paul

The more laws, the more problems you’ll have with police behavior, acknowledged or not. From Ron Paul at ronpaulinstitute.org:

Many Americans saw former policeman Derek Chauvin’s conviction on all counts last week as affirming the principle that no one is above the law. Many others were concerned that the jury was scared that anything less than a full conviction would result in riots, and even violence against themselves and their families.

Was the jury’s verdict influenced by politicians and media figures who were calling for the jury to deliver the “right” verdict? Attempts to intimidate juries are just as offensive to the rule of law as suggestions that George Floyd’s criminal record somehow meant his rights were not important.

The video of then-policeman Chauvin restraining Floyd led people across the political and ideological spectrums to consider police reform. Sadly, there have also been riots across the country orchestrated by left-wing activists and organizations seeking to exploit concern about police misconduct to advance their agendas.

It is ironic to see self-described Marxists, progressives, and other leftists protesting violence by government agents. After all, their ideology rests on the use of force to compel people to obey politicians and bureaucrats.

It is also ironic to see those who claim to want to protect and improve “black lives” support big government.

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A Rigged System Can’t Last, by Kurt Schlichter

Equal justice is a never wholly achieved ideal, but it will always be the ideal. Unequal justice with differing standards depending on defendants’ and victims’ races is no justice at all, it’s an injustice. From Kurt Schlichter at theburningplatform.com:

A Rigged System Can’t Last

You can’t win, but that’s all part of the plan.

Reason, rules, processes – these are the foundations of a free society, which is why the cultural left is so dead set against them. A citizen needs to be able to rely on clear rules and fixed processes to vindicate his rights in order to have any rights. But the rights of free citizens – your rights – are an obstacle to the Lil’ Stalins who yearn to rule over us. If the liberal establishment can create a society where you can’t appeal to facts, evidence, or law, then – until the peasants’ revolt – its poobahs can wield undisputed, undiluted authority. That’s their dream, a country where you live in terror of them because you can never be sure that what you are doing or failing to do is suddenly going to be criminalized.

Take the whole imbroglio about Stabby Girl, the teen psycho in Ohio who decided to filet a girl in front of a cop. Not surprisingly, to people who aren’t idiots, the officer ventilated her, saving the life of the innocent victim. But then, of course, the establishment and the media – including America’s #1 Matlock superfan – weighed in on how stopping this future felon was racist racism of racismness. Normal people were baffled, but then, it’s only if you haven’t been paying attention that you might think that non-criminal black lives matter to Black Lives Matter.

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Data Undercuts Myth of ‘Racism’ in Police Killings, by John R. Lott, Jr.

What would have happened if the policeman had allowed Ma’Khia Bryant to stab the other girl? Somebody would have wanted to charge with not doing his job. From John R. Lott Jr. at realclearpolitics.com:

President Biden claimed that Derek Chauvin’s conviction on Tuesday “ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism” of police. With the police shooting that same day of 16-year-old girl in Columbus, Ohio, the White House again pushed the racism claim, noting that this was just another example of how “police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people.”

But where is the evidence for these claims? In Chauvin’s trial, the prosecution never once mentioned evidence that the now-former officer is racist. A day after the verdict, the Biden administration announced plans for a pattern-or-practice investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department to determine if there is such racism, but the administration’s comments sure sound as if they have already determined the study’s outcome.

In the other case, body camera footage released by police revealed that Ma’Khia Bryant was fatally shot as she charged another girl with a knife. The officer shot one black girl in an attempt to save what appears to be another black girl from being stabbed.

Politicians such as Biden as well as the media have helped create a biased perception that is far from the reality of shootings by police. In a study, the Crime Prevention Research Center (where I serve as president) found that when a white officer kills a suspect, the media usually mention the officer’s race. When the officer is black, news coverage rarely mentions that detail.

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Trial Travesty, LeBron Le Moron, and Cheney Challenge: The Week in Review, by PF Whalen

Lately the problem hasn’t been finding idiocies to fill up a weekly account, it’s been editing them down to a manageable size. From PF Whalen at thebluestateconservative.com:

Headline #1:         Former Minneapolis Policeman Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of All Charges

On Tuesday, the jury in the Derek Chauvin trial for the death of George Floyd delivered a verdict of guilty on all charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • In determining the correctness of the verdict, consider a simple question: If everything else about the case had been identical to what actually happened, except George Floyd was a white man and not black, would Derek Chauvin have been convicted? Of anything? Not only is the answer ‘no,’ this trial would have never even happened.
  • We all knew before the verdict that the BLM/Antifa riots of last summer would be a large factor in the outcome. “If you find him not-guilty Mr. and Mrs. Juror, you can expect to see the country burn down.” But to hear people like Al Sharpton and President Joe Biden openly pointing to the protests/riots as a force is remarkable. Sharpton actually applauded and credited the riots for the decision. This verdict was mob justice, and no one is even trying to hide that fact.

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St. George Floyd and Biden’s Anti-White Regime—Enabled By Ethnomasochism, by John Derbyshire

The US Attorney General says we don’t have equal justice under law and he’s certainly right. Not, as John Derbyshire points out, when Derek Chauvin will probably be spending the rest of his life in jail and the policeman who shot Ashli Babbitt won’t face charges. From John Derbyshire at unz.com:

It’s St. George’s Day, April 23. This has actually been St. George’s week; not the chap who slew the dragon, but St. George Floyd of Minneapolis, who was slain himself last year by something much more fearsome than any dragon—by systemic racism!

So the Narrative tells us, and so a jury ruled on Tuesday.

Why did they rule that way, and how did we get stuck with such a crazy Narrative? Let’s explore.

The jury’s verdict itself was absurd. Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong. The best case here was made by retired lawyer Harold Cameron over at Revolver News a week before the verdict came out:

When Floyd continued resisting arrest after being placed in handcuffs, Chauvin didn’t beat him with a baton. He didn’t taze him. He didn’t put in him a chokehold. He put one knee on what the prosecution is now optimistically calling Floyd’s “neck area” and waited for the ambulance to come save Floyd’s life … The worst that could be said is that he didn’t simply let Floyd go because he was still complaining about being unable to breath, just as he had been since the beginning of the encounter. The state’s case so far boils down to a collection of experts equating that to murder.

[ Derek Chauvin Did Nothing Wrong, April 13, 2021]

Hamilton also reminds us of the size discrepancy between Chauvin, who weighs a slight 140 lbs., and Floyd, 230 lbs. and all pepped up on chemical stimulants. If you have ever been involved in a close-quarters struggle for physical mastery with another adult, you’re impressed that Chauvin managed to subdue Floyd.

In the famous kneeling video, Chauvin has a look of being somewhat pleased with himself. I would have been, too.

Aside from that look of muted pride, I thought from the beginning, and still think, that Chauvin did not at all have the appearance of someone who was aware he was doing something wrong.

Come on: If you are doing something grossly wrong, something that might end another person’s life, you know you are, and it will show.

Chauvin’s entire affect in that video was of someone who’s done an unpleasant job, and believes he’s done it rather well.

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Peak National Dysfunction, by James Howard Kunstler

Peak national dysfunction . . . so far. From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

No need to argue anymore about defunding the police. The police across America have been successfully disarmed and castrated. Why would any cop with a sense of self-preservation interfere in the commission of a crime now? Just assume that the social contract is cancelled. You’re on your own.

Interesting factoids, by the way: rape reports are up 322 percent in New York City over the past year, shootings were up 97 percent and murders up 44 percent — a good start to the new era of all-against-all, where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. But don’t worry, Benjamin Crump and his legion of super-hero personal injury lawyers stand ready to enforce the suspension of law, seeking multi-million-dollar payouts in civil suits, such as the $27-million recently settled on the family of George Floyd, which is $27-million more than Jesus of Nazareth got for somewhat harsher treatment years back, though, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, George Floyd has by far outpaced the old lord-and-savior in sheer saintliness mojo. Looks like George and Jesus will soon be vying for Speaker of Kingdom Come in the new, revised cosmos of American Wokery.

Anyway, New York’s City Council voted last month to end qualified immunity for police officers, which formerly shielded them from personal lawsuits in the performance of their duties. Predictable result: they will no longer perform their duties. This is on top of Mayor Bill de Blasio ending the age-old practice of posting bail for charged felons pending disposition of a criminal case. Meanwhile, the city’s main jail, Rikers Island, is scheduled to be closed down in 2026. Abolish incarceration! Well done, Big Apple!

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Triumph Of The Woke Mob Led By Two Doddering Old Fools, by David Stockman

The government is more to blame for the problems of blacks than racism. From David Stockman at davidstockmanscontracorner.com via zerohedge.com:

Events of the last few days have made one thing crystal clear: The Democratic Party (and therefore the nation) is being led by two doddering old fools who should be domiciled in a rest home, not the Oval Office and the Speaker’s Chamber.

How that baleful reality coexists with Wall Street’s expectation of an awesome economic future and stock prices which never stop rising to the sky is one of the great enigmas of our times. Or maybe it’s just because $10 trillion of fiscal and monetary “stimulus” in the past year can turn the proverbial sow’s ear into a silk purse. For a time.

By now, of course, we expect idiocy from Sleepy Joe, especially on the economic front.

Accordingly, at his virtual global summit he will be reading-out from the White House teleprompter the demented agenda of the Climate Change Howlers. Therein he will promise to cut greenhouse gases by 50% by the end of this decade, which calamity we can also promise would cut America’s debt-entombed economy to its knees.

That comes after Tuesday’s White House contretemps when he first prayed for a guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial even as the jury was sitting in its deliberations, and then, afterwards, made the risible claim that this tragedy was the spawn of systemic racism.

In fact, Nanny State over-reach was the underlying cause of George Floyd’s arrest and unjust death—just as it is the source of most of America’s unfortunate violence between police and unarmed citizens, back, white and otherwise.

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Narratives, by Lipoh

There are narratives, and then there are facts and reality. From Lipoh at theburningplatform.com:

narratives everywhere - Tony Stark Eye Roll | Make a Meme

Everywhere I look, I see narratives. Truth and logical reasoning has given way to narrative. People are buying into the MSM and politically driven narrative system, and become so entrenched in their positions that no amount of truth or facts can alter their views. This gives the narrators enormous control over the entire population. The lemming mentality is taking us down a dark path, which in the end leads to a cliff.

The left is entirely consumed by narrative, but the right is catching up rapidly. They are two sides to the same coin, and I encourage everyone to break free of the narrative system, and focus rather on facts and truth.

Following are but a few of the narratives that I see, day after day:

Narrative: Bernie Sanders complains because Bezos and Buffet have more wealth than bottom 40% combined. Reality: What he does not mention is that he himself has more wealth than the bottom 34% combined. The bottom 34% of Americans have a combined net worth of zero.

Narrative: Media laments that police target blacks and kill them disproportionately. Reality: What they do not say is that 3% of population – male blacks between the ages of 16 and 35 commit approximately 1/2 the murders and violent crimes in the country, which brings them disproportionately into contact with police.

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