In 2020, Americans across the country protested the wrongful death of George Floyd, a white-collar criminal. People of all colors took to the streets. Crowds of protesters turned out to show their support. At the same time, their show of hostility towards police was historic. There were riots and looting. Liberal mayors and governors sided with the mobs. Some police chiefs caved to the social and political pressures. Even these police captains wouldn’t back their own officers who daily risk their lives when they put on that uniform and go out on patrol. The men and women in blue have a very tough and dangerous job. This intentional shaming and demoralization of police continued into 2021.
Personally, I don’t blame any cop for quitting or retiring early under those conditions. But I have never thought that police departments should be defunded. Does anyone really believe that a large percentage of cops in our country are prejudiced towards blacks?
About 13% of all cops in America are black. This data is respective of a 2018 Census Bureau report.* Pew Research Center estimates that more than 40 million black people live in the United States, making up around 13% of the nation’s population.* These percentages indicate a fair representation of African Americans within the law enforcement community. Yet Americans are continually being fed this story that the U.S. criminal justice system is racist.
Bias researchers quote color-conscious crime statistics, using color to explain motive. Then fake news covers stories that fit the narrative. The mainstream media continues to be very selective in what it reports to national audiences. We are only shown negative encounters between police and African Americans. A person commits a crime, authorities respond to the situation, and here comes the media to tell us what color each person was. But what’s color got to do with it?
Minority is a mathematical term. It reduces whole groups of people to a percentage and a color to fit a narrative. In modern times this word “minority” carries with it the connotation of somehow “being oppressed.” We are told that police are racist towards ethnic minorities (which includes African Americans, Hispanics and Asians). Yet 35% of police officers in America are ethnic minorities! *
Today some of these so-called oppressed minorities are cops, lawyers, judges, chiefs of police, attorney generals, city mayors, state governors, senators and representatives in Congress, Supreme Court justices, and one was President of the United States of America… twice. Some “minorities” are millionaires, famous athletes, iconic movie stars, talented musicians, successful singers and song writers, inventors, talk show hosts, award-winning authors, officers in the U.S. military, even admirals and generals, managers, small business owners, big business owners, some are astronauts, some are spiritual leaders, and Miss America 2019 was a beautiful black woman. America does not have a problem with systemic racism, it has a problem with systemic politicism.
Consider the media’s role in all this. Networks like CNN don’t even report the news anymore. They’ve become a political arm of the Democratic Party. They use their platform to lecture the rest of the country about institutional racism. But they cannot tell us about a white highway patrol officer who stops to help a black woman change her flat tire.* Stories like that don’t fit the narrative. And don’t even think about posting a pic of Kanye West wearing a Make America Great Again hat. You’re supposed to have a victim mentality. You’re oppressed, remember?
As Joe Biden made it clear in an interview during the 2020 presidential campaign: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” The Left wants people so upset with Republican leadership that they vote Democrat. For them that’s what all this is really about – political power.
It’s interesting what you find when you turn off the fake news and just start talking to real people, instead. Larry Elder in the forward of Candace Owens’ book Blackout said, “In 1997, a Time/CNN poll asked black and white teens whether racism is a major problem in America. Not too surprisingly, a majority of both black and white teens said yes. But then black teens were asked whether racism was a “big problem,” a “small problem,” or “no problem at all” in their own daily lives. Eighty-nine percent of black teens said that racism was a small problem or no problem at all in their own daily lives. In fact, more black teens than white teens called “failure to take advantage of available opportunities” a bigger problem than racism.”
In much the same way, if the people who are most upset stopped to consider the reason why, I think a lot of them would find that they are not really angry because they themselves have personally or regularly experienced any kind of negative or racially motivated encounters with police. They’re upset because of what they’re told on the nightly news. I bet this includes Jussie Smollett, though his grievance seemed to be against Trump supporters and the perceived political threat they represent. So, this man made up a totally false allegation and the mainstream media very quickly ran with the story, even though it was a complete lie!
Don’t expect an apology because it was done on purpose. These kinds of stories are designed to invoke an emotional response. The Left wants people, especially African Americans, to get upset. You’re supposed to feel beat up, angry, betrayed, threatened and disrespected. All of this is being done to get black voters to rally together and actively support the Democratic Party and its agenda.
A 24-hour news cycle can perpetuate people’s worst fears and keep a “pandemic” going when it has been over for some time, even years. So, how do we stop the cycle?
In a TEDx Talk former Chief of Police Charles Ramsey acknowledges the problem by saying, “We face some unique challenges in rebuilding the trust between African-American communities and the police.” Ramsey (himself a black man) takes us back to Philadelphia in the late 1700s where he tells us, “There was a period of time when you had unpaid watchmen, constables, just walking down the street trying to keep neighborhoods as safe as they could. You [also] had police that worked on plantations. Their job was to track down slaves that had run away… Fast forward to the Civil Rights period. Who was it that was enforcing Jim Crow laws of the time? Who was it that people encountered on Bloody Sunday when they walked across that bridge? Police. I think it’s important for us to know the history and to understand that police have not always stood on the right side of justice as we define justice today.” *
This kind of honest and candid talk breaks down barriers. It creates conversation, not a fight. There needs to be a free and open discussion about these things. We no longer have a right to remain silent.
The other thing we must do is to stop listening to the false. Turn off the race baiters, the complainers and haters. Don’t give them any airtime. We shouldn’t teach our children critical race theory, which, at its core, is a political ideology rooted in anti-democracy, not anti-racism. We should teach our children history. We should teach them about the Civil War (1861-1865) and the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s.* But we don’t get to claim as our own the challenges others faced and overcame. What past generations went through doesn’t make us victims. I think that it is wisdom to study the past, but it’s not healthy to live in it.
In the 21st Century, America’s greatest threat is not white supremacy or police brutality. Ours comes in the form of misguided social ideologues and progressive political activists. Their liberal teachings weaken and divide our nation. There’s a growing movement to fundamentally change America into a socialist state within the greater global community. This should concern every American citizen. Because socialism doesn’t work. Just look at Cuba. Or look at history… and every nation that has ever tried it.
Author and political commentator Candace Owens has suggested that “defund the police” is part of the Democrats’ strategy to eventually create a federalized police force. I think she’s right. But it is special interest groups like BLM and Antifa that need to be defunded. Imagine if the party in power federalized these anarchist organizations.
You may have noticed that censorship in America is pretty much only censorship to one side – conservatives. Conservative voices should be able to freely talk about these things publicly without being censored and without fear of retribution. However, the Left wants to silence the Right. Just like in a socialist or communist state, free speech is one of the first things to go.
Here’s a simple solution: Show others respect by hearing what they got to say. You don’t have to respect other people’s beliefs; you just have to respect their right to have them. And we can disagree without being disagreeable. Violence is not the way. Respect for the Rule of Law is. This is not the 50s and 60s. In the America of today most people don’t care what color you are. If I’m an American and you’re an American, then that makes us equals. Get over yourself. This applies to Republicans as well as Democrats, to wealthy and poor alike, to black and yellow, brown or white. It applies to both a city’s minority communities and its police force. As a multiethnic society we should not discriminate based on any color. This includes the color blue.
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