RICHMOND, Va. — Two police officers assassinated in NYC – finally, a crash of cymbals after weeks of a steady cultural drumbeat about racist, brutal cops.
An incessant narrative of out-of-control pigs based on what? An overweight, out-of-shape, asthmatic, petty criminal who had a heart attack after he refused to be arrested for selling bootleg cigarettes – again – and was forced into submission?
You heard his words again and again – “I can’t breathe.”
But what did he say right before that? (Watch the whole video.) “Every time you see me, you want to arrest me. I’m tired of it. It stops today!” Well, it stopped that day.
And Michael Brown in Ferguson?
It’s been proven he didn’t have his hands up. All indications are he fought with the cop and wrestled for his gun – right after strong-arming and bullying a convenience store owner he had ripped off.
This is the best you can bring to prove your narrative about racist, out-of-control cops? Two criminals trying to elude arrest, one actively fighting for a weapon?
If that’s your best evidence, we must have a pretty good system after all.
I know there are those who hunger to show they are discriminated against – that they are victims in this racist society. Just as I know there are those who stumble under the burden of guilt over white privilege.
I know that tingle of righteousness you feel when you make a stand for an Eric Garner or a Michael Brown. Feels good, doesn’t it? I’ve been there. And I’d join you now if I honestly thought it will make things better.
But it won’t.
It just perpetuates old stereotypes about police, about blacks being victims of a racist system – stereotypes that excuse and encourage criminal behavior.
Instead of asking why a vastly disproportionate number of African-Americans come into contact with police for criminal behavior, we ask why can’t police be perfect every time they have to arrest one.
This whole thing has been like jumping on the janitor for not properly mopping up the water when the faucet is broke.
We are afraid to ask those hard questions about disproportionate illegitimacy, illiteracy, poverty and associated heavy problems that fuel hopelessness and criminality.
It’s like we’ll just accept those deplorable conditions and not expect everyone to excel, or, at the least, work hard and obey the law.
That philosophy is why we have inner/city housing projects largely populated by poor people of one race. Go have a look, please. That is racism defined.
So, after weeks of chanting about racist brutality we are delivered two assassinated cops. It won’t stop there.
I talked to a local woman last week who said she’ll do anything to stir up “another Ferguson” because the cops pulled a gun on her son during his arrest for an armed robbery and pistol-whipping.
What, they should’ve used powder puffs?
You guys have your tingle of righteousness.
When a big, tough, out-of-control hoodlum comes after you, try to remember that tingle and tell him you’re on his side. See how that works for you.
Ugh. Two murdered police officers.
Can we please, finally, address the real, hard, bedrock issues instead of the protest poster misdirections?
This is a commentary from CBS 6 reporter Mark Holmberg. You can watch Mark’s reports and commentaries on CBS 6 News at 11.
