Whatever we might have learned about the messages conveyed by the heinous and despicable murder of George Floyd by a rogue white cop on the streets of Minneapolis last week has now been overwhelmed by the subsequent riots in cities across America and the weak response to them to the point of abdication of duty on the part of state and local governments. Let’s make this clear: these riots have absolutely nothing to do with whatever peaceful protests are being conducted by people who are genuinely grieved by this crime. These rioting thugs are organized, funded and often led by outside sources such as Antifa, and want nothing less than an overthrow of our system of government. They are domestic terrorists in every sense of the term and deserve a response to match, yet much of what we have seen in response has been woefully inadequate, even to the point of an unwillingness to call out the rioting and looting thugs for what they are for fear of being called racist. Some of the more “progressive” local leaders seem even to be confused about whose side they are on.
Newt Gingrich said it well–“civilizations must protect themselves”–and right now ours is not being protected by those responsible for its welfare. As Tucker Carlson noted, “when the mobs came, our leaders abandoned us and we need to pay attention to what is going on in this country”. A recent essay by Yuval Levin reminds us of Abraham Lincoln’s reverence for the rule of law and that, despite the injustices, no just society was possible without respect for basic social order. He further argued that even when the mob’s cause is understandable, their lawlessness is a grave danger, because ultimately they liberate “the lawless in spirit…to become the lawless in practice”, and then leave good citizens no choice but to become lawless in their own defense.
What is happening today is not a conventional riot. These people have a history. They are anarchists and anti-American revolutionaries and should be dealt with as such, on the streets as well as with the FBI and other sources of domestic intelligence to track down and bring to justice the rioters and the perpetrators and funders.
People will not for long put up with weakness in what is the primary obligation of leadership–to protect them from harm. “Law and order” is not a political term or racist and skin color is irrelevant. How President Trump responds to this war in our streets has now become more important than the Coronavirus pandemic in determining his re-election because our civilization is in the balance.
A number of commentators have compared this period of turmoil and uncertainty to 1968, and for those of you old enough to remember, that is probably an apt analogy. But when we get through this, and with bold and compassionate leadership I believe we will soon enough, it might be because we have remembered more of Lincoln, as in his first inaugural address and his appeal for solidarity:
“Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
In my humble opinion you stated it all so accurately and beautifully. Thanks!
Well said
The price we pay for our freedoms?
Without order under the rule of law there is no freedom.
Many years ago I had the notion that there was a close correlation between being a whining, liberal democrat and being a moral and physical coward. I rest my case!
We have seen the 1968 violent race riots (YES: riots by a particular race are race riots!) played out again as if nothing had happened during the interval half-century.
From dailywire.com:
Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or “were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force,” according to [Heather] Mac Donald in a speech at Hillsdale College.
Some may argue that these statistics are evidence of racist treatment toward blacks, since whites consist of 62 percent of the population and blacks make up 13 percent of the population. But as Mac Donald writes in The Wall Street Journal, 2009 statistics from the [FBI] Bureau of Justice Statistics reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.
“Such a concentration of criminal violence in minority communities means that officers will be disproportionately confronting armed and often resisting suspects in those communities, raising officers’ own risk of using lethal force,” writes MacDonald.
Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. According to Mac Donald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person.
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Heather MacDonald, for the uninitiated, is a writer for City Journal, to which subscription is highly recommended.
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So, Houston, we have a problem. Numbers are numbers; unmanipulated numbers are facts. The response by media and political figures to the death of George Floyd means the cop, Chauvin, cannot get a fair trial based on “presumption of innocence” anywhere in the USA.
The bigger problem is the clear inclination to violence by our AA male population. Plus the moral cowardice of Democratic mayors, governors and Senators.
Well, a lot has happpened in the last 50 years, though. The nuclear black family has disappeared. Affirmative Action has led many, including many non-blacks, to view blacks as entitled to special privileges. Professional sports cannot be said to be racially blind: 75% of NFL and NBA players are black, each earning a million $ a year or often much, much more.
The billionaire black owner of the Black Entertainment Television has proposed a $14 trillion package of “”reparations” for slavery, which ended 155 years ago. Of course the fabled War on Poverty has cost untold trillions since LBJ, but the official population % “in poverty” remains essentially unchanged. Poverty is a moving target: today’s poor have no material wants. They have housing, food, TVs, cell phones, transportation, all provided gratis.
Dr. Tom–Thanks for your overview of the situation with the facts on so-called “systemic racism” in the streets. I am a big fan of Heather MacDonald, who for me is the most authoritative source of fact-checking available on this issue.
Several have suggested that 1968 is an analogy to our present state of affairs, but as you have suggested, it’s much worse than then because of a half century of failed liberal policy and leadership combined with the nihilism and white guilt that completely engulfs any and all attempts to advance the truth.
But this I think I know, that there will be no justice or freedom without social order under the rule of law.
Jim, as far as social order under the rule of law is concerned, Minneapolis city council members are apparently proposing to defund/terminate the city police force and replace it with “a new model”. Perhaps social workers rushing in to calm violence?
Thank you for providing this forum. The stars of Texas are upon you!