At least that’s how it seems to me after reading my friends posts this weekend in the wake of the shootings in Colorado Springs. Being a deep thinker, I decided to address this one right away to avoid being late to the stupidity festival.
Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!
It’s become America’s number one industry: outrage butt-hurt. Every time someone is killed/not killed it is automatically a race issue. It is not just my black friends doing this, it’s some of the white ones as well.
“Notice how he didn’t get beaten/shot? Well, he’s not Syrian or Black, so there’s your answer.” That one is almost a direct quote – I spared them from a Google search.
My favorite, from this past week was, “Lookout people! Minneapolis Police flying Blackhawks today. Keep outta danger.” Uyh..er…but… Well, Blackhawks are not gunships. Mind you, flinging Molotov cocktails at the police might warrant a bit of targeting, but last I looked Blue Thunder isn’t quite here yet. If you doubt me, here’s the video link. In my house, flinging exploding bottles of liquid fire gets you shot. I think the Minneapolis Police Dept. is being remarkably restrained under the circumstances.
The point of this ramble is that either you, as an individual, wish for the police to use minimum force in every circumstance, or you want to see your enemies punished. It’s truly one or the other.
The police, like it or not, were not responsible for slavery. Nor were the currently sworn officers on the job responsible for the Watts riots, Selma, or anything whatsoever that happened before 1950. So why is it that a 27 year old cop is blamed for all of this history?
I did notice that a lot of people weren’t shot in the United States last year, most of them not shot by the police. The number grows every year at an almost fantastic rate. Strangely, more people are shot by other people in the black community than are shot by cops. Same in the white community. I fail to see how just shooting more white criminals will help in this statistical race, since the number of people not shot so exceeds the number shot as to make it almost statistically insignificant.
Perhaps a lottery? All of you with a grievance over a black person being shot by the police (whether or not they grabbed a gun, had a knife, tried beating the cop unconcious, etc., or it was just a murder by the officer) get to pick five white people you know personally. Once everyone who feels outraged has selected their vicitims, they will be rounded up in a large stadium and random people will be killed from the pool until no more black people are ever shot by the police. It worked for the Germans during WWII, why not here?
I suspect either you’re starting to get it, or you’re not reading any longer, merely sputtering and slamming your hand on the desk.
That’s what I want. I want everyone to be treated with appropriate levels of violence regardless of the crime, the race, etc. If you can get the cuffs on without a death that’s the way it should be. If the suspect resists, game is on! Regardless of color, if you fight the police you run the risk of dying. Goes for big bearded white guys as well. So far so good.
But let’s not see how outraged we can be over the police not killing suspects. Keep in mind that your favorite Boston Marathon bomber was not killed by the police. He rather so deserved that extra half a magazine in my opinion, but they got the little slime without killing him. Let’s not riot and loot and act crazy when the police arrest one of their own for murder or some other felony. It means they (the department) are doing their job and putting a bad guy in jail.
Let’s march, and sing, and link arms over dead children in Chicago who are gunned down every day. Averaging over 12 deaths a week in Chicago – a city with some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. But it is not in the media because it doesn’t fit the meme. Let’s all agree that cops who shoot people on the ground when they’re no longer a threat should be tried for murder. Let’s agree that shooting a fleeing misdemeanor suspect in the back is probably a homicide, but there may be exceptions.
Let’s try to follow the rule of law, protest peacefully, and not presume that it all boils down to race. It doesn’t. On either side. Let’s not get in each other’s faces and spit and hurl nastiness. Let’s at least pretend that we’re not a society no further advanced than the Hell’s Angels where you treat one member badly the whole gang stomps you.
Perchance we could all try to act like brothers and sisters? Crazy talk, yes I know. But I’m working on it. How about you?
********* ********** *********** ***********
I have a favor to ask of my readers: would you kindly share this blog with your friends, family, and colleagues? We hit a million views in 2014, and while the readership continues a nice growth trend, it could be a lot better. Just hit the Facebook like button, share it on your timeline, tweet the blog with a link, and tell that person at the next desk that there’s this lunatic who writes about all sorts of stuff that they might like.
I appreciate your help. When we hit 2,000,000 readers I will give away something cool to a drawing from the subscribers (that’s the box on the right toward the top) who have helped promote this mess. No used sheets, probably not honey, more likely gift cards. Be a part of it. I’ll update from time to time where we’re at in the count. Thanks.
