Stop police abuse?? I mean … abusing the police

The vast majority of police – and police departments – are well run and without problems of racial biases or abusive cultures.  Most police are terrific people who do a very hard and dangerous job to keep we the people safe.  They perform a critical essential service to the communities.

Before we go too far in making police officers the pariah of society – if we have not already done so – we need to consider a few FACTS.  According to Pew Research, one-third of Americans believe that all police officers discharge their weapons several times each year in the line of duty (excluding gun range training).  More than 80 percent believe that EVERY officer has discharged his gun at some time in his or her career – and likely several times.

In fact, 73 percent of all gun-toting police officers have never … as in never … fired their weapon in the line of duty.  That is quite impressive when you consider that they arrest some 10 million people each year.  In the past 16 years, the number of arrests has dropped in each and every successive year from a high of 15 million.

According to research by Statista, white people are far more likely to be killed by police than a black person – generally in the range of two-to-one.

In the recent days of demonstrations, protests, rioting and violent crime more than 400 police officers have been injured – some critically.  Officer Shay Mikalonis, 29, is currently on life support in a Las Vegas hospital.  A retired police commander guarding a friend’s store was shot and killed by a “protester.”  In Oakland, California, federal officer Dave Underwood was shot and killed by a “protester” firing from a car.  A fellow officer was wounded.  More than 17 people died in the rioting that followed the death of George Floyd.

The so-called peaceful protestors caused billions of dollars of damage – destroying thousands of homes and livelihoods of tens of thousands of innocent people – mostly black.  In Minneapolis alone – the epicenter of the protest — some 600 buildings were torched, vandalized and/or looted.

If you are a captive of the left-wing press, you are likely to know nothing of the deaths noted above.  The New York/Washington D.C. media cabal is moved beyond being a public relations agency for the Democratic Party to be a propaganda vehicle for the most extreme and violent elements in the protest movement.   So-called journalists like Ali Velshi on MSNBC promotes violence and confrontation by not condemning them.  He literally stood in front of a burning building while describing the protest as “peaceful.”  On CNN, folks like Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo suggest that violence is just part of progress – and they interview protesters and put on panelists who promote that same provocative and dangerous line-of-thinking.

If it is not a problem with most police departments and a vast majority of cops, where is there a problem?  It is true that the criminal justice system and police forces DO NOT operate fairly in its treatment of black citizens in every instance and in every locale.  Police brutality and racist enforcement do occur in America – but it is not pandemic – not even close.  It is mostly confined to specific locations … specific police departments … specific cops … and with a specific political structure running the police department.

You can find those locations … those police departments… and those political authorities by looking at the record and the statistics of arrests, police killings, instances of abuse, actions against specific officers for misconduct and abuse.    Ironically, you can find those responsible for institutional racism in specific police forces by cataloging the reaction.  Virtually every major outburst of civil unrest against police enforcement happens REPEATEDLY in very specific cities.

I often note – and it bears repeating since it does not seem to sink in –  that the residual of de facto institutional racism in law enforcement is almost exclusively found in major cities long under the control of the Democratic Party. It is part of a historic culture of Democrat urban racism harking back to the Great Negro Migration out of the segregated southland in the early 1900s.

As a strategy for maintaining power, Democrat political machines have relied on racial segregation and all its elements – abject poverty, lack of education, deprivation of municipal services, slum housing AND YES, racially biased police enforcement.

The latter comes in the form of police harassment and abuse – even torture, as was found in Chicago not so many years ago.  But the police department is just one level of Democrat urban racism.  The prejudicial culture extends to the Democrat prosecutors, who are quick to move against minorities and shield errant police officers.  It extends to the Democrat judges who treat black defendants more harshly than white – and almost never move against fellow Democrats in cases of police or prosecutorial abuse.

Where you find a culture of racism in a police force, you are likely to find a compliant union.  They are able to protect abusive cops because they donate huge sums of money to the Democrat officeholders who oversee police matters … appoint the police commanders … control the prosecutorial offices  … and elect the all-Democrat judiciary.

Every statistical review shows that it is these Democrat-controlled cities that are responsible for the excessive arrests, prosecutions and incarceration of minorities.  If there is unfair treatment of blacks by a justice system – and there is – the numbers clearly establish that it is the result of the institutional de facto racism in cities that rarely have a Republican even on the city council.

We have to keep in mind that all the characters in this racial melodrama are either officeholders and patronage or quasi-patronage workers.  That goes for the police.  Getting on these large urban police forces often requires the recommendation of the local alderman or ward boss.

When you examine the racism in the housing and zoning department, streets and sanitation, economic development and school boards, it is beyond refutation that the systemic racism – where it exists – starts with the Democrat mayors and city councils – and flows like a social venom throughout the municipal bureaucracy.  An incident like that in Minneapolis is just a symptom of a much deeper and broader problem.

However, it is NOT pandemic.  And that is important to keep in mind.  The public hysteria over law enforcement in general is the result of a false narrative initiated by the Democrats and promoted by a corrupt news media.  The sort of institutional racism that leads to tragedies like the death of George Floyd is only a symptom.  The disease is where you find such symptoms – and it is Democrat governance … period.

So, there ‘tis.