“CNN, stop feeding fears and anger, every day.” — Rapper Killer Mike
The aftermath of the death of George Floyd has included violence and looting. But violence and looting do not honor Floyd’s memory, nor do they change anything.
Apparently the way many show respect for George Floyd is to break a window of a Nike store and steal Air Jordans — not exactly what Dr. King would have done.
I can offer some advice to all the “protesters” out there: Be sure not to forget to also steal AAA batteries for the flat-screen remote.
Yet again, a police brutality case gave license to thugs to loot and riot, and the media is comfortable conflating “protesters” with criminals who loot, riot and burn other businesses, some of them people’s life’s work.
Media coverage has been predictably biased. CNN showed footage of teenagers looting an Amazon truck and reported that the “fearless protesters” were heroes rescuing packages from being ruined by impending Molotov cocktail fires.
Of the rioters, many were imported white liberal college anarchists, antifa. The Feds would not shoot them because they owe the government at least $90k each in student loans, and they wouldn’t let the students off the hook that easily.
Almost all of these police brutality cases that have resulted in looting and rioting are in Northern cities controlled for years by wimpy Democrats: Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO; Freddie Gray in Baltimore; Eric Garner in New York City and now George Floyd in Minneapolis. I do not remember the last Republican-led Southern city where police egregiously killed an unarmed black man.
As bad as the Floyd death was, it is neither a “crisis” nor systemic. According to FBI statistics, there are only about 900 police shootings a year: 42 percent are whites, 32 percent are blacks and 20 percent are Hispanics — about in line with crimes committed.
Think about the “Ferguson effect” before you loot and riot: devastating, lingering economic and criminal impact on a town where crime goes unchecked by authorities out of fear.
Democrats are all too willing to let the aggrieved continue to think they are always victims who should depend on the government. Strong, self-reliant people are not usually Democrats. The sad thing is, these “victims” do not realize that the very liberal Democrats in the cities mentioned earlier are the “leaders” who have done it to them. If they try to leave the Democrat Plantation and think for themselves, Joe Biden berates them with “You ain’t black.”
This contrived “police war on black males” is a demonstrable lie. In her book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” Heather MacDonald cited simple FBI crime statistics that disprove the lie on which Black Lives Matter is based. She determined that a Police Officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is likely to be killed by a cop.
If, spurred by the media and the left, you look for race in everything, then you will find it. Derek Chauvin was a bad cop. Period. No one disagrees with you. He will go to jail. There is no need to ruin people’s businesses in your neighborhood over this.
Thugs have looted about all they can in “honor” of George Floyd. I was in an Atlanta store Tuesday where looters were outnumbered by folks determined to pay for stuff, because Dr. Fauci asked Democrat mayors to limit looters to 6 per store but only if they could not afford to loot from home. The good news is that it seems tear gas cures COVID.
Folks in Buckhead were unsure if it was still coronavirus season or looting season, not to pass judgement but to make sure they were dressed for the right season.
A libertarian syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author and TV commentator. He can be reached at Ron@RonaldHart.com or on Twitter @RonaldHart.
