The one US political party, including both wings, gets various national topics so wrong almost 100% of the time whether it is the economy, foreign policy OR their favorite one to argue over, the nanny/police state.
As David Stockman points out clearly in his article “Triumph of the Woke Mob Led By Two Doddering Old Fools” …
Nanny State over-reach was the underlying cause of George Floyd’s arrest and unjust death—just as it is the source of most of America’s unfortunate violence between police and unarmed citizens, back, white and otherwise.
The facts of ‘racism’ NOT causing all this doesn’t deter the Democrats since it has been an effective rallying cry and the GOP remains stuck in the religious fervor around the blue-line’s effort in the War on Drugs/People overreach. In fact, the blow-back of each wing’s push just intensifies the whole conflict with disrespects the people while triggering the masses to back the state in whatever solutions they come up with. It is a sick cycle that sees the poor, disadvantaged and unarmed at the mercy of the state.
Needless to say, the George Floyd case was not an aberration. During the recent past there were 38 such police killings of unarmed black citizens in 2015, and then 19, 21, 17 and 9 during 2016 through 2019, respectively. That’s 104 black lives lost to the ultimate abuse of police powers.
Of course, the number should be zero police killings of unarmed citizens. There is no conceivable excuse for heavily armed cops—-usually working in pairs or groups—to cause the death of lone, unarmed civilians, regardless of race or anything else.
Unarmed seems to still unnerve the state-empowered police effort, however, it gets even more ridiculous when one learns the REASON the police were involved:
.. the Minneapolis police officers originally attempted to put George Floyd safely in the back seat of a squad car after his arrest for the petty crime of attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, but he resisted them intensely for up to five minutes .. Floyd’s death was due to an arrest which shouldn’t have happened and bad police behavior that has nothing to do with race.
Yup. the Left’s “it’s because he’s black” doesn’t stick here and the GOP’s “he should just bow to the Redcoats and the crown” doesn’t either. This “crime” is outside the scope of the police, as it was the store’s issue to deal with as there was zero threat of violence from this man towards others and towards the Redcoats.
During the same five-year period in which 104 black lives were lost, a total of 127 unarmed white lives were wasted by the police, as well. That included 32 white killings in 2015 followed by 22, 31, 23 and 19 in 2016 through 2019, respectively.
Overall, 302 unarmed citizens were killed by the police during those five years, with the balance accounted for by 71 deaths among Hispanic and other victims. That is, the real issue is illegal and excessive police violence, not racial victimization.
Indeed, the fact that 34% of these police killings involved black citizens compared to their 13% share of the population is not primarily a sign of racism among police forces, although it is continuously construed to be.
It’s actually evidence that the Nanny State, and especially the misbegotten War on Drugs, is designed to unnecessarily ensnare a distinct demographic— young, poor, often unemployed urban citizens— in confrontations with the cops, too many of which become fatal.
Alas, young black males are disproportionately represented among this particular in harms’-way demographic, and that’s the reason they are “disproportionately” represented in the 302 cases cited above.
White lives matter too, so the facts seem to suggest a “wrong place at a wrong time” situation here as the police only target the part of town that has a lot of young, poor and unemployed. Amazingly, getting anyone hopped up on power can easily expand the scope of involvement of the Redcoats in the area, not content with solving REAL crime, they focus on low-hanging fruit just like a deputized HOA Karen does:
But I digress.
.. statism in the sphere of law and order is every bit as dysfunctional as it is in the realm of economics, yet neither conservatives nor progressives recognize it.
The US political system loves dysfunction, because it creates more “business” for itself.
It was at this point in the article I thought this was a summary, but as it turns out, David Stockman does straight into the data after offering this synopsis:
Conservatives want way too much law and police empowerment in the service of cultural norms that are none of the state’s damn business in the first place; and progressives confuse the often brutal and unjust over-reach of law enforcement agencies as a manifestation of racism, when it is actually just policing expectorations in behalf of inappropriate missions such as the enforcement of drug laws.
The data is revealing for the Nanny State’s real impact on the people, it is deathly.
- George Floyd’s fatal arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill; Eric Garner (NYC 2014), subdual for selling un-taxed cigarettes; Rayshard Brooks for falling asleep drunk in his car at a subsequently incinerated Wendy’s in Atlanta; and Breonna Taylor of Louisville for being awake in her own apartment at 1:30 AM when police barged in with guns blaring in a drug enforcement raid.
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In the most recent year of complete data (2018), there were 9.3 million arrests in the US excluding traffic enforcement charges of DUI. Yet among this massive number of arrests, those involving serious crimes against persons and property accounted for just 521,000 or 5.6%. These included: Negligent murder and manslaughter: 11,970; Rape: 25,205; Armed robbery: 88,128; Aggravated assault: 395,800; That’s it. That’s the contribution to core public safety delivered by the 850,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the USA—about 0.6 arrests per year for serious crimes per law enforcement officer.
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the single largest category of arrests in 2018 was for drug abuse violations, which totaled 1,654,282. In fact, while total arrests for all crimes in 2018 were no higher than they were in 1977 despite a 100 million/50% growth in the US population, and had actually dropped from a peak of nearly 13 million in 2006, the opposite trend was extant in the case of the nation’s misbegotten War on Drugs arrests. As shown by the chart below, drug arrests in 2018 were nearly at peak levels and were up by more than 171% since 1977—the vast majority of which are made for drug possession generally, and marijuana possession most often.
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the next largest arrest category after drugs is one called “other assaults” for which 1,063,535 arrests were made in 2018. Yet the FBI’s own definitions raise considerable doubts as to why these are even a proper matter for law enforcement by the state:
Other assaults (simple)―Assaults and attempted assaults where no weapon was used or no serious or aggravated injury resulted to the victim. Stalking, intimidation, coercion, and hazing are included.
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Next category we have all the victimless and vice crimes, including the following number of arrests: Prostitution and commercialized vice: 31,147; Sex offenses excluding rape and prostitution: 46,937; Gambling: 3,323; Liquor law offenses: 173,152; Curfew and loitering law violations: 22,031; Vagrancy: 23,546; Public drunkenness: 328,772; Disorderly conduct: 329,152; Forgery and counterfeiting: 50,072; Weapons carrying and possession: 168,403; All other offenses: 3,231,700. The latter huge number tells you all you need to know. The UCR lists 27 enumerated categories of crime including all of those itemized above yet when the whole lists is exhausted, 32% of arrests occurred for crimes that are so minor even the FBI is embarrassed to enumerate them!
Nothing like majoring in the minors! But I guess that is what “pays the bills”, Redcoats extracting loot from the people. Some things never change and government will never be your savior from this evil and broken world.
Ya think? Lord Acton was spot on!
The masses seem to believe there are only two options in decision-making, which is why the US political-complex limits itself to GOP and Democrats. Yet there is a third option, a road much less traveled. This is a path that reduces one’s dependency on the Nanny State and takes life underground.
Something to think about right?
-SF1