Black Lives Matter

I suppose it’s my job to comment on the racial discrimination issue that has taken over public discussion. It is difficult because each time the English language opens a door it becomes like British soccer fans fleeing a match gone bad. The door is plugged with complications.

Personally, I’ve witnessed police brutality. Having long hair in Orange County, California was my choice. Long hair meant I wanted to cut profits for the defense (?) industry. I was like a temperance advocate on Bourbon Street.

When I went to Hawaii after logging in Alaska all summer I didn’t intend to blow all my savings to support their tourism industry. It was the first time I witnessed true racism. Although mild compared to other accounts, it hit home and made me realize that walking that mile in those shoes is the only way to know what it is like.

When I read and see videos about the three events that led up to the recent chaos, I ask why, and seek solutions. I suppose I’m not alone.

Black Lives Matter has been at the forefront of organizations concerned about the role of police regarding race. I went to their website to find what they propose. There’s a lot of the typical love thy neighbor talk, same as me. Then their main focus is on dismantling police departments and moving that cash to social programs.

My ideas would create a more sustainable peace.

If we are to reform the systemic racism at the heart of what happened to George Floyd and the other victims, we need to look at the basic role of government. To simply “dismantle the department” will be cause for celebration for rapists, murderers, burglars, and robbers.

Police with a specific mandate of protect and serve shouldn’t be required to babysit. They should only protect us from the aggressive behavior of others. Police departments mandated to regulate drug use, prostitution, gambling, and other activities between consenting adults get spread too thin.

Now we get to the reason Derek Chauvin and other officers like him are policemen. He’s a bully. Law enforcement is important work; too important to be polluted with people like Chauvin. But the fact that law enforcement’s job, through all this social engineering nonsense, allows and even encourages them to beat up on people attracts them. Then police unions protect their jobs and reinstate them after the smoke clears.

The next part of Black Lives Matters’ agenda requires some outside-the-box thinking. Am I a racist for pointing out that the Black community has a bigger problem with crime than the white community? I think it is compassion. But there is still an element of fear because statistics show a reason for it.

The transfer of police funding to social programs is misguided. Intact families produce better citizens. Social programs have reduced the need for fathers. But they don’t fulfill the role that a family with a father and mother fill. The correlation between the breakdown of families to crime statistics is irrefutable.

This quote from the Black Lives Matter website regarding their origins should reinforce my opinions:

“The impetus for that commitment was, and still is, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state.”

Society today has become addicted to this welfare/police state. But if we really want to do something about the violence, we need a weaning process.