Showing posts with label Ferguson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferguson. Show all posts
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Senator Scott Shares Personal Experiences with Law Enforcement Officers ...
This truly deserves careful viewing, and listening. Tim Scott is a staunch conservative from South Carolina, one of his generation's best and brightest. Listen to his accounts of treatment at the hands of American law enforcement, and ponder what the experience of so many must be who do not have the benefit of his education, accomplishments, and demeanor.
Yes, most cops are Good People--but...without accountability, without proper supervision, bullies can arise among them. OS has experienced it first-hand, as a middle-aged white guy dealing with small town cops, in his own small town. The words 'I OWN YOU', snarled by the cop, burned in OS's brain for some months, until the police chief was removed by the State of Tennessee when it was revealed he had hired felons for his police force--not kidding it happened. This sort of thing has happened more than once, and that phrase has been used more than once, and not just in OS's little town. Some cops love that little rush of power...and see their role as generator of revenue and fear amongst the citizenry. Do this often enough, long enough, brutally enough, brazenly enough, and be not shocked when a small town near St. Louis erupts over a shooting, even though forensics proved it justified. It was stupid law enforcement practices that opened the door for the anarchists now parading as reformers.
Tennessee also has a tradition of state police officers serving (with gun and badge) with serious criminal records in their pasts. Pretty scary stuff, and OS deliberately hung the jury in a DUI case long years ago when it became obvious the trooper was lying through his teeth, and the prosecutor was urging him on. The defendant was probably guilty, but the trooper was the most dangerous person in the room.
So--take a few minutes, and think this through with Senator Scott.
And Donald--before you pull the trigger and name Mike Pence as your VP choice....maybe look this guy over one more time?
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
A Tale Of Two Midwestern Cities, Of Murdered Children, Of Cries For Revenge And Stone Silence
It's painful to watch the Michael Brown funeral, but here it is, in all its YouTube Glory.
The Sharpton excerpts widely broadcast are inflammatory enough, but the real damage to the body politic may well come from the eulogy delivered by Brown's uncle, Charles Ewing, misusing the Genesis story of Cain and Abel, and blood 'crying from the ground for vengeance'. The terms 'justice' and 'vengeance' seem to be equivalent: Justice=Vengeance=Justice.
Uncle Charles claimed divine inspiration, a special 'word' from the Holy Spirit, in effect ascribing canonical weight to his words, i.e. to claim: 'The Holy Spirit who guided the words of Isaiah and Paul now guides my words'. This is a terrible slippery slope, especially with a grieving family on the front row, a body in a coffin, and cameras carrying the Reverend's words to the world.
The Reverend Uncle also drew a broad analogy between young Mr. Brown, who died at noon, and Christ himself, crucified at noon. A terrible, tragic slippery slope upon which to perch a family.
And here's why: We don't exactly know what happened in that encounter that Saturday noon, and this side of the pearly gates, probably won't. All that is known with complete certainty is that young Mr. Brown is dead, and that Officer Wilson fired the shots that ended his life.
What if it does turn out, after three autopsies, much investigation, mounds of evidence gathered and gone over, that young Mr. Brown, Mike-Mike The Gentle Giant, had indeed stolen that box of cigars and assaulted the clerk, as is caught on camera? That will tarnish the memory and reputation of the young man, who was dearly loved by his now heartbroken parents. This is not fair to them, it increases their pain.
What if it does turn out, after three autopsies, etc, that Mr. Brown was the aggressor, and regrettably Officer Wilson felt he had no recourse but to fire? If the evidence shows that this tragedy was the result of Mr. Brown's aggression toward Officer Wilson, what then constitutes justice? And what then of his family, and all those young people out there convinced of both his martyrdom and sainthood? Who rescues the family from that slippery slope?
Meanwhile, in Chicago, three-year old James Jenkins was critically injured this weekend by the negligent mishandling of his father's handgun.
His father, also James Jenkins, was a felon on parole, prohibited from having a gun.
This was but one tragedy--some 40 shootings in Chicago in the same weekend. Mainly black teenagers. We should not expect to seeing Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton at any of those services, and our 'I-am-Trayvon' President has his hands full between rounds of golf and watching the jihadists conquer the Tripoli airport.
Things have gone seriously upside down, OS fears. Obvious senseless murder is now treated as routine, while a tragic death that occurs in the fog of conflict on the street becomes the occasion of the worst sort of demagoguery.
The Sharpton excerpts widely broadcast are inflammatory enough, but the real damage to the body politic may well come from the eulogy delivered by Brown's uncle, Charles Ewing, misusing the Genesis story of Cain and Abel, and blood 'crying from the ground for vengeance'. The terms 'justice' and 'vengeance' seem to be equivalent: Justice=Vengeance=Justice.
Uncle Charles claimed divine inspiration, a special 'word' from the Holy Spirit, in effect ascribing canonical weight to his words, i.e. to claim: 'The Holy Spirit who guided the words of Isaiah and Paul now guides my words'. This is a terrible slippery slope, especially with a grieving family on the front row, a body in a coffin, and cameras carrying the Reverend's words to the world.
The Reverend Uncle also drew a broad analogy between young Mr. Brown, who died at noon, and Christ himself, crucified at noon. A terrible, tragic slippery slope upon which to perch a family.
And here's why: We don't exactly know what happened in that encounter that Saturday noon, and this side of the pearly gates, probably won't. All that is known with complete certainty is that young Mr. Brown is dead, and that Officer Wilson fired the shots that ended his life.
What if it does turn out, after three autopsies, much investigation, mounds of evidence gathered and gone over, that young Mr. Brown, Mike-Mike The Gentle Giant, had indeed stolen that box of cigars and assaulted the clerk, as is caught on camera? That will tarnish the memory and reputation of the young man, who was dearly loved by his now heartbroken parents. This is not fair to them, it increases their pain.
What if it does turn out, after three autopsies, etc, that Mr. Brown was the aggressor, and regrettably Officer Wilson felt he had no recourse but to fire? If the evidence shows that this tragedy was the result of Mr. Brown's aggression toward Officer Wilson, what then constitutes justice? And what then of his family, and all those young people out there convinced of both his martyrdom and sainthood? Who rescues the family from that slippery slope?
Meanwhile, in Chicago, three-year old James Jenkins was critically injured this weekend by the negligent mishandling of his father's handgun.
His father, also James Jenkins, was a felon on parole, prohibited from having a gun.
This was but one tragedy--some 40 shootings in Chicago in the same weekend. Mainly black teenagers. We should not expect to seeing Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton at any of those services, and our 'I-am-Trayvon' President has his hands full between rounds of golf and watching the jihadists conquer the Tripoli airport.
Things have gone seriously upside down, OS fears. Obvious senseless murder is now treated as routine, while a tragic death that occurs in the fog of conflict on the street becomes the occasion of the worst sort of demagoguery.
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