George Floyd’s May 25 murder by 44-year-old white Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin erupted in street violence around the country with Black Lives Matter leading the protests, declaring that “enough-is-enough” when it comes to police genocide on the African American community. Whatever the hyperbole, the message has been delivered to Washington that law enforcement agencies around the country must take inventory of the way they treat African Americans. While correcting racism and police brutality is clear, what isn’t clear is the idea that it’s caused by “systemic racism.” When you look at the facts, there’s no evidence that predominantly white police departments kill black citizens at higher rates than whites or other minority groups. BLM thinks it can make sweeping generalizations about the police to de-fund law enforcement, giving more cash to communities of color.
When riots, looting, arson and anarchy accompany peaceful protests, the optics are bad for the white community, that’s painted with the broad brush of racism. Most responsible white citizens aren’t racist, any more that black citizens are racist in terms of maintaining white stereotypes. Whether BLM helps elect 77-year-old former Vice President and Democrat nominee Joe Biden in November is anyone’s guess. White voters are looking at the mayhem in the streets and not liking what they see. BLM feels justified in seizing six-square blocks in Seattle for a police-free autonomous zone but white viewers are seeing anarchy in American streets. What BLM really wants is a socialist redistribution of wealth, de-funding police and reallocating funds to the African American community. Latinos and Native Americans can’t help but wonder why BLM speaks only for 13% of the U.S. population?
What happens after the street protests fade is anyone’s guess. There are no guarantees the BLM will get what it wants, even if they continue the street protests through the summer. When the Democrat Party linked to BLM, the middle-of-the-road Democrat Party have more difficulty convincing moderates that it’s in their interest to support the BLM-dominated Democrat Party. Liberal publications would like voters to believe that BLM represents a new Democrat Party that backs reparations for African Americans but not Native Americans, Latinos or Asians who feel disenfranchised by American white society. Why the blacks, 13% of the population, speak only for themselves doesn’t bode well to create a broad coalition fed up with police misconduct. When you look carefully at the data, BLM’s arguments don’t hold up that white police departments target African Americans.
More images of riots, looting, arson and anarchy on American streets has boomeranged on BLM’s attempt to persuade elected officials around the country to de-fund the police. If Seattle is any example, most white, Latino, Native American and Asian voters don’t want to see “autonomous zones” carved out of American cities. White Americans have no problem with police reform but they don’t support de-funding the police to finance new programs for the black community. Most voters believe that the police are an integral part of an orderly society, showing what happens in Seattle when the police withdraw. Seattle watched anarchy seize real estate in center city, something once though unthinkable until now. Seattle’s 62-year-old Mayor Jenny Durkan and 69-year-old Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee ordered Seattle’s police to stand down, letting Antifa and BLM seize Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
American voters, no matter how they don’t like the current White House occupant, won’t vote for more riots, looting, arson and anarchy. Horrific as Floyd’s death, it was one bad cop who’s getting the book thrown at him for murdering an unarmed black citizen. No one condones what happened to George Floyd. But American citizens don’t condone BLM’s threat of more street violence if they don’t get their political agenda adopted. Voters will have a stark choice this fall, voting for Democrat Party backing BLM or for Republicans seeking police reform but not allowing one group to bully the country into making political and economic concessions. Democrat activists seeking to use the George Floyd murder to advance political agendas might see it backfire. If white voters feel branded by BLM as “systemic racists,” they may not join the movement.
Responsible U.S. citizens want activists to follow the Constitution and rule of law, not torch cities because they can’t get their way. When 68-year-old Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson told protesters to “grow up,” he’s talking about resorting to violence to achieve political ends. Carson, who’s black, knows what it’s like to grow up with a single mother in Detroit’s “Eight Mile,” one of the most impoverished inner city districts in the country but somehow went to Yale and the University of Michigan Medical School. Carson knows firsthand that citizens advance themselves by taking advantage of opportunities, not rioting, looting, arson and anarchy. When ordinary citizens watch cities around the country torched in the name of civil rights, it gives them second thoughts about voting for a Party that backs radical groups seeking to de-fund the police.
