So, following the unfortunate deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, etc. at the hands of police officers (note, I believe that these deaths are "unfortunate" even if I also believe that they were legally justified), we saw the Left and so-called civil rights leadership go into their "[white] police officers are bad" and "[white] police officers are murdering blacks" rants, with some destroying property, intimidating the public, and assaulting police officers in the process (yes, I admit that most of the protesters have been "non-violent," but that distinction means little to the sick/elderly whose ambulance is delayed due to street "shutdowns").
We see such reactions from the Left and so-called civil rights activists--people who otherwise claim to be looking out for "everyone" and standing up against abuse by "anyone"--almost exclusively when a white police officer (or a "white Hispanic" neighborhood watchman) kills a black or Latino individual. We then, by way of protests that do little else than needlessly inflame racial tensions and that are based on ignorance, hear the line about how these things don't happen or wouldn't happen to "white young men" or that if a black cop had been the one to kill a white person in a similar manner, there would have been an indictment/conviction, etc. We see such jumps to unsubstantiated conclusions from PhD holders to lawyers to people just getting out of the lockup.
I've conducted some research into the matter to see whether or not such allegations/charges hold true. Unsurprisingly, they fall flat nearly each and every time. Here are just a few examples that disprove the narrative pushed by the Sharpton types of this country (and that show a double standard of "outrage"):
1) Grand jury in majority white Mobile County, Alabama (you know, the "racist" South) declines to indict black cop for killing unarmed white teen (
White teen Gilbert Collar killed by black cop Trevis Austin in Alabama mirrors Ferguson - Washington Times
2) Jury in overwhelmingly white Greece, NY acquits black police officer for killing unarmed white teen who cop claims was running towards him despite being told to "freeze" with the officer's weapon pointed at the teen (sound familiar?) (
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/201...obody-cares/);
3) Grand jury refuses to indict police officer who killed unarmed white man with down syndrome for failing to leave movie he hadn't paid for (this is actually eerily similar to the Garner case as the man died of asphyxiation due to police officer being on his back) (
http://thesource.com/2014/12/08/md-g...leave-movie/);
4) Utah grand jury declines to indict black police officer who killed unarmed white man (
Salt Lake cop cleared in shooting of unarmed white man | WREG.com).
The list goes on and on (you get the point, though).
These stories haven't made national news as a general matter, led to mass protests and the destruction of property, or otherwise attracted the likes of Sharpton to denounce "police brutality" (when you look at example 3, this is even more surprising as the man with down syndrome arguably posed even less of a threat to the police than Garner did). When looking at the descriptions, its clear why: these aren't incidents that fit the narrative of blacks being killed by white police officers/whites in general (heck, as I alluded to above, the media went out of their way to portray Zimmerman as a "white Hispanic" when he killed Trayvon Martin--this despite no one ever using such language--in order to fit that narrative). When you have a contingent of the society that is content on race-baiting and inflaming tensions based on unsupported, biased allegations and double standards, we are in serious trouble. But this is why the Sharpton types and other so-called civil rights activists, black, white or green, never make any "progress"--society sees their actions for what they are, and then goes on with living their lives.
Interestingly enough, the Left and the Right have a lot of common ground in terms of wanting to rein in what some would call (not my language) an increasingly "militarized" police force. Such collaboration, however, will never take place so long as the Left continues to race-bait and push double standard narratives that are not supported by the facts.
Now, I know that I probably just opened the door for some to bring up the point that blacks/Latinos are still disproportionately killed by police officers in this country, and even disproportionately harassed by police officers in this country. This may very well be true. But, even here, its not so clear the extent that race has to do with anything. Indeed (and let's take this step by step), black and Latino communities tend to have significantly more violent crime than white/Asian/etc. communities in this country. As a result, we tend to see a higher police presence in these areas to combat that crime (despite calls for "policing equity," it doesn't quite make sense to place the same number of police officers in Georgetown as you would in Anacostia, or in the Upper East Side as you would in East New York;
likewise, the approach to policing a high violent crime area will be different to policing a low violent crime area just taking into account officer safety and the threat to officer safety . . . these guys and gals want to make it home at the end of the day). Due to the higher police numbers within certain communities relative to the violent crime, you're necessarily (assuming that police officers are doing their jobs) going to have higher police interactions (whether for misdemeanors or felonies) than you'd have elsewhere, despite the fact that certain misdemeanor offenses may be taking place in higher numbers in low violent crime neighborhoods vs. high violent crime neighborhoods. And, along with greater police interaction, you're going have a greater number of allegations of police abuse, whether substantiated or not. But that's not racism; that's a pure policing numbers issue.
Let's be clear: I don't claim that racism doesn't exist (we are, after all, humans) or that there are not racist police officers. From my perspective, however (and I think its pretty telling that the number of cases highlighted by the likes of Sharpton and Jackson represent a tiny, tiny fraction of all of the potential and actual interactions between police officers and communities of color each year), the overwhelming majority of police officers are good, hardworking men and women who put their lives on the line daily to protect and serve our various communities. Before indicting an officer, a police department, or police officers in general, I'm, thus, going to require actual evidence of wrongdoing/racism, instead of skewed statistics without proper context and double-standard outrage and reporting.
Cheers.