I posted two posts about racism and prejudice before seeing the atrocity in Minneapolis. The video is online showing the white police officer with his knee on a black man’s neck choking him out as he and onlookers pleaded with the police officer that the man was dying. Three other police officers watched. Supposedly, the man allegedly passed a bad check and then ran when the police tried to arrest him. I don’t care what the man did before the video began. The police had him subdued and could have handcuffed him and put him into the police car. They are trained on choking and choke holds. They know the signs to watch for in the event of medical emergencies caused by choking. They are even trained on watching for signs of a heart attack when handcuffing people. A certain percentage of the population will go into cardiac arrest when placed into handcuffs. The police are not the judge, jury and executioner.
Dallas, TX sent a police officer to jail for shooting and killing a person through the window of their home. There is a southern case of three men, one of whom is a former police officer, shooting and killing a black jogger in their neighborhood. There have been numerous new stories throughout the US of individual police officers throughout the country over stepping their authority and violating citizen’s rights since the lockdowns have begun. There have been several stories of police officers speaking out against unlawful orders in Democratic strongholds in the US and being fired as a result.
I support the police. Without them, we do not have a country. We have only chaos and crime. I don’t however, support the brotherhood mentality of many police officers. I do not support sweeping things under the carpet and lying to protect each other. Police are required to follow the same laws as the rest of us. They are not legally authorized to beat the crap out of somebody, shoot or kill them just because the person was noncompliant or angered the officer. Those behaviors make them criminals far worse than the people they are attempting to arrest. Yes, worse than the person they are trying to arrest. They already have the gun, power and authority to arrest individuals. Bullies with a gun on a power trip. It lessens the police department, endangers good police officers, and is not in police department’s best interests. It gets good police officers killed. I understand not wanting criminals to go free and quietly firing out of control officers. Every officer who is discredited has a prior case load containing convictions in danger of being overturned. Honestly, were all of that police officer’s convictions and cases valid? The police have a duty to police themselves. I believe with body cams, dash cams, and private citizens videotaping, there are probably fewer cases of outright violations of citizen’s rights. At least in public. However, they are now splashed all over social media and the news so there is a higher awareness when they do happen. Police officers are people for the most part. There are some bad apples in the mix. It’s unavoidable. Most of them are good people putting their life on the line every day to keep the rest of us safe.
Minneapolis is indicative of the current climate of our country. With the coronavirus lockdowns, individual rights have been trampled. I see daily news stories of Democratic strongholds increasing their personal power and illegally removing more citizens’ rights as the deaths from COVID-19 decrease in rate. The Democrat strongholds are seeing angry individuals getting angrier by the day as their businesses close and their jobs disappear. All for a virus that is killing less than 1 percent of the US population. In these areas, the police forces are getting more and more power hungry and emboldened. The ones who speak out are being fired. The media and local governments are actively increasing the divisiveness on many issues throughout the US. They are purposely causing chaos. Divide and conquer appears to be their strategy. Citizens from both sides of the political aisle are fed up with the whole mess. Minneapolis will take years to heal itself. I don’t agree with rioting. However, historically, sometimes riots are the only way the government knows they have pushed the people too far. Riots happen when people speak and are not heard. Riots happen when people feel helpless. There are many peaceful protests in Minneapolis. There are many white people out protesting and demonstrating with black people and people of all various races. Do they get the media’s and government’s attention? Not to the degree that a riot says we are done with your nonsense. Again, I don’t agree with riots but I do see their place in history and understand why they happen.
We have to get our country reopened and return people’s individual rights ASAP. We have to do a better job electing officials who will employ and support good officers instead of criminals. I don’t believe the Democrats are going to be happy with the November election results. People can see the red states opening and the blue states locking down tighter while sending police to people’s homes to enforce illegal policies. The push for socialism and complete control over the people by the Democratic party leaders has never been more obvious.
On a side note, I had a personal friend comment about my previous post on raising my son white. She had a valid point which is this: My mixed race son has many white people who think of and treat him as their own child. A few of those people see the struggles black people in the US have daily. The intent behind their comments is to keep him safe. Although this does not speak well of the US, I do at least understand their perspective.
Middle of the Muddy Road 