There is so much useful information in Heather MacDonald's The War on Cops that it's hard for this old brain to remember it all. Yes, Black Lives Matter is a total fraud, founded upon easily disproved lies and distortions, but what are the actual statistics? As an aid to myself and a friendly service to readers, I thought I might thumb through the book and pluck and out some of the more salient ones.
By the way, this is one of the most simultaneously exhilarating and depressing books I'ver ever read. Exhilarating because the truth always is. Depressing because it demonstrates how aggressively the left denies reality when its agenda is at stake. As the old gag goes, the first thing a man will do for his ideology is lie.
Which reminds me of Russell Kirk's axiom that one definition of conservatism is the absence of ideology. Unlike the left, we do not superimpose a secondary reality over the first, but rather, allow ourselves to be in-formed by reality. Or in other words, we stick with what is and what works.
The book is also depressing because we have a real problem on our hands, with no solution in sight. In an unprecedented historical experiment, the the left has destroyed the black family, and I have no idea what or how long it will take to put it back together, or if it's even possible.
The left's approach to the problem is to generate all heat and no light, in order to keep their most loyal voting bloc angry, dependent, and in the dark. They also ensure that if anyone talks about the real problems they will be banished as racist, thus sealing themselves in ignorance with weaponized PC rhetoric.
So, cheer up! Things are not as bad as they are going to be.
First the "Ferguson Effect": homicides in the nation's 50 largest cities increased 17 percent last year. This of course is after a fifty percent decline in crime since the mid-1990s. I won't get into all of the reasons for the decline, but suffice it to say that all of these truly progressive methods are under attack by the left, with predictable consequences, including thousands more black deaths.
In 2015 258 blacks were shot and killed by police, compared to 6,095 total black homicide victims in 2014 (the most recent year available), and the vast majority of the latter were murdered by other blacks. Of the 258 killed by police, most were in self defense, as in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson.
"[Y]oung black commit homicide at nearly ten times the rate of white and Hispanic males combined." Why on earth would a police officer not be a little more attentive to the activities of young black males? And why would the potential black victims of black predators not want the police to pay a little more attention to them?
It is precisely because of astronomical levels of black crime that police are in their neighborhoods. Police do not deploy their forces on a statistical basis based upon population, but rather, based upon crime. It has nothing per se to do with race, but with behavior. But when an inevitable statistical disparity in policing shows up, the left takes this as evidence of racism. Madness!
Conversely, Asians "barely show up in police-shooting data because their crime rates are so low." Thus, whites should organize a White Lives Matter group to protest this blatant discrimination against us in favor of Asians. Fight yellow privilege!
In New York City, "blacks are only 23 percent of the population but commit over 75 percent of all shootings.... whites commit under 2 percent of all shootings" despite constituting a third of the population. "Blacks and Hispanic shootings together account for 98 percent of all illegal gunfire."
Thus, it is no joke: the left wants to take our guns away, when the main reason we need them is to protect ourselves from their constituents. Or in other words, if we could just prevent guns from getting into the hands of Democrats, we would have murder rates (by shooting) comparable to Sweden.
Eh, I'll have to complete this tomorrow. It's a little crazy around here, being that today is the day the wife gets the new hip installed...
"if we could just prevent guns from getting into the hands of Democrats, we would have murder rates (by shooting) comparable to Sweden"
ReplyDeleteI would like to see this on billboards across the country.
There was a time when you felt powerless as an individual to do anything.
ReplyDeleteNow you feel powerless even if you were given worldly power.
I suppose it's in other hands now.
(Best of luck on Mrs. Godwin's surgery and recovery!)
"So, cheer up! Things are not as bad as they are going to be."
ReplyDeleteI offer those same words of comfort fairly often. Oddly enough, it doesn't cheer many people up. Huh.
Praying that all goes well today for Mrs. G, and the family.
ReplyDeleteEnthusiastic prayers for Mrs G's hip replacement!
ReplyDelete"Cheer up! Things are not as bad as they are going to be."
I admit it, I LOL'd.
We can always move to Montana.
Best wishes and prayers for Mrs. G. I hope she recovers quickly.
ReplyDeleteI found this topically poignant from Bishop Robert Barron. He's referring to a book that gets into Anselm's theology:
ReplyDelete"A fellow monk named Boso, who plaintively asks the master [Anselm] why God could not simply have pronounced a word of forgiveness from heaven and dispensed with all of the blood and horror of the crucifixion. Anselm replies, “You have not considered the weight of sin.” On a Biblical reading, sin is not simply a series of peccadillos that can be dealt with through earnest repentance or political reform or psychological manipulation. Sin is rather like a disease or an addiction, a state in which we find ourselves stuck. In point of fact, our thrashing around will serve only to make the situation worse, which can be seen over and again in human history. A power must come from outside of sin but at the same time, it must enter into sin, battling it, reversing it, breaking it from the inside. Work has to be done; a war has to be won; a price has to be paid—again, not to satisfy God, but to set things right for us. Indeed, Anselm specifies that the Son of God went all the way to the bottom of the muck of human dysfunction in order to recover the diamond (the image of God in us) and polish it to a shine. A mere word of forgiveness, uttered from the safety of heaven, would never have affected such a transformation. On that terrible cross, Jesus took upon himself the worst of humanity and swallowed it up in the ever greater divine mercy."
Excellent post, Bob!
ReplyDeleteThe leftost leaders are in a panic and will always find ways to blame everyone but themselves for their disasterous idiotology.
Surprisingly, I have found that most people I have met who are in the same situation I am in are pro Second Ammendment, and more than a even few pack heat.
I don't know if this is happening everywhere, but in my experience, more and more of the left's constituents are becoming disillusioned with the leftist lies. Those people who are waking up are becoming more receptive to hearing reason and truth.
Of course, one cannot go in guns blazing, so to speak when trying to reason with these folks, it requires more diplomacy and tact,
But most are listening to me, and others irt the left's many lies.
Needless to say this does not endear me to any of the loco leftist agitators and propagandists, but it's good to know I am not alone out here, and there are others who are also fighting back against the leftist onslaught of lies and deceit.
Meeting them and becoming friends with them has shown me that hope never dies.
But it sure ain't gonna be easy to reverse all this damage the left is causing.
I hope all goes very well today for all of you!
ReplyDeleteRe. the post, these days it gets harder and harder to distinguish between laughter and tears.
We are praying the hip replacement goes well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughts & prayers. She comes home today after a one night hospital stay. Artificial hips are much less complicated than knees. You're up and walking the same day (with a walker), and rehab starts the very next day. Assuming no complications, you're good to go in a matter of weeks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update Bob. I hope and pray Mrs.G. has a full and quick recovery.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/2016/07/neuroscientists-still-dont-know-music-sounds-good/
ReplyDeleteAnd they never will.
Good deal.
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