That was supposed to be here…

Except for the part about “causing Gray to flee”. Nobody but Gray caused that. Don’t resist even a bad arrest or stop. Avenge a bad arrest or stop in court.

The nanny-state anti-rights authoritarians own this mess from the moment they made normal pocket knives illegal. No stupid anti-rights knife law, no pretext to stop. No police stop (or fear of a BS charge causing Gray to flee a stop), no way for the alleged police brutality to occur.

Yet those very people were instrumental in exonerating Officer Wilson.

See?

Where the Mafia, black drug dealers, or the Mexican cartels directly threaten WITNESSES, that is one question of support.

Conversely, people in neighborhoods where there’s high crime EXPRESSLY asking for intensive police presence, DEMANDING that the police hierarchy devote inordinate resources to their neighborhoods, is another form of support.

2. law-abiding black Americans in particularly high-crime areas are very supportive of police”

RE. the first point: I agree. Blacks are frequently victims and definitely call the police to sort out their crises.

RE. the second point: I disagree. Have you ever tried to prosecute a crime that took place in a predominately black area? No one sees a thing, not even the otherwise decent people. As I have had witnesses explain privately over and over, “I’m sorry, but I have to live in that neighborhood.” (And I don’t condemn them for that. They have lives to live and children to raise. I understand that protecting one’s family comes first.) And don’t get me started about blacks on juries. The idea that it is better to let a black criminal walk than put one more black man in jail is NOT a fringe idea, it is accepted by a surprising number of ordinary folks.

Again, I admire your sense of hope; I only wish I shared it. Personally, I see an EXTREMELY polarized nation with ever-increasing gaps between groups. Identity politics is not fading, it’s getting worse. I wish we could re-ignite the Tenth Amendment to provide an escape valve of sorts, but I suspect that’s a pipe dream. Mostly, I’m just really glad that my husband let me chuck the legal career and moved us to flyover territory where all of the issues we debate here are mostly just academic. Blessings to you and thanks for the debate.

Three White House agitators…er…aides…

Kinda shows a valuing of folks, dunnit…???

1. black Americans are THE most likely group to report problems to the police

2. law-abiding black Americans in particularly high-crime areas are very supportive of police

People tend to be people, which is also why you’ll find very high support for school choice programs among people in low-income areas with abominable public schools.

Read Heather MacDonald on these and allied topics.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_2_liberal-elites.html is a really good piece she has up just now.

Are we going to see Baltimore or Oakland reverse directions? No. But the rest of nation I think will be turning back toward sanity.

“The police” is a bureaucracy; an amorphous blob that is highly committed to the blob’s self-interest and the path of least resistance. Policies among police agencies are federalizing and are being written by bureaucrats with “Public Management” degrees from third-rate universities. The trend in handling “First Amendment Demonstrations” is to stand back and film at the time, and take action-perhaps-later. In other words, to do nothing. But with official high-minded “policy” to mandate the choice.

Individual officers are, to put it crudely, screwed. “We,” meaning you and me and similar conservative types, do support them. “We,” the general public, DO NOT. And the individual cop actually doing the job knows this very well. For an example, please consider Darren Wilson, a highly commended officer who did NOTHING WRONG. Where is he now? If a cop acts, or even if he is forced to act, he risks running afoul of a liberal media with the power of the bully pulpit, a bull horn, and an audience. The only thing standing between the cop and Leviathan is his brass, see third-rate pseudo-psychology degrees above, and the brass tends to be very committed to retiring in the near future at the top of the pay scale. Supporting an officer in the face of Leviathan is risky and thus to be avoided. So the individual officer is learning also to avoid risk, i.e., to do as little as possible to avoid becoming a target of easily inflamed groups. And if members of those groups tend also to be criminals, oh well.

So, while I appreciate the sentiment that “we can’t let them” do this, “we” allowed it to get to this point and show no evidence of stopping the slide. And, unfortunately, we can substitute other issues, as well. Immigration? Abortion? Tax Policy? Very little that is produced by our ever-increasing bureaucracies conforms to what seems to be public opinion but, like a good flock of sheep, we follow along. Shall I proceed to my personal rant about the Fall of the Academy now?

Sadly the legal basis for a lawsuit is tenuous.

Odd…