Time to Start Deracializing Ferguson

Well yes. But hasn’t it been time to start deracializing everything since, oh about 1865 — certainly since 1965? But as Barry Latzer, professor emeritus at CUNY’s College of Criminal Justice writes in the New York Post:

In fact, as Noah Rothman recounts in the October issue of Commentary, reporters exacerbated the situation by intentionally placing themselves in harm’s way once police responded to the incipient rioting, then interviewed one another about police use of force.

The press, in short, did everything it could to place the police in a negative light.

* * * * * * * * *

Maybe here, too, self-interest was at work. A recently publicized internal memo from a former Obama pollster concluded that the black vote was the last best hope for the Democrats to hold on to a majority in the Senate.

Could Holder’s trip to Ferguson have been intended to exploit the racial turmoil and motivate blacks to vote? [Gee, ya think? — Ed]

As for so-called civil-rights leaders like Al Sharpton, they acted and always act predictably. Exploiting interracial incidents is their stock in trade. The media should have given them less coverage, but that would have been inconsistent with the racial narrative they’d already embraced.

It is time to start deracializing Ferguson. The media should present Officer Wilson’s side of the story and explain the law of self-defense.

If the local grand jury declines to indict Wilson, the Holder Justice Department should accept its decision and drop the civil-rights case against the officer.

Federal intervention is justified only when the local authorities are clearly biased and the investigative processes are not working properly. There is no evidence of either bias or coverup by the Missouri authorities — just as there was no evidence of bias in the shooting itself.

Meanwhile, Howard Kurtz commits a Kinsley-esque gaffe on the topic of Ferguson:

@howardkurtz @instapundit Question: why is there a “narrative,” rather than objective reporting, reserved judgment til facts are established

— GregEsq (@GregEsq) October 26, 2014

@GregEsq @instapundit Gee, @HowardKurtz, I think you just stepped in a large steaming pile of unironic irony, admitting what we all know.

— Joel Engel (@joelengel) October 26, 2014

Not to mention Comcast and NBC-owned MSNBC sending — or at a minimum permitting — Al Sharpton to Ferguson to fan the flames of hate there. Will Kurtz ask any questions about that?