Six weeks ago, a multiracial group of Minneapolis police officers killed a man named George Floyd. This set off a nationwide wave of rioting, looting, toppling of statues, calls to defund the police, the rebranding of Mount Rushmore as a monument to white supremacy because Trump gave a speech there, and, for some reason, white actors quitting their jobs voicing black characters on cartoon shows.
All sorts of crazy stuff has been happening in the name of #BlackLivesMatter. But what about black lives in Minneapolis, where all this chaos started? What’s going to happen to the people whose communities have been destroyed? What about the folks still living with the continuing violence, long after the national news cameras have moved on? Are the citizens on the front lines as eager to defund the police as the people who claim to represent those citizens?
Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield, WCCO in Minneapolis:
Lisa Clemons is a former officer and a peace activist with “A Mother’s Love.” She said to a crowd of reporters, “We cannot have bullets continue to fly in our community.”
A panel of African-American violence prevention advocates held what they call an emergency news conference to speak against the city council’s push to dismantle the police department.
“It is time to stand up in this city, it is time to tell the city council that utopia is a bunch of B.S. We are not in Mayberry RFD, we are in the wild wild west. And it is time for some answers,” Clemons said.
The problem with social justice experiments is that the subjects of the experiments aren’t consulted. They’re just expected to be grateful. It’s easy to tweet #DefundThePolice. It’s easy to look into a webcam from your Georgetown condo and advocate dismantling police departments around the country. It’s not so easy to live in a neighborhood that really needs the police right now.
In that news segment, you saw Clemons talking to Minneapolis City Councilwoman Andrea Jenkins, who has been calling to defund the police. A few weeks ago, Jenkins and some other members of the city council started getting private security to the tune of $4,500 per day, on the city’s dime. They’re fine with people like Lisa Clemons being helpless victims of criminals, as long as they’re kept safe. They have no plans to defund their own police.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The only thing worse than cops is no cops. I’m all for police reform, and what those cops did to George Floyd was wrong and they need to face justice for it. Bad cops are not above the law. The solution isn’t to get rid of the police altogether, or to make it impossible for them to do their jobs.
We’re seeing the results of that right now, every night, in places like Portland, Oregon:
This is what antifa rioters have been systemically doing to the security cameras in downtown. They climb up and use weapons to destroy them. @MultCoSO is asking for help in identifying this vandal: pic.twitter.com/Q6QX6EtL1A
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 8, 2020
And it’s a painful lesson they’re learning in Atlanta:
All over the country, we’re seeing the consequences of this “Defund the Police” insanity. When you allow this kind of chaos, it only spreads. Innocent people get hurt and killed.
Kudos to Lisa Clemons, and everybody else who isn’t waiting for elected representatives to do something to help them. Your leaders don’t have to live where you live. They don’t have to walk down your streets. They say they want to help you, but when their policies backfire and you’re the one suffering the consequences, they’re nowhere to be found. They’re protected by armed men as they leave you to fend for yourself.
Then they want to take away your guns!
You don’t owe them anything, least of all your respect. Keep reminding them that they work for you, not the other way around.
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