Category: Policing

What do regular folks think about police presence?

by · Jun 16, 2020 3:48 pm

Far too often, loud people identified as “activists” are treated as representatives, speaking for the people they claim to be concerned about. That is a major mistake. The activists typically have not been elected by anyone. The way to find out what the regular folks think is to ask them. If you can’t ask them all, ask a validly selected representative sample.

Listening to activists, one might think that the people living in certain communities, variously called “poor,” “disadvantaged,” “fragile,” or some other term, want a reduced police presence or even want to abolish the police altogether. As Bill noted earlier, this NYT op-ed by Mariame Kaba, identified as an “organizer,” called for exactly that.

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The Supposed Distinction Between Peaceful Protesters and Bomb Throwers

by · Jun 16, 2020 11:37 am

We have been repeatedly admonished to distinguish between peaceful protesters, on the one hand, and rioters and arsonists, on the other.  For many of those in the Defund movement, my guess is that that’s a fair and needed distinction.  But many isn’t everyone.  As we now hear from a leading voice on the Left, Nation magazine, violence and looting are not the mere occasional incident, or a few hotheads or opportunists taking advantage.  Violence is integral to achieving their aims.

The beans get spilled here:  In Defense of Destroying Property

 

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The World’s Most Intelligent Virus

by · Jun 15, 2020 3:03 pm

It’s not exactly news at this point that we are beset with a deadly (at least to older people) virus that spreads easily in crowds.  It’s for this reason that we now have enforced social distancing and are strongly encouraged to use face masks in public.

What wasn’t known until recently is that, remarkably, the virus can tell (1) if you want to visit grandma in the hospital or attend your kid’s high school graduation, in which case it will spread like crazy and you must keep your distance (or, frequently, stay home altogether); or (2) if you want to attend an anti-police rally or trash the local monument, in which case it will show Solidarity with the Cause and not spread one little bit!

National Review has the story Continue reading . . .

Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police

by · Jun 14, 2020 1:35 pm

The headline of this post is the title of a featured op-ed in the New York Times.  Unlike the Tom Cotton op-ed for which the Times apologized in a revealing act of genuflection to its far left editorial staff, I doubt there will be an apology for this one.  But very much like Sen. Cotton’s piece, this one tells the truth:  The Left in this country does not want “reforms” in policing, and only wants to pretend to want them until after the election.  Believe me  —  and more importantly, believe them:  What they want is abolition.  And if the Left-leaning politicians win in November, this is the sort of thing you can expect to see filling every Deputy Assistant Attorney General and every Deputy Assistant Secretary position of the dozens Washington has to offer.  It’s hard to imagine the catastrophe to public safety that will ensue. Continue reading . . .

Strong Majority of Americans Oppose Defunding the Police

by · Jun 13, 2020 7:35 pm

An ABC/Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans oppose defuding the police, while 34% approve it.  The story is here.  Interestingly, it also notes:

…Democrats stand as the lone faction among the political tribes that approve by a majority of defunding the police (55%) and redirecting it to mental health, housing and education programs (59%).  But Democrats are more divided in their support than Republicans and Independents are in their opposition, with 43% and 41% of Democrats opposing both defunding the police, and using the money for other purposes, respectively.

If I were Donald Trump’s campaign manager  —  which I surely am not  — this would give me a clue about what issues to stress.

News or Parody?

by · Jun 10, 2020 7:54 pm

It’s getting harder and harder to tell whether you’re reading the New York Times or the Onion.  I’m going to quote the opening paragraphs from an article about how the anti-police movement is reacting to TV cartoons about police dogs (not a typo) and ask readers to guess the source. Continue reading . . .

The Facts Matter

by · Jun 10, 2020 1:42 pm

For decades, the public has been admonished a dozen times a day by the media, liberal politicians and our betters in academia that government policy decisions they prefer are based upon evidence and data.  But what evidence and data are they talking about? Real science carefully reviews all the data.  Junk science supports a narrative.  Americans of all colors have been intentionally misinformed with regard to race relations, particularly when it comes to the police.  The the clarion call of liberal/progressives, race hustlers like Al Sharpton and a complicit major media is that racial bias was baked into the U.S. Constitution by the founding fathers and that 244 years later, every American institution remains systemically infused with bigotry.  In order to sustain this narrative, its adherents simply ignore the data.  In her remarks before the House Judiciary Committee today, Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald addressed that claim, highlighted by the tragic death of George Floyd, that systemic racism infects the police departments across America.

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Baltimore Residents Blame Record-High Murder Rate On Lower Police Presence

by · Jun 10, 2020 1:10 pm

The title of this post is the headline of an NPR piece (written two and a half years ago but unfortunately more timely than ever) discussing what people living in Baltimore’s inner city actually want from the police.  The answer NPR found can be summarized in one word:  More.

They don’t want abusive police, obviously, as no one would.  They want police who talk to them and respond to their needs both for respect and safety.   But the basic thing they want  —  notwithstanding what we hear from leftist think tanks and law professors who Live Somewhere Else  —  is more and more active policing. Continue reading . . .

Jason Riley Spills the Beans on Race, Policing, and the Media’s Pervasive Deceit

by · Jun 10, 2020 12:20 am

Jason Riley of the WSJ is one of the brightest and most honest observers of the real story with crime, race and policing.  His column today about Chicago’s murder crisis is short but devastating.  I repeat excerpts after the break, but the entire column is worth the read.  Here’s a sample:

The political left, with a great deal of assistance from the mainstream media, has convinced many Americans that George Floyd’s death in police custody is an everyday occurrence for black people in this country, and that racism permeates law enforcement. The reality is that the carnage we witness in Chicago is what’s typical, law enforcement has next to nothing to do with black homicides, and the number of interactions between police and low-income blacks is driven by crime rates, not bias. According to the Sun-Times, there were 492 homicides in Chicago last year, and only three of them involved police.

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