Sunday, July 10, 2016

Permissible Generalizations, Part II

Obama referred to the murderer of the five Dallas police officers as a "demented individual." That individual had said that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. When asked if that attack might be considered a "hate crime," Obama opined "it's very hard to interpret the motives of this shooter, as we have seen in a host of mass shootings." Very hard? He said he wanted to kill white cops. How is it "very hard" to figure out his motives? He wanted to kill white cops. He said so.

Obama continued in his feigned confusion regarding the shooter's motives: "What triggers that, what feeds it, what sets it off, I'll leave that to psychologists and people who study these kinds of incidents." Obama then compared the Dallas shooter to the young white man who shot and killed parishioners in their church: "we don't assume that somehow he's making a political statement that's relevant to the attitudes of the rest of America." But that's exactly what happened. Because that murderer was seen in an online post with a Confederate flag, much of the country (especially the left) jumped to the conclusion that any reference to the Confederacy motivated whites to kill blacks.

Recall that the Confederate flag was not only banned from flying on government buildings (which I had no problem with) but also dropped from retail outlets. Schools named after Robert E. Lee scrambled to change their names. Why the uproar? Because of a generalization that equated anything to do with the Confederate States of America with motivating whites to kill blacks. That was, of course, nonsense.

Obama: "And we shouldn't make those assumptions around a troubled Muslim individual (in Orlando) who is acting on their own in that same way." There you have it. No generalizations may be made about radical Islam - a phrase Obama refuses to utter. It matters not that these Muslim terrorists shout "Allahu Akbar," or say that they are killing in the name of Islam. No, each radical Islamic attack is carried out by a "troubled" individual "acting on their own." All of the thousands of terrorist attacks around the world can be attributed to "troubled" individuals "acting on their own." It is strictly coincidental that there are so many of these perpetrators who all happen to be Muslim.

So, Obama claims that no generalizations can be made about Islamic terror. He says no generalizations may be made about the white man shooting blacks in their church (although the left had no problem doing just that). No generalization may be made about a black man killing white cops. But there is one generalization that Obama feels confident about making: our police departments and criminal justice system are populated by a bunch of racists. Again, "these are not isolated incidents." These are not troubled officers acting on their own. That description is reserved for Muslim terrorists.

When asked what his legacy might be with regards to race relations, Obama said that he "tried to get all of us Americans to understand the difficult legacy of race...to recognize that the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination didn't suddenly vanish with the passage of the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act, or the election of Barack Obama..."

No right thinking person can think that slavery was anything but abhorrent. Every right thinking American acknowledges that some still hold racist attitudes. That includes blacks, such as the black shooter of the Dallas police officers, who said he wanted to kill whites. I disagree with the proposition put forth by some on the left that only whites can be racists. But if Obama wants to make generalizations, he should do so about his community - the black community.

He should be concerned about all the blacks killed mostly by other blacks; 263 blacks killed in Chicago alone so far this year. If blacks are committing most of those murders, he should be willing to make the generalization and ask what is going on in the black community, in black families. There are far too many single black moms. Boys and young men need a father. A father sets limits, teaches self-discipline. And a father teaches values. Here's a thought. I believe Obama could do far more good by giving uplifting speeches, instead of speeches that attack the police. One place to start would be talking about values. And a good place to start talking about values would be with the Ten Commandments. Look at the July 4th post, and you will see that our Founders were religious men; men who understood that the foundation of our democracy would have to be based on religious and moral values. We see what happens when that is lacking.

Permissible Generalizations, Part I

It has been a difficult week for our country. A black man, Alton Sterling, was killed by police in Louisiana. Another black man, Philando Castile, was killed by a police officer in Minnesota. Then, five police officers (Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa) were murdered and another seven wounded in an ambush in Dallas, Texas. There is no doubt that race relations have worsened during the term of our first black President. It behooves us to see if his words help or hurt.

As a reminder, President Obama has not been particularly helpful with regards to race relations in the past. He jumped to conclusions with regards to the arrest of black Professor Gates by calling the Cambridge Police officers stupid, before knowing any of the facts. He told us that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon (Martin), which was totally unrelated to whether George Zimmerman acted legally or not. It was found he did act legally. Obama immediately dispatched the DOJ to Ferguson, Missouri after the police killing of Michael Brown, essentially condemning the entire Ferguson Police Department.

Now, with the sad and unfortunate killings of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile, Obama said this: "These are not isolated incidents...They're symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system." Is that a helpful generalization? Would it not be more helpful to say that he looks forward to a complete investigation of all shootings by local and state authorities; and, if necessary, he will ask the DOJ to investigate. Would it not be better to say that when anyone is stopped by the police they should comply with officers' orders. Doesn't Obama's comment essentially say that the entire criminal justice system is biased against blacks? It is untrue; and how is that possibly helpful?

Disappointingly, the Democratic Governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, was no better in his comments. Said Dayton: "Would this have happened if the passengers, the drivers were white? I don't think it would have." Thank you, Governor, for essentially claiming that all police officers are racist. Democrats like Obama and Dayton are doing nothing other than pandering to part of their political base, blacks. They are not trying to be unifying voices, and they are not helping matters by saying police and the criminal justice system are against blacks.

The New York Times editorial board was also quick to attack the police. In their 7/9/16 editorial, they state that the murderer of the five Dallas police officers committed his crime to "avenge the "innocent" deaths of black citizens in police encounters elsewhere." I'm confused. Does "innocent" deaths mean that the police acted wrongfully? Don't we need to know all the facts first, before making that generalization?

The Times also told us in their 7/8/16 editorial that police have now killed 123 blacks in the US this year. What generalization are we supposed to make from that single statistic? Here's a statistic: 509 people have been killed by police this year. 238 were white. 79 were Hispanic. The rest were unknown/other. 484 of those killed were male, only 25 were female. Clearly, the police are unjustly targeting males. Or, maybe, females are far less likely to commit crimes, and far more likely to comply with orders from police. Just maybe.

Here are some more statistics. In the first half of this year alone, in the single city of Chicago, 263 blacks have been murdered. We can extrapolate from past statistics that most of the murderers were also black. The NY Daily News reported on 11/19/13 that from January through June, 2013, blacks made up 63.8% of murder victims in Chicago; and blacks made up 70% of the perpetrators. Another site provided similar statistics for the year 2011 - blacks were 75.3% of the murder victims and 71.3% of the perpetrators. What generalization can Obama make from those numbers? None, because he would rather not discuss it.