Time Magazine published an excellent article by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about the kerfuffle going on in New York city over two policemen who were murdered. The NY police are blaming the deaths on the people who are protesting against several high profile cases of police racism. They are also accusing the mayor of NYC and even Obama for the deaths.
Here’s just one short quote from the article. I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Police are not under attack, institutionalized racism is. Trying to remove sexually abusive priests is not an attack on Catholicism, nor is removing ineffective teachers an attack on education. Bad apples, bad training, and bad officials who blindly protect them, are the enemy. And any institution worth saving should want to eliminate them, too.
The point is, just because you protest about the actions of one (or even a small number) of policemen, doesn’t mean you are against the police. In fact, members of the NY police have certainly been guilty of other crimes.
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While I agree n part, there are other elements of these protests that are not being addressed and should.
When a crowd of protesters is chanting;
What do we want, dead cops.
When do we want it, now.
To not address these protesters is to do the same thing Mr. Abdul-Jabbar complains about in those trying to paint all the protesters the same. If Big Al and people like Mr. Abdul-Jabbar would show up at those protests ad tell them to stop, both would be much more credible.
Yes, we need to address racism, but we also need to address some real social issues simultaneously. To not do so is hypocrisy.
Oh and Merry Christmas to those who partake in that persuasion.
Happy holidays to those that partake in others.
A small minority of people protesting for equal justice call for violence against the police force. A small minority of police rely on violence as a primary tool, especially against persons of color. If we could only get both of these groups and put them on a deserted island somewhere and let them fight it out to their heart’s content, the rest of us will be much better off.
Amen IL-08
IK, thanks so much for posting this. Both the Time excerpt and your own link were valuable restorers of perspective.
I’ve been thinking to myself while watching the appeals for protests to end while the two dead policemen are unburied, “Why are dead policemen more important than dead schoolchildren?” Nobody asked the world to stop while the Sandy Hook kids were above ground, e.g.
And why is the standard explanation of “lone madman acting in a vacuum” not acceptable when the lone madman kills cops instead of kids?
PS, Sergeant — I regret not bookmarking the piece, but I just read that Fox has admitted they created the “dead cops” audio via editing.
If you read the article by Abdul-Jabbar, he makes it clear that he is not taking sides. After all, both his father and his grandfather were policemen and he has a lot of respect for the job. His point is against the “if you aren’t completely with us, then you are against us” mentality, which I find completely inexcusable in a public servant.
Yes, I’m sure that some of the protesters are saying stupid things, but there are also reports that Fox News is changing audio tracks on video of protests to make it sound like protesters are saying “kill a cop”. See http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch-fox-caught-editing-peaceful-protest-chant-to-sound-like-kill-a-cop/
If the Fox thing is true, they should lose their broadcast license.
wildwood, Murdock took a court case all the way to the Supreme Court to ensure their right to not tell the truth was preserved. I doubt that they will miss a bit of sleep over at fox news over this, just another day with business as usual. The sad thing is with their record anybody takes anything they have to say as anything but propaganda.