Slowdown

Richard Koritz
Posted 4/28/21

Slowdown

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Slowdown

Posted

Political and social movements sometimes simply get ahead of their goal, which may ultimately destroy them and their goal. Black Lives Matter might be in that posture today.

The goal of BLM appears to have the American public give more credence and value to Black youth whose lives have been marginalized. Especially those who have been harmed by law enforcement via unwarranted police violence. The goal on its surface sounds great. It is the application that creates the failure. As a nation we have condemned unwarranted police brutality. The key word is “unwarranted”.

If the police respond to a crime scene  and the offender shoots at them, the police will probably respond in a brutal fashion by returning the gunfire. The offender may be killed by the police. The action is brutal and totally warranted. In reverse fashion if the police respond to a shoplifting case and the offender simply makes a benign movement , there is no justification, for the offender to be harmed by the police. The facts of the situation determine what is warranted. This is what the American legal system is designed to address in a courtroom, not on the streets in a riot.

At this moment in history, we seem to be advocating for mob rule and not the rule of law. Even President Biden suggested the jury in the Chauvin case needed to render the right verdict. Congresswoman Maxine Waters even said if Chauvin was acquitted the public would have to confront the police in the streets. Those remarks only incite turmoil and riots.  Even the liberal mayor of Portland is now on record saying the protestors in his city have gone too far and need to be restrained.

BLM purports to want to save Black lives. Unfortunately, BLM may in fact be endangering those it wants to support. Valid protest marches quite often devolve into riots. Mobs take on an identity of their own and I have yet to see a mob that wants to discuss the facts of its aggrievement. The only thing a mob wants is vengeance, which is simply not justice.

Whenever emotion controls facts, turmoil will ensue. Cooler heads need to prevail and open a dialogue with all concerned. Race should have no place in how an officer responds to a situation. In like fashion, those who protest an officer shooting need to look at the totality of the situation. That is lacking today. A review of the back stories reveals the offender often escalated the situation and the officer responded to the escalation.

Our system of jurisprudence does a pretty good job, but it is rarely fast. Riots tend to be fast but, do a horrible job of resolving the problem at hand. The system does work if we only slow down and let it do its job.