I see where Gov. Rick Perry is being indicted for abuse of power.
I wonder how those same people feel about Obama?
This is dangerous territory they’re opening up.
They know not what they do.
Chas, The Travis County (Austin) District Attorney is always a big Democrat. Our Legislature probably needs to turn Austin into a penal colony or deport its current residents to Boston or San Francisco.
“Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) isn’t backing down after being indicted by a grand jury.
Not long after news of the indictment broke Friday evening, Perry’s office released a statement maintaining his innocence and declaring he “will ultimately prevail.”
“The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution,” said Mary Anne Wiley, Perry’s general counsel. “We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”
“A Travis County grand jury Friday indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two charges related to his effort last year to force District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her drunken driving arrest.
Grand jurors charged Perry, 64, with abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public servant, a third-degree felony. The first charge carries a punishment of 5-99 years and a fine of up to $10,000. The second charge is punishable by 2-10 years and a fine of up to $10,000.
The indictment stems from Perry’s threat last summer to withhold $7.5 million in state money from Lehmberg’s office unless she step down – a threat he later carried out by vetoing an appropriation in the state budget.
Mary Anne Wiley, General Counsel for Perry, said in a statement following the indictment: “The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution. We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”
___________________________________________
And finally, let’s go to the video that caused this revenge prosecution shall we? 🙂
This is why he sought to replace her. County Dems were worried he might appoint a Republican so they alleged he overstepped. It seems pretty apparent the Gov. was justified in seeking her removal from such a position of power.
Like most of the 47% of Americans who pay income tax, I have chosen to live in a safe neighborhood located some distance from our criminal element. However, I have great sympathy for those law abiding Americans who must live (and work) in the midst of the criminals. I have nothing but admiration for the police who try to protect the law abiding citizens who live in our urban jungles.
One might think that the Ferguson cop who did the shooting is toast, that his life and career are ruined. However, in 2014 he may have one card to play. It is just possible that the 290 lb. robber uttered a “gay slur” immediately before being shot. In such case, the cop’s actions will be considered to be completely justified by all politically correct persons.
Via Drudge:
As exclusively reported by Breitbart London last week, Muhammed has been crowned Britain’s most popular boys name in figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) today. The name of the Muslim prophet beat Oliver as the most popular boys name chosen by parents in Britain in 2013.
There are no “politically correct” positions when it comes to the police.
The rabble hate them first. Nothing else matters.
When Reverends Sharpton and Jackson enter the scene, you have nothing but chaos. They mean it that way.
Chas, I am afraid you are right. In America today, black still trumps almost everything. Generally, “gay” trumps black, but there well may be an exception for the police.
“Gay” doesn’t have an aggressive element.
Not yet.
By that, I mean there is no element that promotes rabble rousing. Remember, if there were no Tawana Brawley, there would be no Rev. Al Sharpton.
Our “biggest problem” may or may not be fools like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but *A* problem is bad cops. When people in power abuse their positions, that’s bad. We so-called conservatives/libertarians, of all people, should recognize this danger.
Chas, “Gays” are aggressive in a different ways. Instead of rioting and looting, they try to ruin the careers of executives, entertainers and business owners who oppose their agenda of promoting perversion to everyone, especially the young.
SolarP, I would agree that there are some bad cops. I would put that down as about the 999th most serious problem in our country.
Chas, My wife just reminded me. The Fort Worth “gays” (who are a small group) got in a big fight with our local police who had arrested several of them for misbehavior at a bar. They proceeded to stage a series of protests that would have made Jesse Jackson proud.
Several years ago I concluded that our 19th century criminal justice system was far superior to our current model. Unfortunately, our old time Sheriffs and Texas Rangers wouldn’t last long in today’s permissive culture.
Ricky – The problem is that many innocent people are being harassed or harmed by police these days, especially when they go in with SWAT tactics. What Solarpancake & I are referring to isn’t merely a case of cops being rough with criminals, but too often with innocent citizens, too.
As I said the other day, I was raised a law & order conservative, like yourself, & have been one most of my adult life. But lately, there have been too many stories of police officers over-stepping their bounds, acting like ordinary citizens are the enemy. I don’t know why this has been happening, but there has been some shift in attitude. I still very much respect the police, & I think most cops are decent people, but I also recognize there is a growing problem.
(On a related note, I’ve lost count of how many family dogs have been shot to death, even those behind fences.)
Looters should be stopped (but “shot”?? I don’t think so). Lots of people begin to simply take advantage of the social unraveling in these cases and it becomes an “opportunity” for some people to just go grab a new TV. Pathetic.
This is a tough situation — I still say it sounds like what the officer did was unjustified, so I certainly get it that people are upset and angry. Barring a better explanation than we have so far of the events, this seems like a really bad shooting.
Eventually the social chaos will subside. I’ll admit that it’s disheartening to see that there is still this level of racially-based unrest in our nation. The young reporter I sit next to at work is biracial (and is from MO), she says the idea that racial conflict is behind us as a nation is simply not true. And I know she’s probably right though sometimes we’d like to think it’s all in the past.
Our own fallen human natures will ensure that racial prejudice will always be among us, although I will say we’ve come a long way from the days when racial discrimination was actually institutionalized in our laws as recently as the 1960s.
Normally I’d say also that our election of the country’s first black president was a huge step forward in race relations as well. I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime and that aspect of the ’08 election was, indeed, cause to celebrate.
But sadly I’m beginning to fear that with our growing political division, it has almost exacerbated and renewed feelings in some quarters of a racial divide. 😦 😦 But maybe it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back. These changes in attitude don’t happen overnight.
If you shot a few looters, the looting would stop.
The most basic function of any government is the protection of the lives and property of its citizens. When jurisdictions (Detroit, St Louis, Guatemala, Haiti, etc) demonstrate that they can not or will not protect the lives and property of their citizens, you see a mass exodus from such places. Law enforcement must always try to strike a balance between being too harsh or too lenient. Our “anything goes” culture is only critical of officers who are “too harsh”. No one interviews or speaks for the shipowners who lost everything because the police were cowed into inaction while looters continued to rampage.
I’m thinking RickyWeaver is just not getting what Karen O and I and others are trying to depict as regards behavior of certain cops. He keeps talking about a different issue. No problem. We all have causes we’re committed to, and can have a tendency to interpret everything through *that cause’s* lens. But sometimes people walk and chew gum at the same time.
SolarP, I get what you are saying. However, I believe the problem of “bad cops” is an insignificant problem, like bullying or global warming. In my adult life I have received several third-hand reports of cops behaving badly. They all were from parents of the “citizen-victim” and they all fell into two categories:
1. The citizen-victim was completely undisciplined by his parents. He constantly got into trouble at school, but according to the parents it was always the teacher’s fault or the coach’s fault. Surprise! Surprise! When their angel grew up, he got into trouble with the police, but according to the parents, it was the officer’s fault.
2. The citizen-victim was drunk or drugged at the time of the incident. Therefore, the parent couldn’t be sure what actually happened since the citizen-victim was too addled to remember. However, the parent was certain it was the officer’s fault.
Several of the cases qualified under both categories.
For those of you who want to “stop” looters, but not shoot them, how would you suggest that a 53-person police force stop a group of several hundred looters? How should law enforcement have “stopped” the thousands of looters that rampaged in Watts in 1965 or in Detroit in 1967 or in LA after the Rodney King verdict?
RickyWeaver, respectfully, reports that you have received in your adult life may not necessarily be reflective of all reality. I take it you did not peruse the site I linked earlier. There is no shortage of reports, many with accompanying video, of abusive cops far overstepping their bounds (one such instance being the infamous Rodney King incident) or of them acting impulsively and doing harm to an *innocent* citizen. Your lack of acknowledgement even that this charge has been put forward is why I’d guessed you don’t get what we’re saying.
I would think the gist of the complaint would be understandable, though, to someone who often (rightly) voices suspicion of government–it’s dangerous for people in positions of authority to abuse their power, and cops are no different than politicians in that regard. Likewise, I would think you’d go about answering the riot problem differently that you seem to propose by shooting people. It’s liberals who look at some desired outcome and think, “To hell with the means, we just care about the ends.”
Concerning Karen’s dog comment, I believe the problem of vicious dogs is much more serious than the problem of bad cops. I am constantly hearing about postmen or innocent children who have been mauled by vicious dogs.
It would be interesting to see what other factors are involved. For instance, if we looked at income level, education level, etc., what would we find?
Here are some good observations from a Facebook friend, David N (a Libertarian), commenting on a post of mine. (The actual topic was the use of the term “white privilege”, but this is pertinent here, too.)
“Blacks use pot at the same proportion as whites, more than 9 times more likely to go to prison for it. And white people generally don’t care since it’s not affecting people they know.
“Most incarcerated people are incarcerated for drugs, and most of those for pot possession. We have a higher percentage of our population in prison than any other nation, including China and more than the former Soviet Union kept in prison in their day.
“So, since such a very large percentage of those in prison are in prison for pot possession, and black pot users are 9 times more likely to be imprisoned, a great many of those people are prison, as a practical matter, for being black. …
“…As far as whether race is the over-arching factor of existence, immigrants from West Africa, or the Carribean, are generally darker, but earn a higher average income than whites, on average. So the discrimination that exists is less important than whatever it is that black immigrants have.
“People’s starting point has much more to do with other things than race, like one’s parents’ education, their incomes and wealth, etc., once those are taken into account, there’s not a whole lot left for race.”
Ricky – I understand your point about vicious dogs. The stories I’ve read have been about family dogs that barked at the cops (sometimes from within a fence) or romped up to greet them, being shot dead. I understand that, in the case of a dog romping up to the officer, that officer doesn’t know whether or not the dog is friendly or vicious. What I have read suggests there be some sort of training about how to deal with dogs without using lethal force, unless absolutely necessary.
My own dog would probably run up & jump on an officer, to make friends.
“Even in this instance it has venal, but not racist, explanation. People fear drugs, so they want to crack down on drugs, so they vote for harsh drug laws. The police know that they’ll lose their jobs if they arrest the children of the elite, and they know that if they arrest the children of white trash, they will figure out that the law is being applied unequally, so they go to the “bad” (euphemism for “black”) part of town and make their arrests.
“No one is doing it for racial reasons. But it results in a racial outcome. But there’s no “privilege” in the stupid arrests of huge numbers of black kids. It turns them into criminals, makes them difficult to get jobs as ex-cons, drives up taxes, it helps no one. It impoverishes all of us.”
BTW, David agreed with me that the term “white privilege” shuts down conversation on the matter of racial inequalities rather than fostering it.
Reading more on that Facebook post thread, I see that David later said his initial stat of blacks being 9 times more likely to be arrested for pot possession was too high, but they are still several times more likely to be arrested for it.
Karen, If you read pgs 11-12 of the report, he adjusts for income level. Set aside drug arrests. If you read the article you will see that there are huge differences between the races in the number of violent crimes committed. This is something that is never discussed in the media or public policy debates. Until the black underclass stops committing a vastly disproportionate share of violent crimes, all other Americans will continue to spend a great deal of their wealth to insure that they and their families have minimal contact with that black underclass.
This is how drug enforcement works. The cops don’t go after users. They go after dealers. The sale of illegal drugs is one of the major businesses in poor black areas. Tens of thousands of black kids (as young as 10 or 11) are used by older black pushers (often relatives) to sell drugs. The spoiled rich white kids generally come into the black areas to buy their drugs. White drug pushers in high schools are often selling prescription drugs out of their mothers’ medicine cabinets.
SolarP, I don’t think the police in the Rodney King incident were guilty of any crimes. They were dealing with a large drug-crazed maniac who was refusing to follow their instructions. The miscarriage of justice in that case is that the police were subject to double jeopardy and convicted of federal charges after they were acquitted in the state case involving the same event.
I am concerned that libertarians (who I generally agree with) are showing an anarchist streak. Attacking local police is one example. Making a hero out of the free-loading Nevada rancher is another.
Well we can all watch the Rodney King tape and reach our own conclusions, I suppose. Yes, they were dealing with a large drug-crazed guy, etc. We all know that.
I didn’t give much of a hoot about the Nevada guy.
Anyway, I re-extend the invitation to actually research a little, and repeat the concern about innocent people being harmed by cops who, in turn, are often unjustly absolved of wrongdoing by their employer. Or not. You don’t have to look into it, of course. But thankfully, that info is out there in abundance.
Wandering Views 
I see where Gov. Rick Perry is being indicted for abuse of power.
I wonder how those same people feel about Obama?
This is dangerous territory they’re opening up.
They know not what they do.
LikeLike
Chas, The Travis County (Austin) District Attorney is always a big Democrat. Our Legislature probably needs to turn Austin into a penal colony or deport its current residents to Boston or San Francisco.
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Chas, and Donna from last night,
Legitimate indictment? Or taking out a GOP contender for 2016? These charges are questionable, big time….
Here come the links….
http://www.businessinsider.com/rick-perry-indictment-response-2014-8
“Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) isn’t backing down after being indicted by a grand jury.
Not long after news of the indictment broke Friday evening, Perry’s office released a statement maintaining his innocence and declaring he “will ultimately prevail.”
“The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution,” said Mary Anne Wiley, Perry’s general counsel. “We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”
_______________________________________
http://m.statesman.com/news/news/rick-perry-indicted-for-lehmberg-veto-threat/ng3zF/
“A Travis County grand jury Friday indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two charges related to his effort last year to force District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her drunken driving arrest.
Grand jurors charged Perry, 64, with abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public servant, a third-degree felony. The first charge carries a punishment of 5-99 years and a fine of up to $10,000. The second charge is punishable by 2-10 years and a fine of up to $10,000.
The indictment stems from Perry’s threat last summer to withhold $7.5 million in state money from Lehmberg’s office unless she step down – a threat he later carried out by vetoing an appropriation in the state budget.
Mary Anne Wiley, General Counsel for Perry, said in a statement following the indictment: “The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution. We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”
___________________________________________
And finally, let’s go to the video that caused this revenge prosecution shall we? 🙂
This is why he sought to replace her. County Dems were worried he might appoint a Republican so they alleged he overstepped. It seems pretty apparent the Gov. was justified in seeking her removal from such a position of power.
And here’s the dash cam of the arrest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JrxsCH_p1oc
Smells like a political hit job to me.
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As I noted yesterday, our biggest problem is not police brutality, but that our police are cowed by Sharpton, Jackson, Obama, et al.
Like most of the 47% of Americans who pay income tax, I have chosen to live in a safe neighborhood located some distance from our criminal element. However, I have great sympathy for those law abiding Americans who must live (and work) in the midst of the criminals. I have nothing but admiration for the police who try to protect the law abiding citizens who live in our urban jungles.
LikeLike
One might think that the Ferguson cop who did the shooting is toast, that his life and career are ruined. However, in 2014 he may have one card to play. It is just possible that the 290 lb. robber uttered a “gay slur” immediately before being shot. In such case, the cop’s actions will be considered to be completely justified by all politically correct persons.
LikeLike
Via Drudge:
As exclusively reported by Breitbart London last week, Muhammed has been crowned Britain’s most popular boys name in figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) today. The name of the Muslim prophet beat Oliver as the most popular boys name chosen by parents in Britain in 2013.
LikeLike
There are no “politically correct” positions when it comes to the police.
The rabble hate them first. Nothing else matters.
When Reverends Sharpton and Jackson enter the scene, you have nothing but chaos. They mean it that way.
LikeLike
Chas, I am afraid you are right. In America today, black still trumps almost everything. Generally, “gay” trumps black, but there well may be an exception for the police.
LikeLike
“Gay” doesn’t have an aggressive element.
Not yet.
By that, I mean there is no element that promotes rabble rousing. Remember, if there were no Tawana Brawley, there would be no Rev. Al Sharpton.
LikeLike
Our “biggest problem” may or may not be fools like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but *A* problem is bad cops. When people in power abuse their positions, that’s bad. We so-called conservatives/libertarians, of all people, should recognize this danger.
LikeLike
Chas, “Gays” are aggressive in a different ways. Instead of rioting and looting, they try to ruin the careers of executives, entertainers and business owners who oppose their agenda of promoting perversion to everyone, especially the young.
SolarP, I would agree that there are some bad cops. I would put that down as about the 999th most serious problem in our country.
LikeLike
Chas, My wife just reminded me. The Fort Worth “gays” (who are a small group) got in a big fight with our local police who had arrested several of them for misbehavior at a bar. They proceeded to stage a series of protests that would have made Jesse Jackson proud.
Several years ago I concluded that our 19th century criminal justice system was far superior to our current model. Unfortunately, our old time Sheriffs and Texas Rangers wouldn’t last long in today’s permissive culture.
LikeLike
I would echo the question in this headline:
http://thenavigatoronline.com/2014/08/16/black-ferguson-resident-why-didnt-they-shoot-those-looters/#.U-_0AjK9KK0
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Ricky – The problem is that many innocent people are being harassed or harmed by police these days, especially when they go in with SWAT tactics. What Solarpancake & I are referring to isn’t merely a case of cops being rough with criminals, but too often with innocent citizens, too.
As I said the other day, I was raised a law & order conservative, like yourself, & have been one most of my adult life. But lately, there have been too many stories of police officers over-stepping their bounds, acting like ordinary citizens are the enemy. I don’t know why this has been happening, but there has been some shift in attitude. I still very much respect the police, & I think most cops are decent people, but I also recognize there is a growing problem.
(On a related note, I’ve lost count of how many family dogs have been shot to death, even those behind fences.)
LikeLike
Looters should be stopped (but “shot”?? I don’t think so). Lots of people begin to simply take advantage of the social unraveling in these cases and it becomes an “opportunity” for some people to just go grab a new TV. Pathetic.
This is a tough situation — I still say it sounds like what the officer did was unjustified, so I certainly get it that people are upset and angry. Barring a better explanation than we have so far of the events, this seems like a really bad shooting.
Eventually the social chaos will subside. I’ll admit that it’s disheartening to see that there is still this level of racially-based unrest in our nation. The young reporter I sit next to at work is biracial (and is from MO), she says the idea that racial conflict is behind us as a nation is simply not true. And I know she’s probably right though sometimes we’d like to think it’s all in the past.
Our own fallen human natures will ensure that racial prejudice will always be among us, although I will say we’ve come a long way from the days when racial discrimination was actually institutionalized in our laws as recently as the 1960s.
Normally I’d say also that our election of the country’s first black president was a huge step forward in race relations as well. I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime and that aspect of the ’08 election was, indeed, cause to celebrate.
But sadly I’m beginning to fear that with our growing political division, it has almost exacerbated and renewed feelings in some quarters of a racial divide. 😦 😦 But maybe it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back. These changes in attitude don’t happen overnight.
LikeLike
If you shot a few looters, the looting would stop.
The most basic function of any government is the protection of the lives and property of its citizens. When jurisdictions (Detroit, St Louis, Guatemala, Haiti, etc) demonstrate that they can not or will not protect the lives and property of their citizens, you see a mass exodus from such places. Law enforcement must always try to strike a balance between being too harsh or too lenient. Our “anything goes” culture is only critical of officers who are “too harsh”. No one interviews or speaks for the shipowners who lost everything because the police were cowed into inaction while looters continued to rampage.
LikeLike
I’m thinking RickyWeaver is just not getting what Karen O and I and others are trying to depict as regards behavior of certain cops. He keeps talking about a different issue. No problem. We all have causes we’re committed to, and can have a tendency to interpret everything through *that cause’s* lens. But sometimes people walk and chew gum at the same time.
LikeLike
And shooting looters would be a ridiculous offense.
LikeLike
SolarP, I get what you are saying. However, I believe the problem of “bad cops” is an insignificant problem, like bullying or global warming. In my adult life I have received several third-hand reports of cops behaving badly. They all were from parents of the “citizen-victim” and they all fell into two categories:
1. The citizen-victim was completely undisciplined by his parents. He constantly got into trouble at school, but according to the parents it was always the teacher’s fault or the coach’s fault. Surprise! Surprise! When their angel grew up, he got into trouble with the police, but according to the parents, it was the officer’s fault.
2. The citizen-victim was drunk or drugged at the time of the incident. Therefore, the parent couldn’t be sure what actually happened since the citizen-victim was too addled to remember. However, the parent was certain it was the officer’s fault.
Several of the cases qualified under both categories.
LikeLike
For those of you who want to “stop” looters, but not shoot them, how would you suggest that a 53-person police force stop a group of several hundred looters? How should law enforcement have “stopped” the thousands of looters that rampaged in Watts in 1965 or in Detroit in 1967 or in LA after the Rodney King verdict?
LikeLike
This is an interesting booklet that sets forth the real problem facing our criminal justice system. Don’t look for these facts on NBC or CNN.
http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.html
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RickyWeaver, respectfully, reports that you have received in your adult life may not necessarily be reflective of all reality. I take it you did not peruse the site I linked earlier. There is no shortage of reports, many with accompanying video, of abusive cops far overstepping their bounds (one such instance being the infamous Rodney King incident) or of them acting impulsively and doing harm to an *innocent* citizen. Your lack of acknowledgement even that this charge has been put forward is why I’d guessed you don’t get what we’re saying.
I would think the gist of the complaint would be understandable, though, to someone who often (rightly) voices suspicion of government–it’s dangerous for people in positions of authority to abuse their power, and cops are no different than politicians in that regard. Likewise, I would think you’d go about answering the riot problem differently that you seem to propose by shooting people. It’s liberals who look at some desired outcome and think, “To hell with the means, we just care about the ends.”
LikeLike
Concerning Karen’s dog comment, I believe the problem of vicious dogs is much more serious than the problem of bad cops. I am constantly hearing about postmen or innocent children who have been mauled by vicious dogs.
LikeLike
Re: Ricky’s link.
It would be interesting to see what other factors are involved. For instance, if we looked at income level, education level, etc., what would we find?
Here are some good observations from a Facebook friend, David N (a Libertarian), commenting on a post of mine. (The actual topic was the use of the term “white privilege”, but this is pertinent here, too.)
“Blacks use pot at the same proportion as whites, more than 9 times more likely to go to prison for it. And white people generally don’t care since it’s not affecting people they know.
“Most incarcerated people are incarcerated for drugs, and most of those for pot possession. We have a higher percentage of our population in prison than any other nation, including China and more than the former Soviet Union kept in prison in their day.
“So, since such a very large percentage of those in prison are in prison for pot possession, and black pot users are 9 times more likely to be imprisoned, a great many of those people are prison, as a practical matter, for being black. …
“…As far as whether race is the over-arching factor of existence, immigrants from West Africa, or the Carribean, are generally darker, but earn a higher average income than whites, on average. So the discrimination that exists is less important than whatever it is that black immigrants have.
“People’s starting point has much more to do with other things than race, like one’s parents’ education, their incomes and wealth, etc., once those are taken into account, there’s not a whole lot left for race.”
LikeLike
Ricky – I understand your point about vicious dogs. The stories I’ve read have been about family dogs that barked at the cops (sometimes from within a fence) or romped up to greet them, being shot dead. I understand that, in the case of a dog romping up to the officer, that officer doesn’t know whether or not the dog is friendly or vicious. What I have read suggests there be some sort of training about how to deal with dogs without using lethal force, unless absolutely necessary.
My own dog would probably run up & jump on an officer, to make friends.
LikeLike
More from my Facebook friend, David…
“Even in this instance it has venal, but not racist, explanation. People fear drugs, so they want to crack down on drugs, so they vote for harsh drug laws. The police know that they’ll lose their jobs if they arrest the children of the elite, and they know that if they arrest the children of white trash, they will figure out that the law is being applied unequally, so they go to the “bad” (euphemism for “black”) part of town and make their arrests.
“No one is doing it for racial reasons. But it results in a racial outcome. But there’s no “privilege” in the stupid arrests of huge numbers of black kids. It turns them into criminals, makes them difficult to get jobs as ex-cons, drives up taxes, it helps no one. It impoverishes all of us.”
BTW, David agreed with me that the term “white privilege” shuts down conversation on the matter of racial inequalities rather than fostering it.
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Reading more on that Facebook post thread, I see that David later said his initial stat of blacks being 9 times more likely to be arrested for pot possession was too high, but they are still several times more likely to be arrested for it.
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Karen, If you read pgs 11-12 of the report, he adjusts for income level. Set aside drug arrests. If you read the article you will see that there are huge differences between the races in the number of violent crimes committed. This is something that is never discussed in the media or public policy debates. Until the black underclass stops committing a vastly disproportionate share of violent crimes, all other Americans will continue to spend a great deal of their wealth to insure that they and their families have minimal contact with that black underclass.
I was just teasing you about the dogs.:-)
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This is how drug enforcement works. The cops don’t go after users. They go after dealers. The sale of illegal drugs is one of the major businesses in poor black areas. Tens of thousands of black kids (as young as 10 or 11) are used by older black pushers (often relatives) to sell drugs. The spoiled rich white kids generally come into the black areas to buy their drugs. White drug pushers in high schools are often selling prescription drugs out of their mothers’ medicine cabinets.
LikeLike
SolarP, I don’t think the police in the Rodney King incident were guilty of any crimes. They were dealing with a large drug-crazed maniac who was refusing to follow their instructions. The miscarriage of justice in that case is that the police were subject to double jeopardy and convicted of federal charges after they were acquitted in the state case involving the same event.
I am concerned that libertarians (who I generally agree with) are showing an anarchist streak. Attacking local police is one example. Making a hero out of the free-loading Nevada rancher is another.
LikeLike
Well we can all watch the Rodney King tape and reach our own conclusions, I suppose. Yes, they were dealing with a large drug-crazed guy, etc. We all know that.
I didn’t give much of a hoot about the Nevada guy.
Anyway, I re-extend the invitation to actually research a little, and repeat the concern about innocent people being harmed by cops who, in turn, are often unjustly absolved of wrongdoing by their employer. Or not. You don’t have to look into it, of course. But thankfully, that info is out there in abundance.
LikeLike