VIOLENCE NEW FACE OF COUNTRY?
If many of America’s largest cities that have been led for decades by Democrats can’t get a handle on the violence occurring on their streets, how can a Democrat with the same worldview be trusted to lead the country?
It’s a fair question.
When the mayors of those cities should be trying to figure out the best ways for their public school students to be educated and making the most informed decisions on keeping citizens safe from a global pandemic, they seem either cowed, ineffectual or willing to be a party to the daily insurrections that destroy public and private property, put fear into the hearts of residents, and injure police and other innocent people.
Over the weekend in Chicago, more than 100 people were arrested following widespread looting and rioting, a toll that officials said caused at least $60 million in property damage and injured 13 police officers.
In Seattle Monday, the Black police chief resigned after that city’s governing council approved plans to slash the police budget and cut around 100 officers, a plan that cannot help but exacerbate the problem.
Early Sunday, in Washington, D.C., the nation’s single biggest mass shooting in 2020 occurred in a residential neighborhood, killing a teenager, severely wounding a police officer and injuring more nearly 20 others, more than half of them women.
In New York City, daylight shootings from May through July more than doubled in 2020 compared to 2019, jumping from 71 to 168.
On Sunday night in Portland, Oregon, 16 people were arrested after a riot in which protesters threw objects at police, including a large mortar that injured two officers.
In the latter city, of course, the violence had been predicted to end once federal police were withdrawn. Protesters said it. The city’s mayor said it. And the national media stood behind it. But it didn’t happen.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been largely silent on the violence, though helpful media outlets have been quick to point out he has said he is not for defunding police departments. He also is on record saying he would support moving some monies from law enforcement to social work agencies, but Republicans as well as Democrats have said that.
While he has remained largely ensconced in his Delaware home, unwilling to have a wide-ranging online news briefing, he has sent out supporters to tout the plans he has if elected. There’s a criminal justice plan and an economic plan and a specific “Lift Every Voice” plan for the Black community.
But plans are just that, and most of the time — for either party — they’re just grist to make the voting public believe there’s serious policy thought behind a campaign.
No, the best economic plan is a job, and that’s what the country had in record numbers before the COVID-19 virus caused the economy to be shut down in March. And it’s likely that had the virus not severely hamstrung the economy, the violence following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in late May never would have continued for so long.
But now it’s to the advantage of Biden, Democratic mayors and congressional Democrats that the violence continues. Indeed, whatever the issue of the moment — the virus, the economy or the violence — they just heap blame on President Donald Trump. He’s in office, and they’d like him out of office. It’s that simple.
Of course, the president’s tried to help by offering — even sending for a time — the help of various law enforcement agencies. But, no, the city leaders said, we don’t want your help.
So it might be nice to know the thoughts of the potential next president on the situation in heavily Democratic Chicago, where a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Chicago said, in part, that “the people will keep rising up until the [Chicago Police Department] is abolished and our Black communities are fully invested in.”
The looting, a Black Lives Matter organizer said, is tantamount to our “reparations.”
“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” said Ariel Atkins, according to NBC Chicago. “That makes sure that person has clothes. That is reparations. Anything that they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
It might be nice to know if Biden agrees with that, if each of the Black women he is considering selecting as a vice presidential nominee agrees with that and if congressional Democrats agree with that.
A time for choosing is coming soon. Americans will have to decide if an indifference to violence is the face they want for the future and, if so, what that says about who we are as a nation.