Eating The Seed Corn
By Mitch Berg
A long-time friend of this blog writes:
I do have sympathy for the BLM grievances, truly. But their goals are very undefined, nebulous, etc. It’s sad. It is a tragedy about the young man killed by the police. I don’t know the facts but it is still a tragedy for all who are involved.
I purposefully walked through the tunnel from the HennCo Govt Center to Mpls City Hall this morning. There is no evidence of the large protest there yesterday. The graffiti on Wings Financial was not in evidence. The main lobby of City Hall did not look worse for wear. I am pleased for the protesters not doing permanent damage to get their point across, that was very good of them. The clean up crews also did a good job.That same night [an acquaintance], a white, middle-aged woman left our building unaccompanied as usual. The bulding is very near City Hall. Some man leaving the protest walked up to her and started screaming “BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLACK LIVES MATTER!” She is a very experienced urbanite and just ignored him but he followed her screaming some more. She was not particularly frightened by the whole incident, felt a bit threatened and will be sure to pay attention to more “protests” in order to plan her route to evade them. The moral of this story is that all the BLM energy simply made a person who might be sympathetic to their cause into a person who sees them as complete idiots to be avoided.
The BLM group though reminds me of the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight.” I mean they go to protest at Elsie’s in NE Mpls (a fine place) because they heard a “police” function was happening there. But lo and behold it was a holiday fundraiser for HennCo Sheriff Stanek (I had an invite but was unable to attend). Dumb, dumb, dumb. Plus the even was over by the time they got there. Wrong event, wrong time. This is BLM’s problem. They have some legitimate gripes. They have a totally ineffective response.
And here’s the real radical idea (emphasis added):
Maybe they should do something REALLY radical and start showing up, putting forth candidates, and finding support at the REPUBLICAN caucuses! Guaranteed, they will very quickly find real meaningful results coming their way. Either the Dems will get so scared, they will actually start doing something or they will find a very welcoming group at the GOP who will also be falling over backwards to assist.
Just a thought.
That would, of course, shake things up. A lot.
Of course, it won’t be BLM pushing that. Black Lives matter is funded by liberals with deep pockets, almost entirely with a goal of trying to keep the African American vote jazzed up during a Democrat campaign season where the black voter will be asked to choose among a bunch of geriatric white people.
Qua BLM, it may not be working – but then that’s not the point.
December 10th, 2015 at 1:19 pm
In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates makes it very clear that the Black struggle is opposed to democratic institutions. When you are a member of what you believe to be a minority, oppressed, racially and culturally separate ‘nation within a nation’ you have to work against democracy. Democracy puts your fate in the hands of the hated majority.
The goals of BLM are not hard to discern. They want federal oversight of the day-to-day activities if urban police forces. They want every Black person arrested to have a lawyer provided by the federal JD. They want this because the federal government is immune from the influence of the majority of urban residents and taxpayers.
December 10th, 2015 at 1:24 pm
I think it’s important that we, when we get the chance, point out that probably the greatest achievement of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s is that all races, blacks included, now have the right to fair interaction with the judicial system. On the flip side, my impression of a great portion of BLM is that they’re trying to overturn unfavorable court rulings.
In other words, roll back the clock to the 1960s in terms of how the court system addresses citizens, just with another group of victims. No, thank you. Hire all the detectives and lawyers you want to get body cameras on officers and see if the “thin blue line” really is exonerating the guilty. Work to get rid of corrupt or incompetent prosecutors. I’m great with that.
But leave court decisions alone and keep them away from the mobs.
December 10th, 2015 at 1:29 pm
“They want federal oversight of the day-to-day activities of urban police forces. “
BLM is a stalking horse – what the left craves is a National Police Force to replace all the local police (city, county, state) forces. They could call it the Secret State Police or something like that.
December 10th, 2015 at 1:59 pm
In other words, roll back the clock to the 1960s in terms of how the court system addresses citizens, just with another group of victims.
To Black nationalists, one-person-one-vote is a guarantee of oppression.
December 10th, 2015 at 8:10 pm
Instead of offering solutions, the BLM movement has become part of the problem.
December 11th, 2015 at 5:51 pm
Lunchbox, public defenders are already a right for any accused. What I did hear reported, however, is that BLM finally came up with an actionable demand – free college for any black person. Yep, something for nothing. How does THAT make you feel?