“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

America should sit up and take notice that House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) is rejecting the chants to “defund the police” everybody now hears across the country, in the wake of the City Council of Minneapolis voting to dismantle its police department, on June 7th, to make way for a new model for public safety [whatever that means], while many others across the spectrum of America’s local, state and federal governments are joining the clamor, screaming “systemic racism”, and jumping aboard the Defund Train. The most extreme radicals of the nation, in the political arena and the media, are pushing the defund police agenda, in a manner that distracts from making any real reforms, and, due to a few bad police officers’ sins, whose actions have yet to be proven to be racially motivated, these same radicals would bring all America to ruin.

City mayors across America moving to “Defund the Police” won’t necessarily equate to “reform the police”. Mayor Bill DeBlasio intends to take $1 billion out of New York City’s $5.6 billion budget and give it to youth initiatives and social services. For all intent and purposes, it will result in fewer police on the street, or, in the case of Minneapolis, no city police on the street.

Heather MacDonald’s outstanding piece on June 2nd in the Wall Street Journal is a fine refutation of “systemic racism” in police departments across America, as I have previously noted in an article entitled ‘Racist America: The Big Lie‘, in which I write: “According to MacDonald, police shot 19 unarmed whites and nine unarmed blacks in 2019. If one can assume the number of black homicide victims in 2019 was approximately the same as the 7,407 seen in 2018, “those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represents 0.1% of all African-Americans in 2019.” And, upon closer inspection of the statistics, we also find that, although black people have a higher rate of contact with police than white people, whites are actually shot more often than blacks.

There wasn’t a single American with a conscience, who saw the video of George Floyd’s death, could not help but note the depraved indifference of Officer Derek Chauvin, as he brutalized him in a manner that was morally reprehensible, but despite any and all assumptions, there has yet been one shred of evidence brought to light that this was a racially motivated incident. It was just as likely to be the result of serving 19 years as a policeman in one of America’s ten most dangerous cities and the fact that Floyd was high on meth, fentanyl and THC that moved Chauvin to err on the side of caution and use more force than was necessary, or maybe he is a racist, or just a sadist.

America may never know the answer.

Now, we have a new furor over Atlanta police officer, Garrett Rolfe, shooting and killing Rayshard Brooks, on June 12th, after he violently resisted arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol, a crime that I’m certain Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, who have lost children to drunken drivers, are happy to see regularly and vigorously enforced. The extenuating circumstances surrounding this are quite different from what happened to Floyd, and as far as I’m concerned, Brooks would still be alive today, if only he hadn’t fought the police and had allowed himself to be arrested, or if he’d simply kept running and never threatened the policeman by aiming an incapacitating taser at him; but, he still didn’t deserve to die for being drunk and stupid.

I can also see where the police could have possibly let him “escape”, since they had his car with all his information. They could have simply waited and met him at his home.

Of course, it’s easy for me to sit here and say “woulda, coulda, shoulda”. One change in the sequence of events, either regarding the police actions or the actions of the suspects, in both the Floyd and Brooks cases, and both men might be alive today.

This is all something for the courts to decide, but neither of these cases, or even the few past cases, the exceptions, such as Eric Garner or Freddie Gray, should be held up as an excuse to start dismantling police departments everywhere, as many other Democrats currently want to do.

In my lifetime, I myself have witnessed a broad variety of police actions taken against petty and major crime alike, and I have known a large number of police officers, who, by and large, are good, decent and honorable men and women, willing to do what many cannot or will not, while too often placing their lives on the line. Dolan Gordon, my second cousin, was a Colorado State Trooper who was shot in the head and very nearly killed years ago, after he stopped to render assistance to what appeared to be a stranded motorist. And, on June 28th, 1988, my friend, David Mandrell, a detective with the Sumner County Sheriff’s Department was ambushed and shot in the back with a 30.06 rifle, by a teenager, while investigating cattle rustling near Westmoreland, Tennessee.

Police morale is down, as many policemen are reconsidering their career and thinking about leaving it, for many good reasons. They suffer greatly each year, as 2019 saw 48 police officers shot to death in the line of duty, many of them ambushed as they answered a call for help. And the recent riots have already claimed the lives of at least three police officers, while wounding and injuring upwards of 500 as the rate of ambushes increases.

Not every American, black or white, is a poor, abused victim of police brutality. And in fact, although they may too often arrive too late to save lives, depending on many factors, there are many cases that prove they do save lives every waking day.

However, the insane, mindless Democrats, ever ready to undermine and subvert the rule of law and the nation on the whole, are now uttering some of the most asinine statements, aligned with the “Defund the Police” movement, one would hope to never hear again. Julia Salazar, Democratic Socialist and New York state senator put it in perspective, as she observed: “To see legislators who aren’t even necessarily on the left supporting [defunding the police] … feels a little bit surreal.”

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) who represents part of Minneapolis stated: “The Minneapolis Police Department has proven themselves beyond reform. It’s time to disband them and reimagine public safety in Minneapolis.”

Tammy Morales, a socialist and a Seattle council member, dismissed concerns over the looting, wailing that “what I don’t want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn’t solve anything.”

And, although Nikole Hannah-Jones, reporter for the New York Times, asserted to CNN, that “Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence”, I’m certain all those store owners across the country who were beaten senseless while trying to defend their property would disagree. Let’s not forget that David Dorn, retired police captain, was murdered simply for standing between looters and their prizes, flat screen televisions.

Propagating the false narrative further, Minneapolis Representative Lisa Bender recently stated that the mere act of calling the police “comes from a place of privilege.” She added that, “For those of us for whom the system is working … step back and imagine what it would feel like to live in the reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.” Bender’s plea is bunk, and she clearly highlights that collectivism brings humanity to its lowest common denominator.

Bender is essentially advocating for wholesale anarchy. One must wonder if she’s never read Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies?

Black people doing the right thing call 911 everyday with the same good results as white people, given the police are able to respond in time and aren’t obstructed by BLM and Antifa rioters in the streets. Seattle is seeing a massive increase in crime in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone where the police are allowing themselves to be blocked, and it has resulted in response times tripling, as the raping, robbing and assaulting goes on full steam ahead.

America is being gas-lighted by the mainstream media, the Leftist Democrats and the communists of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, who are fundamentally, philosophically and antithetically opposed to law enforcement, and they have unfortunately convinced many Americans that such deaths at the hands of police, as discussed in this piece, are everyday occurrences for black people in America. They vigorously insist that systemic racism permeates all law enforcement and police departments. In reality, law enforcement has very little to do with black homicides, while the number of interactions between police and all blacks is driven by crime rates in any given area, rather than racism and bias. Out of the 492 homicides in Chicago, in 2019, only three involved police.

America must consider that without law enforcement America will not survive. Some sort of law enforcement has served and protected the people, since our beginning, and yes, there have always been a few bad apples within their ranks, very few. Moreover, out of forty million civilian encounters, less than 1.4% ever result in an arrest or an altercation, according to a 2011 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that convincingly suggests the vast majority of police officers are good and decent men and women, who took the job to help people no matter their race or religion or the color of their skin.

If this new model of defund the police succeeds, more than likely, county sheriff’s and state and federal police would move to fill the void, giving cities practically no say in “police” practices. But, just as easily, new forces unbound by the rule of law would replace traditional police, especially in heavy Democrat controlled areas, that would allow for the phenomenon we have already witnessed in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

“Defund the Police” ain’t justice, no way, no how.

The fine, honorable men and women who wear the Blue Uniforms in America are fighting a war at the side of America’s citizens who want order, calm and peace and the continuation of our system and traditional American way of life, to stem the tide of radicals who mean to transform America into a socialist hell-hole. With Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party House on the side of the radicals, seeking to bind the hands of police and handcuff justice forever, the deck is being stacked against America, in a way that will only ensure an exponential rise in all crime, more unrest and a great subversion of the nation on the whole. The innocent are being sacrificed to placate the mob.

And, in every mayor’s office, every Council chamber, every courtroom and District Attorney’s office across America today, our so-called leaders, some outstanding and some not so much, are choosing whether or not to stand with the men and women of the Thin Blue Line in this cultural war. This marks a critical juncture in American history that will determine whether order, the rule of law and civilization are upheld or throttled into submission by the ignorant madding masses and the mobs in the streets.

Pray we have time to change course. Pray for America.

June 16, 2020

~ The Author ~
Justin O. Smith has lived in Tennessee off and on most of his adult life, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1980, with a B.S. and a double major in International Relations and Cultural Geography – minors in Military Science and English, for what its worth. His real education started from that point on. Smith is a frequent contributor to the family of Kettle Moraine Publications.