Over and over again, the narrative is the same. A person is engaged in an activity that runs contra to municipal laws, the police are called, and that person ends up dead. In some instances, such as Philando Castile, an individual is shot while engaging in an innocent activity such as removing his wallet from his pocket. The officer who shot Castile reacted because Castile was reaching for his wallet as he was telling him that he was licensed to conceal and carry. What came out was “I have a gun” and so, Castile was shot almost immediately.
A lesser known incident involved Kelly Thomas in 2011. Thomas was a homeless man who was beaten to death over a period of nine minutes while he begged for his life. Reports indicate that Thomas cried out for his Dad and repeatedly told the officers “I am sorry. I am trying to comply.” Thomas died five days after the beating which had completely caved in his face and head.
What is there to say about these incidents? Should Americans be angry with somebody? Should they be angry with police, or should they be angry with people who refuse to follow the law? Should Americans fault white people or black people? Should they just ignore it and hope it fades away? What if I were to tell you this were your fault? You do claim it is your government. I can say with confidence this problem is not a white problem nor is it a black problem. It is the result of runaway local and state governments with their highly authoritarian local laws, flawed police training and public schools inculcating minorities with victimhood propaganda.
Those who have had lives and families destroyed should be angry with the city and state governments that both create the massive codex of unnecessary and petulant laws that plague our communities. The same governments hire inordinately high numbers of police to enforce what are often very authoritarian and petulant laws. These same government entities that claim to represent YOU derive much of their revenue from these ridiculous municipal statutes. Considering this, is it not the government who is to blame for Philando Castile, Kelly Thomas and Eric Garner?
Let us take it one step further. American society as a whole has raised minority children in a public school system that for some time now has inundated students with the cultural message of “victimhood." As we all know, the American public school system is run by and paid for by the government. Minority children, in these government schools, have repeatedly been told they are unable to get ahead in the world because of a system of white oppression. Have people of color ever been oppressed by white people, the answer is yes? Are there racist white people? Of course, just as every racial group in America has a contingent of racists. The problem here, however, is that minority children are learning through public education that each negative event for them is, first and foremost, white oppression. These are the ingredients for an explosive mixture.
It is very simple how government, A.K.A. the State created this problem. Municipal laws are passed for a variety of reasons ranging from revenue generation for the city, protecting businesses in commercially zoned areas, encouraging new business, protecting citizens, and limiting the presence of “eye sores” such as the chronically homeless and poor. These laws continue to pile up in the city code and negatively affect communities. If one were to think seriously about the issue, then you will realize that laws bring police into contact with citizens. Minor offenses such as jaywalking, speeding, smoking near a park, smoking within fifty feet of a public entrance, panhandling, soliciting without a license, hitchhiking, assembling without a permit, proper disposal of mattresses and the list goes on and on. Crossing paths with the long arm of the law is inevitable, and that goes double for heavily urban environments.
In particular, permitting and licensing harms poor people because it demands fees which a person who is living on 20 to 30 dollars a day cannot afford. What is the point? Minorities suffer from a greater poverty rate than white Americans do. Some argue it is white oppression, and others argue dependence on government welfare programs, but it remains a fact that poverty among minorities is a pervasive factor. A large police force, coupled with these massive piles of municipal regulations means that minorities, and in particular black people are going to come into contact far more often than the average middle-class person.
Eric Garner is the perfect example of this point. In his case, an ordinance restricting the ability of street vendors to sell goods within 50 feet of a storefront even on a public sidewalk brought him into intimate contact with law enforcement. For Kelly Thomas, vagrancy, loitering, and other anti-homeless laws restricted his ability to move within the city limits. These laws brought Kelly into direct contact with law enforcement. In both cases relatively minor violations turned out to be a death sentence. At any rate, the type of training that Law Enforcement receives appears to be flawed.
Police are trained to behave as though they are an occupying force in another country such as Afghanistan or Iraq. The mindset is that they are surrounded by enemies and must take zero chances. In other words, assume everybody is your enemy, and kill the enemy first before he can kill you. An aggressive, authoritarian stance is improper when dealing with individuals who are guilty of minor crimes such as speeding or smoking near a park. These type of laws should be tied to more peaceful methods of collections such as the refusal to grant city permits or services but never a visit by the police ready to commit violence against the offender. Time and again minor violations of city ordinances have resulted in injuries, incarceration, or death. It is incredible that an American citizen is 55 times more likely to die at the hands of a police officer than a terrorist attack. The number of people killed every year by police ignores how many are injured or disabled during encounters. A great many of these deaths are not violent perpetrators and are to the tune of 928 human beings on average annually, and that number does not include unjustifiable homicides. Many are minor offenders like Kelly Thomas or Eric Garner. To be fair, it is estimated that some 70 percent of those killed were justified which means that of the 1158 people killed by police in 2015 some 330 were unjustified. These are just deaths, however, and just to mention it again do not count people injured, or maimed.
The questions our society should be asking, is “how did we get here?” Obviously, a system which continues to place ordinances on the books, many which are petulant, and harm poor people the most, is a real problem. It is a problem because the more laws there are on the books, the more excuses law enforcement has to make contact with individuals. Police only have two tools at their disposal. Violence and incarceration (government sanctioned kidnapping). Coupled with training which teaches police to meet all challenges with their authority with swift and overwhelming violence increases the likelihood of injury or death. The more contact the police have with people, the more likely the chance that violence will be used by the police to resolve an issue. Black people and other minorities are inordinately poor in the United States. An ever expanding base of municipal laws which restrict movement of the homeless, restrict the ability to earn a living, and are petulant in general, disproportionately affect the poor. It means they are more likely to come into contact with police on a regular basis and thus increase the likelihood of being subjected to violence by the police. Minority children raised in government public schools are learning that white society is the issue, and racism nearly always causes negative outcomes in black society. In turn, the results are anger towards police as the agents of the oppressor. Minorities then feel justified in fighting back against what they see as a gross injustice, and which they have been told for many years exists by the very same people who hire and train the police. It is, to use a cliché, a self-perpetuating problem.
It is obvious that the problem in our society between black communities and police lay at the feet of the government. It is its fault for putting so many unneeded and idiotic laws on the books in our communities. It is also government's fault for supporting the style of aggressive training for the security officers hired within those communities which train a police officer to shoot in even the smallest doubt, or it is okay to use excessive force when dealing with people guilty of minor infractions. It is also government's fault for allowing the public schools in our communities to do more than just educating children about prejudice and bigotry. The government is guilty of radicalizing them and convincing them society is their enemy from day one. Every one of these three problems is a government problem that seems to contradict its stated purpose, and contradict the statements of people in government positions.
It is up to communities to end overly aggressive training for police and to remove the learning materials and educators who teach our children the mindset of victimhood. More importantly, stop over legislating and creating laws which turn harmless, victimless, activities into crimes and bring police into contact with people unnecessarily. The unnecessary violence both against peaceful citizens and the police who provide law enforcement in the thousands of communities all over the United States are a direct result of intrusive government. You can ignore the State, but you do so at your risk because it will not ignore you. Take Philando Castile and Kelly Thomas as examples if you think different. It would seem that Leviathan is the source of most of these problems and because of this cannot be the resolution. It is the promulgator of a culture of victimhood and at the same time the victimizer.
