“Ideas have consequences,” someone once famously said.
And so it happened that race riots have struck, again, in 2015, in Baltimore:
I try to imagine what a Martin observer, looking on, would think.
The Martian would observe, over the past few years, the steady promotion of a certain idea in respectable halls of opinion in the USA. The idea is that there exists a darkly sinister yet enormous conspiracy to oppress Blacks, up to and including murdering innocents in large numbers, and, further, to let the murderous (White) police off scot-free.
Many regular people believe this vicious slander (and others pretend to, for certain personal or political reasons). The Martian would see people in the highest levels of government promoting this idea, more-or-less explicitly. People from the most prestigious and tone-setting positions in the national media (say, the New York Times Editorial Board), too, the Martian would see constantly pushing the idea.
The Martian would be baffled. Why would top officials in a government promote ideas that undermine the authority of their own police, and more generally undermine the entire system they lead, that they control? He would conclude that such a bizarre system cannot be sustainable.
Another baffling thing for the Martian: The authorities do not assert authority. Police were ordered, it seems, to withdraw during the rioting and allow a certain amount of destruction without interference. No one wanted to order any assertive police action. Think of the headlines! “Peaceful Protestors Killed by Police”.
And so hundreds of buildings and vehicles were destroyed, who-knows-how-many-millions’-worth looted, and the loss of prestige as the entire world sees another U.S. race riot.
“Community organizers” from the Nation of Islam and New Black Panther Party and others have been showing up. One such “community organizer” is Deray McKesson (formerly the “Senior Director of Human Capital with Minneapolis Public Schools”). He was interviewed on CNN. The host kept asking him to condemn the violence of the people he was partly leading. He refused, saying variants of this from hisTwitter: “Property damage is not violence, it is property damage. Violence is when people are hurt, injured, harmed. The police have been violent.” (In fact, two dozen police were hospitalized with injuries from brick-throwing rioters. The police’s steady-retreat tactics will have reduced their casualties).
Another Black activist interviewed on TV said (something close to) “People in our community are angry. And just wait until we don’t have a Black president anymore, then things will get worse.”
What the Martian would think upon hearing this, I won’t even begin to guess.
The proverbial Martian parachutes in! What does the Martian see? Not much I dare say. Certainly not much in context. Well nothing happens in a vacuum. Not much is sparked in an instant. Here is a little context: Since 2011 $6 Million has been paid out in Baltimore for police misconduct; 30+% unemployment; double poverty rate with similar urban areas; abysmal high school graduation rates. Clearly the place needs some help. The police are the only government they even see! And the police are not equipped to solve the endemic problems of education and jobs and hopelessness. The only time attention showered on areas of extreme hopelessness are when, periodically, the place blows up with rioters. No the Martian does not see roots or context or failed government policy. Only the fires and spilled blood. Yes they are violent rioters and must be stopped — pulling back is not the solution, tanks, dogs, full riot gear are not the solution either. How about diverting some of the $3 Trillion spent on rehabilitating Afghanistan, et al on inner city urban. Just a thought.