Tuesday, August 12, 2014

"The Right’s Wrong Reaction to the Missouri Shooting"

“Justice,” Benjamin Franklin suggested, “will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” There is no virtue to playing judge, jury, and executioner before the facts are known. Nor is there anything to be achieved by turning a dispassionate process into a partisan game. No doubt, as in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, we will witness sects forming where they do not belong. Conservatives should resist indulging in this at all costs. But they should also resist appearing uninterested. By asking those who wish to talk about authority what they think about civil society instead, many among us are giving off the impression that there is no circumstance in which Franklin’s outrage is going to be forthcoming — however clear-cut the guilt might be. The question of who guards the guardians pertains now as keenly as it ever has. The Right’s answer should be “we do” — and we’re happy to hang them high if we know that they have transgressed.

6 comments:

smitty said...

This is the problem with so-called 'conservatives'...

-The completely failed and counterproductive war on *some* drugs

-The near-total shredding of the Bill of Rights due to drug war zeal

-The near-total corruption of the criminal justice system that feeds the Prison Industrial Complex, another perhaps unintended consequence of our second attempt at substance prohibition-the drug war

-ever increasing brutality and militarization of police

These are some of the critical subjects often disregarded by 'conservatives'...

I used to think of myself as one...until I realized that 'conservatives' do not appear to be conserving much that's worthwhile...

Paul X said...

"Nevertheless, presumption of innocence applies to men in uniform, too, and to pretend otherwise is to abandon those virtuous institutions that keep us civilized."

What a load of crap. Tell it to Shaneen Allen:
http://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf/2014/08/philadelphia_mom_who_legally_purchased_gun_in_pa_arrested_in_new_jersey_faces_3_years_in_prison.html

In fact, tell it to the 2.3 million Americans in the Gulag, far more per capita than even the worst dictatorships on Earth. Far from keeping us civilized, these are brutal, uncivilized institutions serving only the ruling class and its minions, the prison-industrial complex. These bastards should rot in Hell as far as I'm concerned.

Don't like to see rioting? Then get a leash on these institutions, and demonstrate that the playing field is level for all of us. But that will never happen, because justice is the last thing they are about. Laws are only for the peons.

Sean said...

There you have it. No matter what a person on the right says, they're wrong. Between the cop, and the way they are now, and the black kid, and the way THEY are now, some body is going to get shot. The looting and the arson are from people looking for an excuse to do just that, once they can blend in and get lost in a riot crowd. Black on black murder is a way to thin the herd, so that only the most ruthless prevail. Then it's time for a "polar bear" hunt, and unsuspecting whitey gets his. Here endeth the lesson. If the author of that column wants to know why whites bring up the subject of black on black murder, when the case was about something else, he should try reading between the lines, and deduce what is on peoples minds when they comment like that. They care not one whit that the cop shot the kid, but they know the end result will be that whitey will get the blame, and the fury. I think the term is called, Elephant in the Room.

Anonymous said...

Let the 70% (soon to be 99%) black St Louis suburb police itself. If the prevailing theory from the citizens there, is that the entire police force is an insidious element of corruption, then get rid of it. Zero out the #1 expense of every municipality. And lets hold hands, sing Kum-bae-yah, and watch peace and tranquility flourish.

Anonymous said...

Hey voters,
Let us not forget that the gun grabber, Chris Christie, is Governor of The Peoples Republic of New Jersey. Let's show him no respect when he runs for President. Besides anyone as obese as he is certainly does not have the self control and common sense to be President.

- Old Greybeard

Anonymous said...

Poor thing shot on the ground with his hands up on his way to church no less. You would think going to church is the most dangerous thing blacks can do.