Systemic?

Since the rioting and protesting began after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers, we have expanded our vocabulary to include such terms as systemic racism, white privilege, all lives do not matter to everyone and defund the police. It has been reported that the consensus is that one’s skin color hinders the ability to escape the oppression exerted by those in power. In other words, everyone is out to get the black man and to keep him down and if escape is attempted the police will hunt them down and murder them. Facts are indeed the enemy of the left. If people understand the truth, they are much more difficult to deceive or to be led astray. When one misinterprets or fails to realize the objectives of various organizations or persons, they can be easily manipulated. If one takes the time to understand just what defines the talking points that the left, democrats and the mainstream media parrot, the truth begins to come into focus.

Systemic: Relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part. In other words, widespread practices that permeate entire systems, such as business, the criminal justice system and in general, economics.

Systemic racism: Racism resulting from the inherent biases and prejudices of the policies and practices of social and political organizations, groups, or institutions. It is the belief that the unfair targeting of persons of color has led to increased incarceration, lower wages and unfair practices in general society that disproportionally and negatively affects persons of color.

Institutional racism: This is a form of racism that is embedded as a normal practice within society or an organization. It is believed that it leads to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education, and pretty much everything else.

Reverse discrimination: The practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. An example of this would be the policy of affirmative action.

Respect: The act of having due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others. This is a simple and logical concept that is becoming increasingly underused in our society.

Society: The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community that has common laws and expectations of acceptable behavior.

Societal norms: Common standards within a social group regarding socially acceptable or appropriate behavior in particular social situations, the breach of which has social consequences. A prime example of societal norms is the respect of others and their property. To harm another, steal or damage their property would be considered aberrant behavior in civil society.

Crime: An action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. Crimes consists of misdemeanors and felonies, conviction thereof will likely result in incarceration.

Anarchy: A state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority. ie; Portland, Oregon where the Mayor and Common Council order police to stand-down and allow rioters to burn their city.

Antifa: is an anti-fascist political movement in the United States comprising a diverse array of autonomous groups that aim to achieve their objectives through the use of both non-violent and violent direct action rather than through policy reform. Antifa is not against facism, they are anarchists that engage in all sorts of violence and wanton destruction of property in an effort to destroy civil society.

Black Lives Matter: A Marxist organization that seeks to radically transform America into a socialist country. No, BLM is not a movement meant to seek justice for blacks that are wrongly targeted by police or society in general. Its’ first and only goal is to overthrow the system of government and destroy capitalism, and to replace it with socialism, the first step toward communism.

Legal authority: The ability of a participant in a legal relation to take certain actions or demand certain actions of another participant in this legal relation; this capability is provided for in the law. Police are granted the legal authority to detain and arrest, in effect taking away freedom, for those who choose to violate the law.

Police: The civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order. The police enforce the law and maintain public safety. Defunding of which would lead to far less public safety.

Acknowledging that any death that could have been avoided is tragic, one must keep the consequences of those regrettable events in perspective. According to a study conducted by Rafael Mangual, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in 2018 there were over 800,000 police officers in the US that engaged in over 10 million citizen contacts. Of those over 10 million contacts, less than 1,000 ended with deadly force, and .003% of those contacts ended in a deadly shooting. Over 91% of those deadly shootings involved a visibly armed suspect, certainly indicating that deadly force was likely justified in those shootings. The reason that a plane crash makes the news is because of the infrequency of plane crashes. The same goes for deadly police shootings. If this was such a common occurrence, it would not be newsworthy.

The study also indicated that the use of non-lethal force by police is also greatly exaggerated. Negative contacts with civilians consist of less than 3% of all interactions with the public. Arrests are made in only about 70% of that 3%. The greatest use of force by police in making an arrest is bodily force, which includes simply placing hands on the suspect, not just the use of less than lethal and not lethal force. Having served 30 years as a police officer in a Milwaukee, WI suburb, arrests of compliant individuals did not ever escalate into a use of force incident. Civilians that followed the lawful commands of police did not end up injured or shot. Civilians that were non-compliant or combative forced the police to escalate in order to effect the arrest.

Police have continued to train in de-escalation techniques that are constantly updated and improved. Police are trained to use minimal force, while keeping themselves and the public safe, and those techniques are formulated to have the most effect while keeping the risk of injury to the suspect minimized. Are police perfect? Of course not. Could police training be improved? Of course, anything can use improvements. One of the factors not receiving the appropriate notice is that more and more of the public are acting inappropriately when interacting with the police. In almost every instance of alleged police brutality is that the suspect refused to comply with police orders and resisted, causing an escalation of the incident. Take the most recent incident in Kenosha, WI. Jacob Blake refused to obey lawful orders to drop a weapon, attempted to flee by opening a car door and reaching into the floor area of an auto. Was there a gun under the seat? Was Blake going to use the knife against the officer? The lesson to be learned is that police have the authority to give orders to citizens and citizens are obligated to obey. Should the police be determined to have acted outside the scope of their authority in any arrest situation, the price of their misconduct will be paid in civil court.

Black Lives Matter and local activists have been organizing protests around the country decrying their perception that police unfairly target black males and claim that the United States applies a pattern of systemic racism targeting blacks. These protests have devolved into rioting and looting in cities across the nation. Professional sports, athletes, Hollywood, the mainstream media and many businesses virtue signal their support for an organization that has a primary goal of transforming our nation into a socialist society, which if realized, would necessarily bankrupt those very organizations that parrot their support of BLM. The facts simply do not meet the veracities of these claims. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King said, “The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

There are a myriad of issues surrounding why blacks perceive a lack of fairness in society. The claim that police unfairly target them is not one of them. Certainly, there are “bad apples” that wear the badge, but they are few and far between, identified and removed, especially if there is a pattern of behavior. Defunding the police is not only an absurd demand, it is dangerous on its face. With the increased civil disobedience and violence, there should be a move to increase our police force, not decrease it. Should the police be reformed? Training for police should continue to evolve and improve. New and better techniques should always be considered and implemented. The Thin Blue Line is the only thing between the public and anarchy. Eliminate the police and it truly becomes the Wild West when each and every citizen is responsible for providing for their own safety and security.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” Romans 13:1-4

In a Perfect World.....

In a perfect world there would be no disease, no hunger, no homelessness, no death, no left or right, no wars or conflicts of any kind, we would love and care for each other, but we do not live in a perfect world. Humanity is always looking for the next cure all for society’s ills. As much as we desire that this world would hold no malice toward any of God’s children, we are a broken humanity unable to use our vast knowledge and resources to perfect our earthly home. Although we think that we are at the peak of enlightenment, that humanity has this firm grasp on what ails us, we are not even close to being able to solve some of the simplest problems that we face. Of our own volition, we sputter about pointing blaming fingers at one another when we fail to resolve the myriad of issues that continue to plague us.

While COVID-19 may be the crisis of opportunity for some of us, our efforts to confront this invisible foe have failed miserably. The more data we gather about this novel coronavirus, the more we fail to adapt in the war against this hidden enemy. Granted, the initial response to an unknown disease, with lockdown orders made sense at the time, continued isolation has actually exacerbated the problem. Governor Cuomo of New York stated that more than 66% of the COVID-19 cases were people staying sheltered at home. He further stated that this made no sense to him and he could not understand how this could be. Renowned health expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci in a March interview, very cavalierly stated that wearing a face mask would not protect anyone from this disease. He has since done a 180 and face masks are now recommended and even being required at a growing number of businesses. Other studies show that wearing a face mask may actually increase your risk of infection by recirculating your breath and causing you to rebreathe contaminants.

Democrat leadership is exploiting our irrational fear, stoked by the mainstream media that delightfully provides the running death count, inserting leftist agenda policies into legislation intended to offer assistance to those harmed by the pandemic that may just be the first steps to fundamentally transform this great nation into a socialist state. Initially, the goal of these lockdowns was to “flatten the curve” so that there would not be a large spike in cases that could very well overwhelm our health care system. This plan was accepted by the vast majority of our population, even giving up their treasured Constitutional rights, if it meant giving our nation the ability to cope with this pandemic. What has become lost in the translation is that this strategy was never to eliminate the total infections or deaths, just to spread them out over a longer period and make the treatment and care of the infected manageable. Yes, this approach did not seek to reduce infection or death caused by COVID-19, just give us more time, but this plan has been altered to remain “safe at home” until a vaccine could be produced. SARS and MERS are coronavirus’ without a vaccine. The common cold is a coronavirus without a vaccine. Dr. Fauci has been working on a vaccine for HIV for 40 years without success. There may never be a vaccine developed and even if one is developed, it will not be 100% effective, vaccines never are. The seasonal flu shot is typically 40-60% effective.

We are faced with choices daily that place us in harm’s way. Deaths due to accidents approach 170,000 annually, with over 40,000 of those perishing in auto accidents. Drug overdoses kill over 70,000 people annually in the US. Almost 50,000 people took their own lives last year. In a perfect world, none of these things would happen. In a perfect world we would be safe, secure and happy in all we do. This world will never be perfect. No matter how hard we try, we can never make that a reality. But, there is one perfect place. There is one place where we never grow tired, old or die. There is one place where everyone delights in perfect love and we all can agree, even in our politics. That one place is not on this earth. That one place is prepared for all of God’s children, regardless of our differences. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” All of our questions are forever answered when we believe in God’s one true Son. All of our trials and troubles end with Him. All of our needs, wants and desires are forever granted if only we believe. There is nothing you can do to earn God’s love. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any less. We can’t perfect our world, but God offers perfection. Open your heart to the love that is eternal, unconditional and freely given. Open your heart to the one who died so that you can live, forever with our Father in heaven. Open your heart and be welcomed to the perfect, eternal life that your heart so aches to achieve.