Remember when conservatives were against Obama’s tyrannical police state? Remember when the right wing hated the government and were afraid that the police where going to break down their door at any second and violate their civil liberties?
Of course you do, that was just from earlier today and every day since President Obama was elected in 2008.
But then why does it always seem that the right wing is all kinds of gung ho for the police to violently stomp on the civil rights of American citizens (as long as they’re not white)?
The most recent example of this is the (very long) string of stories concerning the police beating, shooting or threatening to shoot an unarmed black man. The media has latched on to this because it’s FINALLY caught the attention of the public at large. It’s not like black people being terrorized by the police is a new thing in the slightest but thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones and high definition security cameras, it’s become impossible to ignore.
Now, you’d think that the first people to line up to protest our growing police state would be the virulently anti-government right wing. But here’s where that raging hypocrisy and racism come into play. The fact is that conservatives are verycomfortable with police brutality, the rampant violation of civil rights and even murdering unarmed Americans as long as it’s being done to maintain white supremacy.
I’m just being ridiculous, right? Except that the default position of the right when an unarmed black male is beaten/shot/killed is that he must have had it coming. Nothing to see here! Stop victimizing the poor police, please!
This has never been more clear than after the shooting of Micheal Brown in Ferguson where every witness, including the police, say that Brown was running away when the officer first starting shooting at him. Doesn’t matter. The right went on a rampage to demonize Brown as a violent
A few days before that, John Crawford III was gunned down for casually wandering around a Walmart with a toy gun. The police gave him under two seconds to acknowledge their presence before shooting him. The reaction from the right? He shouldn’t have been walking around with a gun even though Ohio is an open carry state and it’s actually legal to walk around a Walmart with a gun.*
Three weeks ago, Levar Jones was following the orders of a police officer to produce his ID and was shot 4 times for doing so. He was lucky to survive the ordeal. It was all caught on video and it was clearly a massive overreaction by the cop (who, miracle of miracles, is being charged with aggravated assault). The right’s reply to this round of police violence? Meh. Whatever. At least they didn’t defend the cop for a change.
Two weeks ago, the police in Hammond, Indiana pulled over a black family for a seat belt violation and pulled a gun on the father in the driver seat when, complying with their orders, he tried to show the police his ID. After that, rightfully afraid for his life, Jamal Jones refused to get out of the car or even roll down the window. Mind you, he was the passenger and hadn’t actually done anything but, you know, he was a black man so who gives a crap about that?
The police eventually smashed the window, tased Jones in the car, dragged him out and handcuffed him. In front of his children. Jones never even raised his voice until he was screaming in pain. The right’s reaction? He should have obeyed the police and gotten out of the car even though it was entirely possible they were going to shoot him if he sneezed.
Oh, and in every instance, the right insists that race played no part in the brutality whatsoever. Because everyone knows about all those Open Carry white guys that were shot by the cops for walking around .
Wait, that never happens. Ever. Hell, the cops shot a black man in the back, repeatedly, because he had a sword on his back but there hasn’t been a single white guy with a gun on his back so much as drawn on by the police.
But, you know, the not-at-all-racist right wing wants us to believe that race has nothing to do with all of this police brutality that just happens to target the black community. Also, by the way, even though the right claims to despise the police state, can we just stop complaining about police brutality against blacks? Conservatives would really appreciate that, thanks.
The bottom line is that, in the same way conservatives love LOVE government hand outs unless it’s for black people, the hypocrisy and racism of the right wing dictates that police terrorism is just A-OK with them as long as it’s being used to oppress the black community and maintain the privileged status of white people in America. Once upon a time, the police were used explicitly maintain white supremacy. Now, this racism is so ingrained into law enforcement culture, it’s going to take a massive and sustained push back from the public to alter it.
But how can we ever change the racist culture of law enforcement when almost half of the country explicitly supports their ongoing terrorism against black people?
*After two full months, Open Carry finally got around to staging a protest over the shooting of Crawford. 40 people showed up. Better late than never?
~ by Justin Rosario
Webpage is here.
