We truly live in interesting times. And not in a good way.
On the one hand, there’s no limit to what most of us want government to do. More money for health care; more money for college education; more grants for “green” businesses; more money for free cell phones, food stamps, on and on and on. Big Government and massive government spending (for everything but defense) has never been more fashionable. The price tag ($20 trillion debt and counting) has never been higher.
On the other hand, we don’t like police. We’re becoming libertarians to the point of anarchists when it comes to police. Particularly when a police officer is white, we have to take it for granted that officer is in the wrong. Our president supports Black Lives Matter, an organization who singles out law enforcement people by race and treats them as villains. It’s the Ku Klux Klan, only in reverse. It’s just as wrong.
What happened in Dallas last night—the slaughter of five police officers—represents the attitude of our president and the majority of Americans taken to a logical extreme. If you start making race the central factor, then this is what you get.
“We’re hurting,” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown in a Friday morning news conference. “Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken. There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city. All I know is this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”
Who fosters the divisiveness between police and citizens? Racists like Black Lives Matter and Barack Obama. The civil rights establishment, who makes a living at stirring up divisiveness between whites and blacks, police and citizens.
I heard a caller on a radio show say this morning, “Imagine if the NRA came out for the murder of black police officers, or began to complain that all black or Hispanic police officers had it in for white people?” The rage would be deafening, and Attorney General Lynch would probably send in the FBI to shut the NRA down. I’m not proposing we do that with Black Lives Matter when they’re speaking. But why won’t anyone call these racists what they are? And why does the president of the United States endorse such thugs?
I am the first one to say government must operate only at the consent of the governed. The police are not absolute. But in many ways, the police are just the messengers. If we don’t like the things police are doing, we have to take a look at the laws which we are asking the police to enforce – laws against victimless crimes like drug use or drug trade, for example. Police should not be involved in these matters. Their tasks should be limited to catching purse snatchers, rapists and murderers. Stop blaming the police for the fact we have asked our government—federal and local—to do all kinds of things it has no business doing!
The trends in America are not good. We keep demanding that government does more and more. On the other hand, the police—the most basic and front-line supporters innocent people have against real threats like murder, theft, rape and the initiation of violence—are the ones under the greatest moral and physical attack today. It’s truly madness.
What’s wrong with you, America? Black Lives Matter may represent the violent, extreme fringe. But fringes set the course for the rest of government and society. Everything, right now, is pointed in exactly the wrong direction.
Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Rehoboth Beach DE). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1