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It’s appalling to see the number of Black Lives Matter lawn signs along the southern Maine coast. It’s as though these lily-white communities don’t have a clue as to what this self-proclaimed Marxist group is about.
Whether or not you buy into BLM jive, there is one thing most can agree on, argues Francis Menton. Policing in America needs reform.
The Manhattan Contrarian (TMC) has suggestions for police reform that includes ending (or at least reducing):
- no-knock raids
- militarization of the police (including with armored vehicles and other equipment provided by the feds)
- so-called “qualified immunity” from civil rights lawsuits
- excessive coercive tactics
By most any measure, the above reforms should have bipartisan support. Republican cooperation, however, is not needed. As TMC explains, “Some of these issues (e.g. police tactics) are the subjects of state and local law, and the identified problems are almost entirely an issue in fully Democrat-run jurisdictions.”
Using Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd’s death, as an example, Mr. Menton describes the makeup of that city’s leaders:
- Mayor Jacob Frey, progressive Democrat.
- 12 of 13 City Council Members, members of Democrat-Farmer-Labor party.
- City Council Member #13, member of the Green party.
Aside from advancing a plan to abolish the police, the City Council has not proposed any reforms to existing policing practices.
Michelle Gross from Communities United Against Police Brutality reports:
“They (City Council Members) really did miss the opportunity to create actual change. It’s almost as if changing the police is a bad word, and you’re supposed to be talking instead about getting rid of police.”
Democrats Goal: Millions of BLM Voters
It should be simple enough to take the overlapping provisions and enact them, especially if the Democrats’ end-goal is police reform, But Mr. Menton doesn’t think the Democrats’ end goal is police reform.
Consider the size of the BLM movement and the number of potential votes at stake. In July, The New York Times speculated that the Black Lives Matter movement “may be the largest movement in U.S. history,” and estimated that 16 – 26 million Americans had participated in demonstrations.
Deva Woodly, associate professor of politics at the New School, compared the modern protests to the civil rights movement of the 1960s saying: “if we added up all those protests during that period [of the 1960s], we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people, but not millions.”
Go to BLM’s website to see for yourself. The donate page of the patently left-leaning organization’s website is hosted by “Act Blue”, a fundraising tool designed for Democrats.
Policy Reforms vs. Votes
Democrat politicians want to keep and exploit these votes, offers Mr. Menton.
And, unfortunately, incremental policy reforms don’t seem to have a place in today’s polarized world. It’s much easier to drive voters to the polls with “all or nothing” zeal.
But as the months wear on, the BLM protests have become more violent and less centered on the issues. As protesters continue to destroy private property, many people who would probably have been in favor of policing reforms may now become advocates of law and order. We’re already seeing that happen in Minneapolis’s northside.
It’s looking more and more likely that Democrats will exhaust the power of their movement without either effecting meaningful change or getting themselves elected. If that’s the case, we can only hope that BLM supporters will ask themselves what they accomplished.
Learn more about BLM and the Marxist agenda to transform America in 2020 and burn the place down from Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul. And read about how many Americans have been duped by the BLM movement and its terrorist leaders.
