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Well, the polls are in: “Across all racial and ethnic groups, people want more, not less, police presence in their neighborhoods.” They also want political leaders who “get” this, Charles Lipson reports in Spectator.US.
Bored This Summer?
Here are a couple of useful chants should you decide to take a break from COVID lockdown and join a protest movement:
“Kill a Cop/Save a life.”
“All Cops Are Bastards!” (Or try the melodious abbreviated version: “ACAB”).
“In several cities, protesters have burned police precincts and thrown Molotov cocktails at police vehicles,” Francis Menton outlines in the Manhattan Contrarian.
In Portland, police reported that protesters pelted them with “fireworks and flaming trash.” Also in Portland, three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded when rioters pointed lasers in their eyes. The evidence suggests that large numbers of protesters do, very much, want to entirely eliminate the police departments in their cities.
Meanwhile, other people are taking advantage of diminished law enforcement presence to loot private businesses. In Chicago, for example, there have been many episodes of looting on Michigan Avenue. As the Manhattan Contrarian previously reported, BLM activists have openly supported the lootings.
WBEZ, NPR’s news source in Chicago, also interviewed BLM activist Ariel Atkins. “What do you think about Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s comments [condemning] the looting?” WBEZ asked.
Ariel Atkins Defends the Looting:
Ariel Atkins, an organizer of the Chicago chapter of BLM, responded to WBEZ:
“That’s reparations. That is reparations. Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance. They’re going to get their money back. My people aren’t getting anything.”
What Happens When Private Businesses Go Missing?
Kim Klacik, the Republican congressional candidate from Baltimore, Kim Klacik, has an answer.
In other cities, continues Mr. Menton, answers to that question are starting to unfold.
Lockdowns have all but eliminated the restaurants, arts, and culture that make city life worth living. The absence of civil society and the addition of protests and looting have exposed the dangers of living in densely populated areas. Shootings are way up in cities like Chicago and New York. This Monday, the Chicago Sun Times reported that Chicago had had 66 shootings over the weekend, and three of those injured were teenagers.
On August 17, the Portland police department reported that dozens of calls for help were going unanswered as their police force remained under siege. Many calls placed were in response to the protests taking place, such as vandalism and theft, but several also included help for violation of restraining orders and harassment. Since the pandemic, Chicago Police reported a spike in the number of domestic violence calls for service. With city police departments otherwise occupied, how many calls for help are currently going unanswered?
Private Security Guards to Combat Crime?
One of Francis Menton’s neighbors in Queens sent him an article from their local newspaper. The Sunnyside Post reported that residents of the adjacent Long Island City neighborhood “were hiring private security guards to combat crime on the Hunters Point Waterfront.”
“What do you think of this?” asked Mr. Menton’s neighbor. Mr. Menton is completely open to the idea of privatized security, he says, but he also can plainly see the vacuum that would be left in the absence of public, tax-payer funded law enforcement.
Affluent citizens that have the resources to pay for both their taxes and private services will have access to free-market solutions when the public option fails them. I would not be surprised to see expansion of private security in many areas of New York City, to protect fancy department stores, office buildings, and wealthy individuals.
In a way, this is actually very similar to public school closures, in the sense that many more poor children will be left behind by those closures than their affluent counterparts, whose parents will fill in the gaps in their education with private tutoring.
Radicals Exacerbating Inequality
If protesters receive their wish to abolish the police, the people most affected will be those we consider to be the most vulnerable in our society: low income families, particularly women and children, and minorities. That is, it will be the people who cannot afford another option. It is no exaggeration to say that we are currently watching the radical left destroy the lives of the people it claims to advocate for — exacerbating inequality in the process.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it best when she said she has the right to make sure her home is secure. We all do. Let’s make that the goal.
