Mad World???

Pandemic, economic crises and now violent rioting in the streets across our nation  ... We seem to have hit the trifecta for national unrest and disunity, and just in time for an impending election no less?  Coincidence?  Well, personally, I don't happen to believe in coincidence.  Usually, you follow the money which sad to say often goes hand-in-hand with political power and opportunism, often much to the detriment of the "We the People."

Motive and origin stories aside, the facts on hand are these:  A man, a Black life, is needlessly dead at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Another tragedy, one in the line of many over the past several years and one that should NOT have happened; for this tragedy could have prevented with strong leadership and a unwavering commitment to weeding out individuals who have been shown to exercise repeated poor judgment and egregious behavior in carrying out the duties of their office as "upholders of law and order" in our society.  Every single time these tragic deaths at the hands of rouge police officers happen, the majority of decent law-abiding citizens --from all walks of life and ethnicities-- are truly outraged, not to mention heart-broken at the senseless disregard for  human life.  Everytime such tragic events happen our leaders espouse the same sentiments across the airwaves and media platforms.  These leaders lament the tragic loss of life, while pointing out that the majority of police officers are decent people committed to their sworn oath to "protect and serve" their communities --which is true, but the loss of even ONE human life when preventable, is wholly unacceptable.  These leaders finish their public statements with necessary reaffirmations of their strong commitment to "weed out the bad officers, with a history of questionable judgment and bad actions."  But the fact that George Floyd and so many others keep needlessly dying at the hands of police officers exercising egregious behavior means that we, as a nation, have NOT taken the steps, in a widespread and ongoing concerted effort, needed to get at the root of this problem in our nation's police agencies.

This is why people have taken to the streets in protests, initially peaceful protests ... but since co-opted by those with ulterior, violent and destructive motives that really have little if anything to do with the needless loss of life of a Black man; for how can you protest the needless loos of life of one man by way violently assaulting, injuring and killing other human beings?  There is no "moral arc of the universe" justifying his type of violent and destructive behavior ... 

Now, I keep hearing that there are statistics showing that police agencies across the nation have taken serious steps to address bad behavior and rouge cops.  If that is true, then let us get these number out there for all to see, but unfortunately action speaks volumes louder that mere words or numbers, especially when the action winds up being the senseless loss of a human life at the hands of police officers sworn to serve and protect ALL lives.

What we need right now, is STRONG LEADERSHIP from the very top (i.e., the President of the United States) to say "The loss of life of George Floyd and others like him shouldn't still be happening in our nation.  Previous Presidents and community leaders have not done enough to date to root out these bad cops, as evidences by repeated tragic occurrences in the needless loss of lives. Any needless loss of life at the hands of our police officials is one life lost too many!  As such, my administration is committed to providing the leadership necessary to guide and implement immediate and lasting reforms throughout our nation's police and law enforcement agencies.  This leadership will be spear-headed by Attorney General Bill Barr, who will be heading up a commission to issue timely and effective guidelines for assessing individual officer conduct and behavior, as well as training programs to promote more equitable conflict resolution skills.  It is our sincerest hope that Police Unions across the country will work with us to formulate and implement these guidelines, because at the end of the day doing so will help to present our nation's dedicated men and women in law enforcement in a more favorable light.  Once established, these guidelines will be rigidly enforced, with regional assessments of progress reported back to the AG and his commission over the course of the next two years.  Moving forward, we will have zero-tolerance policy for egregious behavior on the part of rouge cops who do a disservice to our rule of law, to their fellow officers and to their sworn oath to protect and serve the citizens of their communities at large."  Now that would be a real game-changer, wouldn't it?

The time has finally come to respond to the very HEART of this matter, by temporarily relinquishing  the predictable myopic focus of only addressing the FIRE in the house (i.e., violent protesters and looters who have systematically co-opted a legitimate movement of protest).  You can put out the immediate fire, but if you do nothing to substantively address the underlying spark, then the fires will inevitably rise once again, on down the line.  Mr. President and leaders of cities being hardest hit by protests, you can actually walk and chew gum ... Be firm by cracking down on violence, vandalism and looting, while simultaneously addressing the underlying issue ... the spark behind the destructive fires now burning madly across our nation.  We must address the underlying problem behind these protests if we are to have any hope of restoring faith our law enforcement agencies or the over-arching rule-of-law moving forward.  The time has come to stop kicking the can down the road for the next President by taking the timely and immediate action as outlined above.  Timing is everything ....................

My heartfelt sympathy and best intentions are being sent out to the family of George Floyd in this time of loss and mourning.  May God Bless keep and guide you all during this difficult time!


6/23/2020  It kind of surprises me that Congress is taking up writing legislation in an attempt to help prevent future loss of Black Lives.  Not that I think this is necessarily a bad thing, just that I thought Police agencies fell under the jurisdiction of States Rights. As such anything Congress passes with respect to police agencies would not be legally binding, right?  Such legislation would wind up being kind of like optional, highly advisable best-practice guidelines?  That's why I was thinking that guidance and over-arching follow-up would be best coming from the Department of Justice.  I guess, however, at the end of the day Congress does control the "$purse strings$" and they can say, "Hey, States, you either follow our federal guidelines, while demonstrating an on-going compliance, or you're not going to get any federal funding for X, Y and Z."

Thoughts and prayers are with Rayshard Brook's family and friends, who "send him home today" with a home-going celebration.  May God especially Bless, watch over and guide Rayshard's four precious little children that he leaves behind.