Tag: police

Looting and Destruction Is A Very Bad Choice…

By all accounts George Floyd of Minneapolis was not afforded the dignity that a human being deserves during a policing situation. His killing by a police officer was unjust and reprehensible.  

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To make matters worse, the young people who demonstrated through acts of destruction brought the wrong attention to their cause of ending police brutality to people of color. If the pillaging of neighborhoods and city centers is justified, then be prepared for what comes next…

– communities that lack food and housing security,

– mom and pop businesses that will struggle to rebuild,

– City resources limited by insufficient funds,

– further break down in trust.

If the problem is about police brutality to people of color, then why is destruction of community the answer? It is not! Without an identified leader to communicate a cohesive and principled message of action on the issue by using peaceful means and clarity of purpose then this destruction does not end, and unfortunately anger through fear remains the only message.

There are two sides…The police department is one side, and they are represented by the local city government and their union. But who is it that comprises the other side? This other side should not be known as a “leftist fringe” group because that is not who they really are. This other side must be comprised of concerned citizens who have respect from the community members to act on behalf of their best interests.

Let me suggest a six point plan to de-escalate the present condition and create a move toward progress:

1) Select 65 Minneapolis citizens comprised of five members from each of the thirteen wards…These citizens would not be from the active leadership of government. These citizens along with a respected and trained facilitator would convene a community meeting with the Mayor and City Councilors to address police brutality concerns.

2) The agenda for this meeting would be to identify 3 measurable goals toward solving police brutality concerns and to select a committee of no more than 13 volunteers from the original 65 citizens (one person from each ward).

3) This citizen committee should identify their mission and put forward a vision.

4) A trained facilitator would work with the committee and the City Council to identify the measures of the three goals which the city would then be charged to implement.

5) Progress is assessed quarterly, and new goals are identified annually.

6) The model is repeated in every U.S. community that wants to see changes made to policing (or any other city activity) in good faith.

I guarantee that trust would be strengthened in all aspects of community life. This is a similar model that I have used within my community. It has the added benefits of teaching improved communication skills and training new community members for future leadership roles.

 

Shrew View: Homelessness and the Thin Blue Line

Identity politics has been stripping us of our humanity.  The latest case in point aligns with how the homeless population has been allowed to grow unchecked in many urban centers.  Homelessness has been a plight since the dawn of civilization.  Circumstances create personal problems for people in a myriad of ways.  Hopelessness becomes all consuming to the point where personal responsibilities which were once manageable suddenly are too much to handle.  Some would argue that it’s a money problem and tell us, “If only we all had a basic income, free health care, and free higher education, then homelessness would not exist!”   Responsibilities with this model of free stuff inevitably shift to an administrative group.  This group identifies money sources, collects the money, distributes it with a system that is “fair”, and employs a means of enforcement.  But would this progressive formula actually mitigate the personal problems inherent to human nature?  Think about it!


If I allow an administrator to take control of my basic neccessities and to educate me, will they also be able to control my dreams, wishes and choices?  What will be expected of me from this administrative state?  And what about morality?  Who defines morality and enforces this paradigm?

Now consider our police force…The men and women who are employed by municipalities to protect and serve its citizens.  It seems to me that their functions are slowly being eroded by an over zealous political class.  Lately the main stream news programs and social media fixate on police brutality as though it was more commonplace than the smuggling happening daily on our boarders.  Angry attitudes against the police along with the dangerous aspects of the job itself are causing many municipalities hardships to find new police recruits.  Is this by design and does this define a new mindset whereby law enforcement is now seen as the bad actor?  To be sure, policing will need a newly defined mission in order to help a controlling administrative state enforce their “fair and progressive” systems.


Judeo – Christian principles were once the sphere of moral precept in our country.  As these priciples erode and secular laws replace them, the human capacity for obtaining  higher consciousness will decrease and dependency on the administrative state will increase.  Each one of us is then acting as a cog in the wheel of an interdependent system and is replaceable if we are not being “perceived” as doing our part.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” – Sir Walter Scott, 1808

We can see how the deception is forming the web, but do we know WHO IS THE SPIDER?