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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
“Defund the Police” has become a rallying cry in cities across the country, one fueled more by emotion than evidence.
Crimes of passion are acts committed against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage.
Defund the Police is like this, a sudden, anger-driven, “acceptable prevailing narrative” that brooks no disagreement among its proponents, yet when turned into policy will wreak havoc and harm upon communities.
With the senseless killing of George Floyd while in police custody May 25, 2020, two years of “Defund the Police” agitation exploded into a nationwide and to some extent global movement, first on street protest placards, then in outright riots, then city councils and mayors working overtime to embrace the idea.
“To address concerns about how police treat minorities, the Minneapolis City Council has announced a year-long program to disband the Minneapolis police department. San Leandro, California voted to defund their 93 member police force. Los Angeles is redirecting $250 million from the police to social programs. New York City is debating cutting the police budget by $1 billion. The Austin, Texas police department is eliminating 100 officers and delaying a police cadet class that was scheduled to start in July.”
- “Baltimore City Council approved a $22.4 millionbudget cut for the police department.
- Portland City Councilcut $15 million from its police budget earlier this month. $5 million of that would be put toward a new program that sends unarmed first responders to answer homelessness calls.
- Philadelphia cancelled a planned $19 million increase for the police department and shifted $14 million of the police budget elsewhere — including affordable housing.
- The city council in Hartford, Connecticut voted tocut or reallocate $2 million of its police budget.
- In Seattle, every department budget is being trimmed by around 10%.
- Other cities where officials are calling for changes, include San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, Milwaukee, Denver, Durham, Winston-Salem, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.”
Why? Why are cities defunding police? Ostensibly it is because proponents believe:
- police are killing Black Americans regularly and ruthlessly,
- police are “hunting” Blacks, and
- police are responsible for most of Black America’s problems.
Somehow police departments have become the point of the spear in the Black Lives Matter movement, vigorously promoted primarily by the Black Lives Matter organization.
The problem is, these points of view do not square with the facts of what is actually happening in Black communities and do not explain why Blacks are being killed every week in cities like Chicago.
Defund the Police and its rationale do not explain racism in America nor is it any kind of solution to the newly propagated “systemic racism” being preached by Leftist leaders, Big Media, or other cultural elites and corporations who’ve signed on for the ride, partly to virtue signal and partly in hopes of not being the next victim of woke cancel culture that undergirds Defund the Police and the Black Lives Matter organization.
“Every year, approximately 6,000 blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though blacks are only 13 percent of the national population. Blacks are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined. In Los Angeles, blacks between the ages of 20 and 24 die at a rate 20 to 30 times the national mean. Who is killing them? Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. The astronomical black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined. Blacks of all ages commit homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined, and at eleven times the rate of whites alone.
The police could end all lethal uses of force tomorrow and it would have at most a trivial effect on the black death-by-homicide rate. The nation’s police killed 987 civilians in 2015, according to a database compiled by The Washington Post. Whites were 50 percent—or 493—of those victims, and blacks were 26 percent—or 258. Most of those victims of police shootings, white and black, were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force.
Moreover, 40 percent of all cop killers have been black over the last decade. And a larger proportion of white and Hispanic homicide deaths are a result of police killings than black homicide deaths…Twelve percent of all white and Hispanic homicide victims are killed by police officers, compared to four percent of all black homicide victims…
Blacks make up 23 percent of New York City’s population, but they commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime, according to victims and witnesses. Add Hispanic shootings and you account for 98 percent of all illegal gunfire in the city. Whites are 33 percent of the city’s population, but they commit fewer than two percent of all shootings, four percent of all robberies, and five percent of all violent crime. These disparities mean that virtually every time the police in New York are called out on a gun run—meaning that someone has just been shot—they are being summoned to minority neighborhoods looking for minority suspects.”
Black Americans do not even want fewer police. “Monmouth University surveys over the last five years reveal that black Americans nationwide have become more satisfied with their local police departments. The percentage satisfied reached 72 percent in June — a rate that is now identical to that for whites.”
So if this is the evidence, why is Defund the Police being promoted so vigorously and why are city councils buying-into this narrative so quickly?
It’s about chaos and power. The more of the former that can be generated, the more of the latter shifts to Left-leaning or Leftist organizations and people bent upon disrupting the social order. This is a stated goal of Black Lives Matter the organization, and it is a goal for groups like Antifa. The fact that a lot of American citizens are being duped by this is all the more threatening.
There are other ways to improve criminal justice systems and policing. There is always room for improvement as the saying goes. I am not against reform. There are other ways to reform. Semper reformanda is not, after all, a bad idea. But reform and improvement are much different than wholesale rejection of law and order and an outright embrace of idealistic romanticism about the goodness of humankind.
Defund the Police and its rationale flow from a lack of understanding of human nature. To argue that crime will go away and social utopia will set in if cities simply do away with the police force is the height of fantasy.
"Once it’s determined that every man, woman, and child can do what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6), there is no end to what’s left of the old order to be destroyed. Once they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)."
Defund the Police is ill-conceived, emotion-driven, irrational, and ultimately ineffective. Defund the Police is a crime a passion, and insofar as it is adopted, communities will pay a serious price dealing with the social disorder that will follow.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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The red, white, and blue American flag is striking. But more important than its aesthetic appeal is what it symbolizes.
The “Stars and Stripes,” “Old Glory,” the flag of these United States of America, is a powerful expression of the country’s ideals.
I am one who appreciates what this flag, in various forms since the Second Continental Congress’s Flag Resolution adopted June 14, 1777, represents, even beyond the colors. It embodies principles of liberty, history, pitfalls and progress, and most of all, sacrifice. Admiring the flag, caring for it, believing in what it symbolizes is a form of patriotism.
This said, I do not believe the American flag is sacred, that it is or should be raised to the level of religious icon. Nor do I think that the “Star Spangled Banner,” adopted by the Navy in 1899 and considered a de facto National Anthem by the military branches during the 19th Century, then officially adopted by Congress March 3, 1931 for the United States, is some sort of holy expression.
The fact that I don’t consider the flag sacred makes it possible for me to understand why the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), and reaffirmed in U.S. v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990), ruled that due to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is unconstitutional for a government (whether federal, state, or municipal) to prohibit the desecration of a flag, due to its status as "symbolic speech." Despite a number of attempts to ban the practice, desecration of the flag remains protected as free speech.
I don’t like desecration of the flag, indeed despise pictures of people burning the flag. I have never damaged the flag and would not recommend this to anyone for any reason. But if someone chooses to profane the flag to express some point of view, I consider this what it is, their freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is what matters most, not the flag that symbolizes that freedom. This is the paradox. Someone desecrating the flag is participating in a civil liberty the flag represents.
Something similar is occurring with “taking a knee,” the shorthand for not standing in respect during playing of the National Anthem. This has been an issue in American professional sports since 2016.
Back in 2016-2017, I did not take a position arguing football player Colin Kaepernick crossed a line when he took a knee during the playing of the National Anthem. I said I thought the way he and others chose to protest was ill-advised and I still think this, but I did not think then and don’t think now that an athlete’s freedom of speech should be denied because the way they choose to express it offends people.
This goes both ways. I don’t like Kaepernick and now entire professional sports teams taking a knee during the National Anthem, but I think it’s their liberty to do so. I also think it is fans’ liberty to choose not to watch this protest or not to agree with this act of protesting and/or the reason for the protest or to choose not to continue watching or supporting this professional sport. Fans, at least some of them, are likely to “vote with their feet” and walk away. So, while there are guaranteed freedoms of speech there may also be consequences.
By the same token though, I don’t think football quarterback Drew Brees should have been excoriated by players and celebrities alike for simply expressing his respect for the flag, something most of the country believed just a short time ago. He’s apologized multiple times since, as has his wife, and after a while it sounds like groveling. He was verbally attacked and his character impugned for daring to express his point of view, one that at first didn’t fit the prevailing acceptable narrative so was deemed “insensitive.”
The essence of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech guarantee is that all speech that is not coupled with acts of violence may be expressed – whether or not we like the speech or find if offensive or obnoxious or even vile.
So again, I appreciate and respect the American flag and what it represents.
I do not like it when the flag is intentionally disrespected, much less desecrated.
I don’t like it when athletes and teams “take a knee” during the National Anthem, but I believe it is their right as American citizens to express themselves.
For me, the ultimate is what that flag means.
- It means freedom of religion, speech, assembly, people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances, to keep and bear arms.
- It means constitutional civil liberties and later civil rights. It means “land of the free and home of the brave.”
- It means ““Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
- It means in terms of freedom the United States of America is “the last best hope of earth.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Lebanon’s flag is one of the most beautiful in the world. With its green Cedar of Lebanon tree, speaking to the country’s ancient and biblical history, surrounded by white for unity and peace and red for sacrifice, the flag stands as an important symbol for the Lebanese people. In the wake of the Beirut blast the flag has been prominently displayed throughout the country, often rising amidst the rubble. #ForBeirut
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attributionstatement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Brief audio on the Beirut Blast and SAT-7's initial response. SAT-7 Lebanon studios are just outside the blast radius so spared all but minimal damage. Now broadcasting to grieve together, lament, serve, and provide solace in spiritual truth.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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A democratic republic cannot survive without aspirational, consensus ideals, comity, law and order, and social cohesion. What we've seen in America in the last few months, 1) in the throes of virus, 2) in the turbulence of unrest, is not simply infliction but insurgence.
Peaceful protest toward desired social change is a productive thing, a blessing of a free society. Mobocracy, enabled by elected officials, toward the boogieman du jour is a destructive thing, a scourge of a free society.
The cold coup d'etat some have attempted is dangerous in the extreme--to life, liberty, justice, truth, patriotism--something that can become hot with a flashpoint at any time.
What makes the USA is not beautiful topography but time-tested political ideals as enshrined in a constitutional system that has worked, however imperfectly at times, for more than 200 years.
No matter who is elected Nov 3, many will not simply be unhappy but inconsolable. This is the kind of flashpoint that concerns me. I don't want to live in a banana republic.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.