Not Again

Kimberley Potter, a 26-year veteran on the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police force shot Daunte Wright on Sunday when he resisted arrest. Daunte is black and Kimberly is white. Turns out that Daunte had an outstanding warrant. When he didn’t comply with officers and attempted to get away, Officer Potter yelled “Taser, Taser!”, but mistakenly drew her service revolver and shot Mr. Wright who subsequently died. Within hours, without the circumstances of the event being fully investigated, aided by speculative media reports, peaceful protests degenerated into rioting, looting and assaults.  

While this chaos was going on, a Capitol police officer, William Evans, was laying in honor in the United States capitol.  Officer Evans was white. He died when his assailant, Noah Green, a black Nation of Islam follower drove his car into him. Green was shot by an officer at the scene and later died. 

Last Friday in New Mexico, a state trooper, Darian Jarrott, was making a routine traffic stop because a vehicle had window tint that was too dark.  Turned out that he had pulled over a known drug dealer, Omar Felix Cueva who stepped out of the car and gunned him down in cold blood.  Cueva later was killed in a gun battle with police. Both officers leave behind wives and small children. There has been no rioting or looting over their deaths.

All these deaths are tragic, unnecessary and tear the Nation apart at its core. But sadly, there are elected officials who have seized upon the death of Daunte Wright, as they did with the death of George Floyd, to make truly outrageous and astonishingly stupid statements.  Leading the pack is Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Democrat from Michigan. She tweeted the following. 

 "It wasn't an accident. Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist. Daunte Wright was met with aggression and violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed." 

This comes from a member of Congress who enjoys armed protection from the same Capitol police force who lost an officer to a man who was attempting to attack the institution in which she serves. It doesn’t get any dumber than this.  If Representative Tlaib truly believes what she tweeted, then she should advocate her policy to her constituents in the 13th Michigan Congressional district. It’s doubtful that anyone in western Detroit, part of her district, would like the police to cease maintaining law and order.

The boiling cauldron of racial anger won’t be solved by rioting and looting.  It won’t be solved by the likes of Representative Tlaib’s incredibly idiotic tweets either. The recent high-profile deaths are the result of resisting arrest, not complying with a legitimate order from a peace officer. George Floyd would be alive today if he would have just got in the back of the police cruiser instead of resisting four cops. Daunte as well, would be alive. When resistance occurs, the outcome is rarely positive. 

The mainstream media will beat the narrative drum of racial injustice and police brutality incessantly, but what about the deaths of Officers Evans and Jarrott? Six months from now the only ones who will remember their names will be family and colleagues.  Floyd and Wright will be in the forefront, anytime the subject of racism, police reform, training or even police department defunding is discussed.

The strange and often dreadful times the Nation finds itself in cries out for leadership that is neither right nor left, progressive nor conservative but focused on coalescing the country.  As we have seen lately, that appears to be sadly lacking with the current regime’s Unifier-in Chief.