Three falsehoods groups spread about law enforcement
William Bratton (former LAPD, NYPD chief): 1. (From academics) “police don’t control crime.” 2. (From the left) “police bias is pervasive,” and 3. (from the right) “only heavy-handed tactics control crime.” DailySignal
What I’m learning this year more than any previous in my life, I think, is that stupidity is, on the whole, no more a feature of the left than it is of the right… and stupid doesn’t work, whether it’s of the liberal flavor or the supposedly conservative flavor. (Have to admit though, there are higher concentrations of folly among some subgroups than others… it’s everywhere but not necessarily evenly distributed! … also, leftism is inherently foolish because it rests on a profoundly defective view of human nature and human society. Conservatism, properly understood, gets these basic underpinnings straight… and so folly of the sort we’re seeing these days is foreign to it rather than essential to it.)
As far as the linked article is concerned: some of what’s going on in the current DOJ is unwise. And some of what was going on in the previous was pretty smart. As an example, I do think that some federal involvement in local PD civil rights issues (the “collaborative reform” process Sessions just axed) is a good thing. But it was getting out of hand under Obama/Lynch. I have to admit though, that from a legal standpoint Sessions is on firm ground as far as I can tell: the legal basis for the collab. reform program was a bit of a stretch. The legislation wasn’t made with that in mind. The other upside is that this sort of accountability is better done locally in most cases. And maybe it’s current state does still allow for the occasional DOJ intervention. Not sure. (Announcement from DOJ)
But it’s pretty obvious to me that this is just about the worse possible time to roll back DOJ’s involvement in civil rights reviews of local police—as far as public perception and mood of the country goes. Would have been better to actually increase it a bit for a couple of years and then scale it back in stages. (In many cases, local PDs invited DOJ to come and audit their departments and make recommendations. In others, they basically got sued.)
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I don’t know if it’s what Sessions just axed, but I’m in a town where the DOJ/DoEd has a couple of “agreements” based on “disparate impact” of school rules/laws on “people of color”, and those impacted (like teachers I go to church with) are noting that “those of color” have figured out that they can get away with the little stuff. It’s not helping the educational process, to put it mildly. Walter Williams writes elsewhere on this, and having grown up in a single parent home where they DID act on the little stuff, he thinks that “disparate impact” theorists are out of their mind. I believe Thomas Sowell notes this as well.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion