https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/59781
The whole question of race and policing often seems to be a zero sum game in American politics. This is not healthy. We have to speak honestly about facts. This recent Glenn Loury podcast discusses the on the ground realities of policing in New York City. Can't a person be pro-African American, realizing the enormous injustices of the past the consequences of which continue to this day, and be pro-good cop? Yes, I'm suspicious of anyone with a weapon, and the power of arrest, and I know that black men have been savagely beaten and killed by some cops, but in far greater numbers, black men are killing black men. We're tearing ourselves apart and it seems that it can only get uglier, and deadlier. And mightn't it push Trump over the top in November? You might recall I mentioned a bizarre incident two months ago with my hyper-woke friend of over 55 years; he was in favor of abolishing the police and didn't have much of a problem with burned storefronts in black neighborhoods. I inadvertently "triggered" him when my wife and I mentioned the tragedies that play out all the time in Chicago, and out of wedlock births and the devastating consequences for any community. Additionally, I used the term "black on black crime" and that sent them immediately to their car. It continues to bewilder me and we haven't heard from them since. I think there are a whole lot of folks just like my friend and his wife. They live solely in information bubbles that confirm their hyper-woke biases. And remember, I'm a pretty liberal Democrat, but I'm no ideologue. Anyway, I'm sad, concerned for America (and by extension, the world if Trump wins). We have heard for decades regarding the need for a "conversation on race" but what does that mean? Who and how could a country this big and polarized conduct it? And as I've said before, we are only one more videotaped death of a black man by a white cop (whether it was a justified shooting or not), and cities again burn and people die. And then the police pull back and many, many more deaths result in black neighborhoods because the cops have heard the message all too clearly that they aren't going to do more than they have to. As I said, it's ugly, sad, tragic, and I don't know how we get to where we have to get to!
Peter T
