I will start this post by stating a emphasizing that I in no way am condoning the actions or outcome of the police officers in the George Floyd death in Minnesota or any of the other events that have caused outrage and outcries in recent memories. The policeman that held Mr. Floyd down should be charged with murder or whatever the most serious charge(s) that can be applied to the case. The other officers that were involved should be charged with accessory to whatever the charge is. There was no reason for Mr. Floyd to be treated in that way. I will leave it at that.
I wanted to mention something that has been percolating in my head with the Covid-19 issue and now with this incident in Minnesota - that is one of perspective.
If you have read any of my previous posts since late February was trying to address the issue of perspective. The news media has done nothing but hype the deaths and infection rate along with the most dire of predictions since the Coronavirus reports of mid-February. (just prior to that time - in late January and very early February - they were telling us all that President Trump was xenophobic for trying to stop travel between the US and China and that everyone should get out and do what they needed to do, but that is not the point of this post)
I did a couple of posts on Facebook in mid-to-late February into early March trying to get people to realize that even 1,000,000 cases of something is nothing statistically against our population of over 330,000,000 (330 Million for those that don't like parsing the numerical commas) As terrible as any needless death is, statistically the police are not a problem for anyone as far as a means of death. (I know about statistics - the Floyd family has reason to doubt me as does anyone that has had a similar circumstance. My wife died of complications from a disease that statistically affects almost no one in the US. To her - and somewhat to us - it was 100%)
As to the police violence issue - there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 (800 thousand) sworn law enforcement officers in the USA at the various federal, state, and local police and sheriff departments. There are about 650,000 (650 thousand) or so that "normal" everyday citizens would come into contact with and would most likely be arrested by if a crime was committed. These law enforcement officers make @10,000,000 (10 million) arrests a year on average. Two comments here that speak to my perspective - (again not excusing any behavior by police, just numbers)
1) do you think there is any group of people of over 600,000 (600 thousand) that you can gather that will not contain some a$$holes or just purely "evil" people. I do not. I am not sure you can get together 100 in a lot of cases.
2) when you take over 10,000,000 (10 million) instances of taking someone to charge them with a crime and face the subsequent penalties if found guilty, there will not be problems. Even if point number 1 above was not a factor, the odds of each of these going well is almost non-existant.
To demonize the police in general is idiotic when the problem is among a tiny, tiny group of officers and a similarly small number of incidents. To cry out against "police violence" like it was commonplace is to not have perspective. If every arrest was reported in every news show - @27,000 (27 thousand) a day on average - the fact that so few are disastrous would be more apparent. FYI, the 27,000 (27 thousand) a day is only arrests, not every interaction. It does not include traffic stops, even if a ticket is issued (as long as an arrest is not made), or any other interaction between law enforcement and the civilian population. Again, this will not, nor should it, offer any consolation to the Floyd family or any others whose family members have been victimized. Just perspective.
Now for another take on perspective. I find it ludicrous that within the last two weeks we have gone from:
- reports of small business owners (of all races, creeds, and colors) being arrested and/or fined for doing nothing more than opening their legally licensed and established businesses to try to keep from going bankrupt and feeding themselves and their family...
to - people "protesting" by burning down buildings, looting, and otherwise creating mayhem and being allowed to proceed. Even being told by government officials that they will not be arrested or accosted during or after these acts in many cases.
We have also gone from telling people that disagreed with the government on their lock-downs of businesses and travel that they could not assemble in a group and could not protest...
to - "protests" by thousands in multiple cities where public and private property is being destroyed and/or stolen.
Burning down buildings, torching cars, and looting businesses is NOT protesting. It IS civil unrest and breaking multiple laws. The perpetrators should have the most serious charges that can be applied to them done so, just as the police officers should as I mentioned in opening. It is idiotic and very dangerous that we (or a large part of "we") allow this. Whatever force is necessary to preserve civil liberties and protect properties should be taken.
Perspective people. It's a wonderful thing!
Comments