I was scrolling through the stories at The Federalist and came across a new interpretation of certain facts: Capitol Police Fatally Shoot Unarmed Woman.
I was furious. Ashli Babbitt was not an innocent victim. She was part of a Trump Mob that stormed the Capitol building. My opinion is that she DESERVED to be shot by Capitol Police, but at the very least, there is evidence that she broke Federal Law. The Federalist's cut and paste article insinuated that her crimes didn't deserve the death penalty.....
And then it hit me. As an author, sometimes I post articles to set up other articles as a hedge against the future. The Federalist was simply using the far-left playbook to advance an agenda.
How do I figure? It took me a few reads, but The Federalist article is almost parody. Let me give you an example:
If you listen to LeBron James and Team Blue talk about Tamir Rice, Rice was simply an everyday Black teenager playing at a park. Then an Evil White Police Officer saw the teen with an obvious pellet gun and thought "I now have my chance to execute a Black person."
Tamir was in a park waving what appeared to be a real gun around.
Tamir (or a family member) tampered with the markings of the gun.
Police were called by a local community member worried that someone was waving a gun around at a park.
Dispatch failed to tell the responding officers that the citizen with a gun could be a minor.
There was no parental supervision present.
Tamir Rice didn't deserve the death penalty, but he was at least partially responsible for his own death by his own actions. What percentage probably determines your political affiliation.
If your answer is 0%, you are probably a member of Black Lives Matter.
As the Cleveland Cop's history was thoroughly combed through, it was "Racist" to comb through Tamir's parent's history. Asking where the parents of a 12 year old were was not an unreasonable question. But ultimately the Cop was, probably, MOSTLY at fault, he reacted way too quickly. Where were the lines of legal responsibility? Because there was a gray area, the Tamir RIce Case should have been told as a cautionary tale.
Instead, the Tamir Rice Case is held as proof of a racist America by the Defund the Police Crowd.
And because Team Blue refuses to acknowledge all angles of the Rice case, Team Red has found a Martyr in Ashli Babbitt using their template. I am telling you, today it is The Federalist advancing the "unarmed" Ashli Babbitt angle, but in 5 years, Ashli Babbitt will be the Tamir Rice of Trumpy Cultists.
What you're going to see over the next few years is both Team Red and Team Blue rationalizing why violence is okay for their side, but not for the other side. Hell, it is starting on the internet already.
And I've seen Social Justice Warriors decry "if you can't tell protests over police brutality versus acts of sedition, you just aren't that smart."
Let's address that because that is even more selective history. When the Minneapolis Police knelt on George Floyd, the officer on Floyd's Neck should have been charged with murder. He tortured a suspect who was already subdued. The other 3 officers used procedures that are found in police manuals. The ensuing riot in Minneapolis would have been justifiable anger, if it didn't coincide with the first wave of a once in a century pandemic.
And, guess what? The police officer in question in Minneapolis is in police custody awaiting trial for murder. That should have been the end of it. Instead Black Lives Matters took the Floyd Case and exploited it to move the far-left Defund the Police Agenda. Rioters burned Portland for 2 months. What did the Portland, Oregon police have to do with the George Floyd Case?
Literally nothing.
I understood the anger in Minneapolis. The rest of the riots undermined the government's pleas for people to stay home during the pandemic. The optics for the average citizen were terrible. I can't say this enough, as a Libertarian-leaning website, I am all for police reform, but the Blue Riots weren't for reform, they were to defund the police. YOU CANNOT DEFUND THE POLICE.