Dakota Beacon

Currently the focus on justice centers on lives ending violently with police encounters. The narrative explicitly focuses on black lives to the exclusion of all other occurrences as if that were the only narrative. Specifically, Black Lives Matter (BLM) creates the impression that black American males are being hunted down and killed wantonly by renegade white police officers.

In life, some people come up short on inherent life skills. If you don’t want trouble with the police, don’t break the law. If you have an encounter with the police, do what you are told, don’t resist, and don’t be a smart mouth. Cooperate. BLM comes up short with credible choices for heroes. Accordingly, the narrative must be doctored. All their candidates had previous encounters with police. Apparently they had issues telling right from wrong. Result? Their final encounter with the police proved deadly.

Trayvon Martin (2/2012 Sanford, FL). Narrative: Trayvon was just a nice high school kid walking home one night when he was confronted. Record: Jury said if Martin had truly been innocent, nothing would have happened the night of the shooting. If Martin had not sucker-punched Zimmerman in the face, jumped on top of him, and begun beating his head into the ground he would still be alive today regardless of his race. During Zimmerman’s trial, young Martin was shown to be a truant, a thug, a liar, a thief, and a doper. He was not shot in cold blood but in an act of self-defense by Zimmerman. Consequently, the jury found him not guilty on all counts. Zimmerman sued the Martin family for $100 million for falsifying evidence used against him. The outcome is pending.

Michael Brown (8/2014 Ferguson, MO). Narrative: Brown was walking along minding his own business thumbing through his Bible. An evil racist white cop came out of nowhere and murdered him. Record: Brown’s incident began when he stole from a convenient store and the owner called for cops. When the cops arrived Brown got into Officer Darren Wilson’s car, punched him in the face, and tried to take his gun. The gun discharged killing Brown. Wilson was tried on various charges and exonerated. Brown was not murdered. He made a move on a cop. Even Eric Holder’s DOJ agreed. A lawsuit is underway seeking Brown’s juvenile arrest record. Police tipped GotNews that Brown faced second-degree murder charges and was linked to the Crips gang.

Eric Garner (7/2014 Staten Island, NY). Narrative: Garner, a “neighborhood peacemaker” and “congenial” man was minding his business when police assaulted him and choked him to death. Record: Garner was known to police for his 30 arrests dating back to 1980 including assault and grand larceny. Police confronted Garner for selling “loosies” (single cigarettes) in violation of NY state law. Officer Daniel Pantaleo subdued Garner with an illegal choke hold. A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. On 8/19/2019 Pantaleo was fired. Had Garner not resisted arrest, the outcome would have been different. Garner’s family sued the city of New York and settled out of court for $5.9 million.

Freddie Gray (4/2015 Baltimore, MD). Narrative: Gray was reportedly killed by cops while being transported in a police van. Report: Gray was a 25-year-old drug dealer with a lengthy arrest record. Following eye contact with police in a high crime area Gray took off running. Police reported he was engaged in illegal activity and gave chase. Gray was searched and found with an illegal knife. In a police van, without wearing a seatbelt, Gray was thrown from his seat and suffered a fatal spinal injury. Four police officers were charged and tried. None were found guilty.

George Floyd (5/2020 Minneapolis, MN). Narrative: Floyd had played football and basketball in high school, was a mentor in his religious community, and was an all-around nice guy. Report: Between 1997 and 2005 Floyd was convicted of eight crimes. He served four years in prison for a 2007 aggravated robbery conviction. In May he was arrested for passing a counterfeit $20 bill. During the arrest he was restrained with Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck while handcuffed. Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide. Chauvin and three other police were charged and face trial. To be continued.

A lawless society, a society ignoring self-discipline and self-control, leads to a culture in which acceptable behavior must be imposed from outside the individual. In the vernacular, this becomes racism. A more reasonable alternative is for good and decent behavior to well up from within an individual thereby governing their actions. The interior motivation evidently is absent in high crime black neighborhoods of big cities. That becomes grist for BLM.

Many black leaders would quarrel over BLM’s choice of heroes because BLM’s choices are restricted to the victim narrative. Lawrence Jones, Larry Elder, Leo Terrell, Robert Woodson, Shelby Steele, Walter E. Williams, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens, and more beg to differ.

As Bob Woodson says, “BLM has appropriated the authority of the Civil Rights movement to promote insurrection.” And, “There is no excuse for 18 and 19-year-old black males to claim an exemption from personal responsibility to riot, loot, and destroy under the rubric of ‘institutional racism’.” Shelby Steele echoes, “…our culture is unique from other communities because we are the only community that caters to the bottom denominator of our society.” Regarding Floyd, Candace Owens says, “But we are unique in that we are the only people that fight and scream and demand support for the people in our community that are up to no good.” In BLM’s arrogance, they claim the biggest threat to young black men is police. BLM ignores crime by young black men committed against their own.

Is the greater public, both black and white, being bamboozled and duped into silence by the Marxist-led BLM narrative with the help of the media’s PR scam? You decide.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).