I don’t think Sharpton snd his ilk “bought into it” as much as they “created it!” Sharpton is a Race Baiter…always was, always will be. That’s how he makes his living, and as long as he is able to place himself right smack dab in the middle of these sad events, he is assured that the living he’s making for himself will be a good one. The “Rev” couldn’t afford clothes like that preaching in a country church, that’s for sure!
The primary moral conclusion people should draw from criminals getting killed by police is that career criminals are likely to have shortened lifespans. Most of them are killed by their buddies, their rivals, or, increasingly, by their intended victims. There are a few of these highly publicized officer-involved killings that actually involved innocent, unarmed citizens, but most of the killed suspects were career criminals, and most were in the process of committing crimes when they were killed.
This is certainly not a justification for a gang of cops to beat, choke or shoot anyone to death when lesser levels of force would have sufficed, as apparently happened in this most recent case.
I just wish that every time a criminal got killed that all the news media would use the opportunity to make the point that being a criminal is a dangerous line of work.
This piece is good. Jason Whitlock has the best analysis I've yet seen. The idea should be that a person's safety when out in public is his own responsibility. Being afraid of the police is not peculiar to black Americans. All of us are a little afraid of the police. It's necessary. You may say hello to one on the street in passing, but generally, if they know who you are, it's for a reason you wouldn't want. When the police pull you over in your car, deescalation is a collaboration. Both you and the police need to keep it as the goal. (And I'm not familiar with the timeline of events in the tragedy of Tyre Nichols. I'm just saying generally.)
More performance art that intentionally relied on false narratives which too many in the media were too happy to fuel. White supremacy killed Nichols? Only a demagogue or a crazy person would say that, and many in both camps did. The spectacle, as it were, also came with expectations of protests that would get out of hand. John rightly notices that none of the speechifying would have occurred had the victim been white, or Asian/Hispanic/etc for that matter, but there would not have been any question of "protests," either. Why is the default setting these days that black folks will riot when something bad happens? Is this really the expectation we have of this segment of society?
Some things are not about race, hard as it must be for the professional activists who need it to be around race because, otherwise, they'd be out of work. This was about five black men who killed a sixth black man, a death made worse because the five wore police uniforms. Had they all been civilians, none of the camera-seeking principals would have shown up. For a minute, it looked like someone took issue with a particularly heinous black on black crime, but no such luck. They took interest because of the opportunity to politicize what happened. Nothing positive was advanced and nothing of value was gained. None of it was about Nichols, either; it was just one more chance to continue pushing an agenda of division, further stoking hatred, and living up to the activist credo of perpetuating problems rather than working to fix them.
The act of mourning expiates the understandable hurt and anger. Whether or not it serves notice to the various white-controlled power structures in our many cities where such outrages occur is hard to measure. At least there was universal forbearance displayed by NOT drumming up street riots, setting fires, etc., which have characterized earlier outrages. If all the pain expressed by those speakers and as was seen on faces can now be channeled into effective, all hands on deck voting efforts is another matter. Anticipating all the expiating messages the speakers gave, I did not watch any of the proceedings, but I am watching to see whether Memphis organizers are wise and diligent enough to parlay all this emotion into action at upcoming elections, with everybody voting. Only by changing the trajectories of governance, of which policing is a big part, can cop behavior be changed. Is the on-hand leadership up to that demanding task? It is the only thing that any power structure recognizes as a threat to the status quo. Ballots can reward or punish. But it takes gumption and being resolute to work constructively to bring meaningful change.
The color of the cops is immaterial. What counts is how cops of any ethnic identity do their duty. The tone, the marching orders, and reward or punishment, comes from the top. How many similar cases of street punishment by Memphis cops has occurred without death or a lawsuit, and without publicity? The five cops in question felt they could get away with it, and tried. The wonder is why any group of city fathers encourages such cop behavior? It is their marching orders that police chiefs follow, when setting up special enforcement groups such as were involved in this case. Start from the mayor's office and work your way down to the police chief to learn where such instructions and permissiveness began, and how it developed. The answers are sure to be eye-opening, and deserving of voter action.
It is refreshing to hear honest thoughts on all of this. Wish I could have heard more from John after, "he is? I dont think of him that way." But as always, reasoned thinking from intelligent minds, I appreciate it.
The problem is there are no people like you two in politics. Imagine reasoned honest discussion in the government, what would we look like if that happened?
An 81-yr old white lady, who didn't watch the memorial service, thanks you for this honest expression of your observations of said service. I'm sure you are correct that there will be more such services after more such inexcusable black deaths. I will almost certainly not live long enough yet to see the end of these "traveling road shows" that are no better than black-face minstrels.
Sharpton is a charlatan, playing his assigned role for media attention. I particularly object to his invoking the memory of MLK, whose words of 60 years ago have now been completely turned on their head and misused to suit a particular agenda. To quote him today is a disservice to his legacy.
You are brave to state in honest terms what's going on here. Thank you for this posting.
Gentle of the necessary jury to dissect that which is both dangerous and harmful among other thing’s about the Tyre Nicols funeral. I agree totally with Glenn Loury analysis. When it comes to Reverend Alfred Sharpton. I recollect a time when he wore while chasing jump suits while chasing ambulances. My how he has grown since then as he now sports suits of the $1000.00 variety. The alliance between him and attorney Benjamin Crump speaks volumes about what’s at hand. Throw Vice President Kamala Harris into the mix and becomes quite clear that she was sent by President Joseph Biden to assist in the expression of outrage. Also heightened the sagging electoral prospects of the Vice President’s future with the nations black electorate.
Did anyone notice that the mainstream media once again blamed his death on white people? I came home after a long days work, turned on the news and a talking head proceeded to tell me that these black officers were an example of how, apparently, white racists can now infect "people of color". I suppose we are a disease now.
It sounds a lot like the bolsheviks calling for the heads of rich people on a platter? The communist left is trying to place people into groups again, and convince the larger group to go destroy the smaller group. Just eliminate those horrible, rotten, white, christian, conservatives, and we will all live happily ever after. Don't forget that if you see a black, christian, conservative, then this is only because he's been corrupted by the evil white conservative. Or in Biden's words: "he ain't really black".
I think these postmodernists, destructionists, are the greatest threat to America since the civil war. And sadly, I don't think we can stop it anymore.
Secession is now a real possibility. I mean what is the point of living with a bunch of people who blame you and your skin color for all their problems. Most blacks today cannot even remember the civil rights era, never mind Jim Crow or slavery; we have black presidents, black scholars, black billionaires yet the black race (no other race has a problem in this country) does nothing but complain. If the system was racist folks, Glenn wouldn't be a prominent intellectual, we wouldnt have had a black president, and I wouldn't be listening to what Glenn has to say.
I did not watch the funeral so my ability to comment is very limited. I have watched Rev. Sharpton speak before, and, while I get a definite huckster vibe, he certainly has a polished delivery.
What struck me most is that the Vice-President was there. The Vice-President! Talk about an opportunity. An opportunity for her to reflect the feelings of all Americans that Tyre Nichols death seemed a tragic waste of senseless violence, but also an opportunity to unite all Americans with our shared values and purpose, with her own words, in the ways only true leaders can. At a more crass level, it was an opportunity for her to look "presidential". Obama and Clinton (Bill) would have hit this out of the park. Given how little coverage was given her remarks, I am assuming the opportunity for a watershed delivery was not realized. Perhaps she should have consulted with Mr. Sharpton beforehand.
I have been a first hand witness to the media savvy of Al Sharpton. There is much to say about 'the system' of national media, but what is not in doubt is that he is a master of it. Al Sharpton is the black Ryan Seacrest in the periodic melodrama of America's Black Violence. This is *the* black channel, and so long as that is the content that Americans are determined to tune in, his loss will create a vacuum for others to fill. I used to call this serial's producers "The Coalition of the Damned" and their headline acts go back before Rodney King - they claim the provenance of their litanies back to the 17th century.
Surely there are white equivalents, but the mainstream doesn't like them right now. But you can be assured to find them if you shake the bushes for #zebramurders or #itsoktobewhite. VDare is still out there, as are Steve Sailer and a host of other future hosts. The next Micah Johnson (Dallas) will be politicized out to Wazoo and Charlottesville. It won't take much considering America's blatant racial double standards which are only getting more deeply entrenched. Of course we can hope for a race-blind meritocracy backed by a favorable Supreme Court decision against Harvard (20-1199) but hope is not a strategy. Hope is more of a marketed sentiment, and the marketing experts are already on the side of the Coalition of the Damned. So are the institutional initiatives of DEI, ESG with a hint of CRT in the mix. What are the chances that somewhere another Timothy McVeigh is not being excited beyond reason?
The populists are winning and the elites are self-flagellating. It reminds me of the Latin I learned from Monty Python. "Pie Iesu domine dona eis requiem." Which coven is to be burned with the faulty logic of our times?
Just because his killers were all black and there is nothing to suggest race had anything to do with it...???
There is a problem here, but it is one of police culture and accountability, not race.
I will also note that in the greatest "Racial reckoning" of the last 65 years, the death of George Floyd, the prosecutors did not accuse Derek Chauvin of any racial animus--there was simply no evidence Chauvin was motivated by race. Of course, that meant nothing to our lying and deceitful media, politicians, and academic classes, who were primed and ready and were not going to "let a good crisis go to waste," they have a country to bring down.
Meanwhile, we focus on race and not on reforming the police in the ways needed, so we just get more of the same.
Has anyone ever turned away the Sharptons, the Crumps, the politicians and other opportunists-- and held a normal private family funeral instead? Honest question.
I don’t think Sharpton snd his ilk “bought into it” as much as they “created it!” Sharpton is a Race Baiter…always was, always will be. That’s how he makes his living, and as long as he is able to place himself right smack dab in the middle of these sad events, he is assured that the living he’s making for himself will be a good one. The “Rev” couldn’t afford clothes like that preaching in a country church, that’s for sure!
The primary moral conclusion people should draw from criminals getting killed by police is that career criminals are likely to have shortened lifespans. Most of them are killed by their buddies, their rivals, or, increasingly, by their intended victims. There are a few of these highly publicized officer-involved killings that actually involved innocent, unarmed citizens, but most of the killed suspects were career criminals, and most were in the process of committing crimes when they were killed.
This is certainly not a justification for a gang of cops to beat, choke or shoot anyone to death when lesser levels of force would have sufficed, as apparently happened in this most recent case.
I just wish that every time a criminal got killed that all the news media would use the opportunity to make the point that being a criminal is a dangerous line of work.
I was asking if anyone had ever turned them away, not what you would do.
I have had similar thoughts for years while viewing hip hop culture and garb .
This piece is good. Jason Whitlock has the best analysis I've yet seen. The idea should be that a person's safety when out in public is his own responsibility. Being afraid of the police is not peculiar to black Americans. All of us are a little afraid of the police. It's necessary. You may say hello to one on the street in passing, but generally, if they know who you are, it's for a reason you wouldn't want. When the police pull you over in your car, deescalation is a collaboration. Both you and the police need to keep it as the goal. (And I'm not familiar with the timeline of events in the tragedy of Tyre Nichols. I'm just saying generally.)
More performance art that intentionally relied on false narratives which too many in the media were too happy to fuel. White supremacy killed Nichols? Only a demagogue or a crazy person would say that, and many in both camps did. The spectacle, as it were, also came with expectations of protests that would get out of hand. John rightly notices that none of the speechifying would have occurred had the victim been white, or Asian/Hispanic/etc for that matter, but there would not have been any question of "protests," either. Why is the default setting these days that black folks will riot when something bad happens? Is this really the expectation we have of this segment of society?
Some things are not about race, hard as it must be for the professional activists who need it to be around race because, otherwise, they'd be out of work. This was about five black men who killed a sixth black man, a death made worse because the five wore police uniforms. Had they all been civilians, none of the camera-seeking principals would have shown up. For a minute, it looked like someone took issue with a particularly heinous black on black crime, but no such luck. They took interest because of the opportunity to politicize what happened. Nothing positive was advanced and nothing of value was gained. None of it was about Nichols, either; it was just one more chance to continue pushing an agenda of division, further stoking hatred, and living up to the activist credo of perpetuating problems rather than working to fix them.
The act of mourning expiates the understandable hurt and anger. Whether or not it serves notice to the various white-controlled power structures in our many cities where such outrages occur is hard to measure. At least there was universal forbearance displayed by NOT drumming up street riots, setting fires, etc., which have characterized earlier outrages. If all the pain expressed by those speakers and as was seen on faces can now be channeled into effective, all hands on deck voting efforts is another matter. Anticipating all the expiating messages the speakers gave, I did not watch any of the proceedings, but I am watching to see whether Memphis organizers are wise and diligent enough to parlay all this emotion into action at upcoming elections, with everybody voting. Only by changing the trajectories of governance, of which policing is a big part, can cop behavior be changed. Is the on-hand leadership up to that demanding task? It is the only thing that any power structure recognizes as a threat to the status quo. Ballots can reward or punish. But it takes gumption and being resolute to work constructively to bring meaningful change.
The color of the cops is immaterial. What counts is how cops of any ethnic identity do their duty. The tone, the marching orders, and reward or punishment, comes from the top. How many similar cases of street punishment by Memphis cops has occurred without death or a lawsuit, and without publicity? The five cops in question felt they could get away with it, and tried. The wonder is why any group of city fathers encourages such cop behavior? It is their marching orders that police chiefs follow, when setting up special enforcement groups such as were involved in this case. Start from the mayor's office and work your way down to the police chief to learn where such instructions and permissiveness began, and how it developed. The answers are sure to be eye-opening, and deserving of voter action.
It is refreshing to hear honest thoughts on all of this. Wish I could have heard more from John after, "he is? I dont think of him that way." But as always, reasoned thinking from intelligent minds, I appreciate it.
The problem is there are no people like you two in politics. Imagine reasoned honest discussion in the government, what would we look like if that happened?
Glenn and John-
An 81-yr old white lady, who didn't watch the memorial service, thanks you for this honest expression of your observations of said service. I'm sure you are correct that there will be more such services after more such inexcusable black deaths. I will almost certainly not live long enough yet to see the end of these "traveling road shows" that are no better than black-face minstrels.
Sharpton is a charlatan, playing his assigned role for media attention. I particularly object to his invoking the memory of MLK, whose words of 60 years ago have now been completely turned on their head and misused to suit a particular agenda. To quote him today is a disservice to his legacy.
You are brave to state in honest terms what's going on here. Thank you for this posting.
Jane Johnson
Ventura, Calif.
Gentle of the necessary jury to dissect that which is both dangerous and harmful among other thing’s about the Tyre Nicols funeral. I agree totally with Glenn Loury analysis. When it comes to Reverend Alfred Sharpton. I recollect a time when he wore while chasing jump suits while chasing ambulances. My how he has grown since then as he now sports suits of the $1000.00 variety. The alliance between him and attorney Benjamin Crump speaks volumes about what’s at hand. Throw Vice President Kamala Harris into the mix and becomes quite clear that she was sent by President Joseph Biden to assist in the expression of outrage. Also heightened the sagging electoral prospects of the Vice President’s future with the nations black electorate.
Did anyone notice that the mainstream media once again blamed his death on white people? I came home after a long days work, turned on the news and a talking head proceeded to tell me that these black officers were an example of how, apparently, white racists can now infect "people of color". I suppose we are a disease now.
It sounds a lot like the bolsheviks calling for the heads of rich people on a platter? The communist left is trying to place people into groups again, and convince the larger group to go destroy the smaller group. Just eliminate those horrible, rotten, white, christian, conservatives, and we will all live happily ever after. Don't forget that if you see a black, christian, conservative, then this is only because he's been corrupted by the evil white conservative. Or in Biden's words: "he ain't really black".
I think these postmodernists, destructionists, are the greatest threat to America since the civil war. And sadly, I don't think we can stop it anymore.
Secession is now a real possibility. I mean what is the point of living with a bunch of people who blame you and your skin color for all their problems. Most blacks today cannot even remember the civil rights era, never mind Jim Crow or slavery; we have black presidents, black scholars, black billionaires yet the black race (no other race has a problem in this country) does nothing but complain. If the system was racist folks, Glenn wouldn't be a prominent intellectual, we wouldnt have had a black president, and I wouldn't be listening to what Glenn has to say.
Update: Tyre Nichols' parents will be guests at the SOTU address tonight.
I did not watch the funeral so my ability to comment is very limited. I have watched Rev. Sharpton speak before, and, while I get a definite huckster vibe, he certainly has a polished delivery.
What struck me most is that the Vice-President was there. The Vice-President! Talk about an opportunity. An opportunity for her to reflect the feelings of all Americans that Tyre Nichols death seemed a tragic waste of senseless violence, but also an opportunity to unite all Americans with our shared values and purpose, with her own words, in the ways only true leaders can. At a more crass level, it was an opportunity for her to look "presidential". Obama and Clinton (Bill) would have hit this out of the park. Given how little coverage was given her remarks, I am assuming the opportunity for a watershed delivery was not realized. Perhaps she should have consulted with Mr. Sharpton beforehand.
I have been a first hand witness to the media savvy of Al Sharpton. There is much to say about 'the system' of national media, but what is not in doubt is that he is a master of it. Al Sharpton is the black Ryan Seacrest in the periodic melodrama of America's Black Violence. This is *the* black channel, and so long as that is the content that Americans are determined to tune in, his loss will create a vacuum for others to fill. I used to call this serial's producers "The Coalition of the Damned" and their headline acts go back before Rodney King - they claim the provenance of their litanies back to the 17th century.
Surely there are white equivalents, but the mainstream doesn't like them right now. But you can be assured to find them if you shake the bushes for #zebramurders or #itsoktobewhite. VDare is still out there, as are Steve Sailer and a host of other future hosts. The next Micah Johnson (Dallas) will be politicized out to Wazoo and Charlottesville. It won't take much considering America's blatant racial double standards which are only getting more deeply entrenched. Of course we can hope for a race-blind meritocracy backed by a favorable Supreme Court decision against Harvard (20-1199) but hope is not a strategy. Hope is more of a marketed sentiment, and the marketing experts are already on the side of the Coalition of the Damned. So are the institutional initiatives of DEI, ESG with a hint of CRT in the mix. What are the chances that somewhere another Timothy McVeigh is not being excited beyond reason?
The populists are winning and the elites are self-flagellating. It reminds me of the Latin I learned from Monty Python. "Pie Iesu domine dona eis requiem." Which coven is to be burned with the faulty logic of our times?
Just because his killers were all black and there is nothing to suggest race had anything to do with it...???
There is a problem here, but it is one of police culture and accountability, not race.
I will also note that in the greatest "Racial reckoning" of the last 65 years, the death of George Floyd, the prosecutors did not accuse Derek Chauvin of any racial animus--there was simply no evidence Chauvin was motivated by race. Of course, that meant nothing to our lying and deceitful media, politicians, and academic classes, who were primed and ready and were not going to "let a good crisis go to waste," they have a country to bring down.
Meanwhile, we focus on race and not on reforming the police in the ways needed, so we just get more of the same.
Has anyone ever turned away the Sharptons, the Crumps, the politicians and other opportunists-- and held a normal private family funeral instead? Honest question.