Whose Lives Mattered?

AN EUOLOGY FOR THE BLACK LIVES MATTERED MOVEMENT

I kept from shouting long enough and I think the furor has died down enough that most people won't equate me with the Fuhrer when I make the following statement - Black Lives Matter was a dismal failure and a waste of time. I tried to tell folks, warn them, but no one wanted to listen,

The whole movement was hijacked by government supported media and police departments on a global level and was trivialized before it made any real or lasting accomplishments that it had set out to do. Why else were politicians and particularly, police officials and their unions so willing to jump on board? To me it seemed that it was more than just optics and that is a lot of political power that suddenly got hooked on to a "grass roots" movement. A citizen led movement that was meant to bring changes to the same organizations and systems that was doing it's best to show support for them. The police unions alone would have had enough political pull to move the movement in any direction they wanted.

If you doubt that the police, certain elements in government and the police unions themselves controlled the entire media perception of the movement, think about the events in Washington DC, the capitol of the United States on January 6th, 2021 and November 15th, 2020. Both were rallies, one called by a President, the other by a group of people questioning why police shoot an inordinate number of black youths. The rally called by the President, a President who actually called in an unspecified manner for the attendees to be aggressive ("Show them you are strong" was the term used I believe), had hardly any true police presence at first. The BLM rally, on the other hand, was met by a full detachment of police in riot gear. The optics given to the American people by the police of the two groups, until the group called to gather by the President turned violent and ugly, is, well, black and white.

One of the problems with the whole scenario of Black Lives Matter that I struggled to understand was how quickly, and with no public resistance at all, the police services were to embrace the movement. I am used to seeing and hearing of challenges to police conduct and charges of brutality being met by a Blue Wall of Silence while union representatives issue press releases calling for internal investigations, that generally go no where, and denials of an endemic problem. Not this time.

Police Chiefs, individual officers and even the Union Representatives were taking every photo-opportunity to side with protestors and speak on their behalf to the press. All the while the union members, the police officers and their departments, were showing up for each rally and protest march like they were armed for the Apocalypse.

It took awhile for it to dawn on me why police officials were so willing to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Then I realized their emphasis was to make it a "white person" problem and less of a policing issue. This was orchestrated by the police forces and their unions in hope that "white guilt" and the fact blacks still experience racism from whites, would keep them from noticing the message was being moved away from an issue with police services to the white race as a whole.

?You will notice that as a "White Race Issue" and not a "Policing Issue", there has been little said or done by police departments about reform policy and police behaviour. If they can keep people focused on it as a problem with white people in general (which I think might be fair in certain geographical areas but not in most every urban centre or with the white North American population in general) and not with the horrible behaviour and protective policy of officers accused of racism and violent actions towards human beings of particular race by departments and their unions, most police services will continue to use their union and the "Blue Wall of Silence" to protect and hide violent and racist police officers.

Call me an optimist but being the product of a multi-racial family, I am convinced if you were to poll anonymously and privately, every white person in the United States, (and other countries independently) I think over eighty percent, and that's hopefully low, would tell you that black people do indeed matter and their lives are worth something to our society.

?It saddens me to think that even then, twenty percent of white people are racist but watching the differences between how my brother, who is black, and myself (a guy so white Donald Trump thinks I'm a US citizen), are treated by police on average; as well as simple shop keepers and I am sorry to say I have to consider it likely that one fifth of all white people are active racists. I also suspect the number of inactive or unknowingly racist white people (people who say they are not racist but still act and behave differently in the presence of blacks) could easily be over fifty percent of the white population. But lets get back to the cops, since they contain the white people actually shooting black people.

If you have any doubt that the police hide, shelter, and protect white officers with racist beliefs remember three very important factors. One, the police consider themselves a brotherhood. Two, they have a very powerful union. Three, most valued police recruits, in Canada at least, come from the military. Let's dispense and discuss these in the reverse order listed, mainly because the military problem is, as far as I know it, is Canadian, and may not be as endemic in the Good Ole' USA.

The recent calls by individuals and members of the press to have the Armed Forces in Canada investigated over charges of racism seem to be going nowhere despite the fact that recent former members of the military (and Native members for as far back as I remember) have said there is a racist element in the Canadian military. That there are so many police officers in the Edmonton Police Service with military backgrounds is a known and given fact. It therefore can be reasonably concluded that racist individuals, at least as far as indicated by armed force's members and recorded history, have become part of the Edmonton Police Services. That is at least one police service in Canada and I doubt there is much difference in others across North America.

I could also venture forth a reason why racism is tolerated by recruits attached to the military. I recently was told by an EPS Internal Affairs officer, that before joining the police force, some of these military recruits are given recommendations by EPS officers in return for less than legal services. Services and crimes ranging from smuggling illegal material from other countries on military flights and topped by assassinations of individuals that the force finds troublesome.

If this is true, and (since I was told that there was a contract on my life leading back to an EPS officer) I suspect it is, it is one of the most brilliant crimes ever devised. A killer's trail is going to get ice cold when he is no longer in Canada and instead is either on maneuvers in another country or killing people in a war zone. Add racism to the mix and such a person would not only be protected by his fellow officers, for reasons I will give later, but it would be necessary for fellow officers to protect him in order to keep him from bringing them down in an I.A. investigation if the "racist thing" was made a big enough issue for him to have to squeal to keep his pension.

That the police union is quite possibly the best and most powerful union in the world, whether all police services share the same union or not, which they do, if even not directly, must be true. Name another job, other than policing where you can shoot a fellow citizen by mistake, even one innocent of a crime, and not only avoid a prison sentence on manslaughter or murder charges but keep your job as well? That members of the police services can do this, is all thanks to the union that officers have. Their legal defences, if such "accidents" do occur, is all paid for by the union who, if things start to look too ugly, will also get the individual another job on another police force some where else.

In fact, several of the officers who shot and killed black men in the United States and the officer in Toronto who shot the black youth on public transit, had been given work on those police services where the shootings occurred after being moved there because of past complaints while previously working for other police services. Those complaints were all things another employer would consider to be warning signs. Actions like the use of excessive force, bodily assaults while not in uniform, domestic violence, improper use of a firearm and other actions that would send up red flares to any one wanting to hire an individual for policing their city. The union keeps this information under wraps. The police union, with it's band of well paid lawyers, keeps the officers record of such events sealed, especially if the officer has completed a set number of hours with a professional chosen by the union to deal with those specific matters that led to the complaint.

This allows the union to move it's less than savory members around the country (and in some cases, the world) where they are unknown for their previous infractions by other forces and political officials. Elected officials have no way to know, as the files are sealed by the union, who they are hiring to guard their citizens.

That these same union leaders and officials have larger Public Relations budgets than the unions for teachers or contracting trades is telling and it would be interesting to see the police unions release their financial figures on expenditures in relations to the Black Lives Matter movement. How much it would cost to manipulate media in taking a protest group aimed at police services across a continent and direct it at another less specific group in dollars and cents is anyone's guess. Still, I feel comfortable in saying police unions nation wide have those financial resources.

So why would the members of such a union allow such a travesty of justice and the erosion of the safety of citizens they are sworn to "serve and protect" to happen? Well it's what you do for your "family". After all the, police consider themselves, like firemen, the Free Masons, Hell's Angels, the military and the Klu Klux Klan, a "brotherhood". I would like to go on record saying that I don't trust "brotherhoods" for services, especially in public service as hardly any members of the public are members of the brotherhood. The concept of a brotherhood is you look after your fellow "brothers" before anyone else, even at the expense of other members of society, and in some brotherhoods, even your friends and sometimes family. For police officers, the military and the Hell's Angels, this level of loyalty is actually a matter of life and death.

Take this example: An officer and his partner are out on patrol when suddenly an armed robbery occurs. For the sake of explaining the impotence of this situation towards brotherhood loyalty, let us say one of these officers is a known racist. Oh Hell, let's make the other officer non-white, perhaps oriental. In the course of the armed robbery, both officers find themselves pinned down. Even if back up is on the way, they need to rely on each other to survive at that moment. Hey, Chien Tsao knows Butch Steiner is a card carrying member of the Aryan Nations and perhaps even half of the guys coming for back-up are, but because he relies on Butch in a situation like this, he keeps his mouth shut about it. As for Butch, well, Chien may have yellow skin but he is also Butch's "brother in blue" and Butch is grateful Chien keeps his mouth shut about Klan meetings.

You can see how this type of symbiotic relationship between racists and non-racists police officers plays out to the self preservation instinct thus causing the protection of racist officers by non-racist officers. It really is is not hard to understand the dynamics here. In fact, I don't care who you are, perhaps even a black police officer, your survival instinct is going to have you behaving just like Officer Tsao in the example above. Even when the people start wanting to look closely at Butch because he shot someone who wasn't white, well, you will help protect him because if you don't, well look what happened to Serpico in the New York Police Department? You betray your fellow officers and when the shit gets real, you'll be left to die as everyone is eating donuts and drinking coffee.

The way the message of Black Lives Matter got distracted from police forces and placed on society in general though, even if masterfully crafted by police services and unions, lies mostly upon the public. In the end, you all let it happen. Every white bastard with white guilt enough to attend a protest, every black artist who produced a work of art with the idea of showcasing black pride or achievement instead of police racism, every politician who OKed a police departments press conference and all of it done under the BLM banner, you all fucked up. Others allowed it too of course, like the media journalists who are supposedly trained to notice such things but you, the common people, are the ones who should have known better. You caused the Black Lives Matter movement to achieve nothing and become a waste of all our time.

As for me? Well I saw it happening and no one wanted to hear it. You didn't want to publish it, you didn't want to broadcast it and sadly, you didn't want to believe it. For me, it was just like Idle No More all over again.

When the AFN (Assembly of First Nations) joined the Idle No More movement, I told you the way it was gonna go. Hell! Once Danny Coon Come, the bastard who used all the political power built from the Oka Crisis to buy a three car garage and the cars to fill it, appeared on the scene, Idle No More and Chief Theresa Spence had their days numbered. Now a bunch of Chiefs who sat on AFN panels are, just as I predicted, collecting cheques from Coca Cola and Nestle through government money launderers. I felt disgust for the public back then, including natives, and I feel disgust for the public now, including blacks. Forgive me if I don't show the proper amount of sorrow or self recrimination. I feel no guilt on this.

Especially White Guilt. My daddy raised me better than that.