Sending a Message

Date
Canonical
3319
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3319 [history]
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Culture , Politics

By now everyone with a pulse and an Internet connection knows the Staten Island grand jury refused to indict a cop that may have choked a guy to death. It is unclear if that is what happened. The dead guy was a big fat slob with lots of health problems. It is not even clear the cop choked the guy. The video of it looks like the cops had an arm around his neck, but maybe not applying enough pressure to kill the guy. It’s impossible to know from the video. It looks like any other day to me. I’ve seen cops do that in my little slice of heaven dozens of times.

That does not mean the cops were right. There’s not enough here to think they committed a crime. Presumably the grand jury had medical testimony, witness testimony and legal testimony. Cops, unlike citizens, are permitted to use force to arrest someone, but there are rules they must follow and laws that govern their actions. The video is just one piece of the puzzle, but it is hard for me to say a crime was committed. I can’t even find a definite statement as to what killed the guy. There’s video of him on the ground in cuffs still alive so I’m guessing he was not strangled.

None of this matter much. The prosecutor took the evidence to a grand jury. They don’t do that asking for a no-bill. The old line about getting a  ham sandwich indicted is true, for the most part. Citizens put a lot of trust in the prosecutors. They also trust that the innocent will get a fair trial. That means there is a bias toward indicting the accused. When a grand jury fails to indict it usually means the case is laughably implausible. Of course, a prosecutor can take a terrible case to a grand jury for PR purposes like we saw in Ferguson, but that does not appear to be the case here. The city and the DA wanted this cop swinging from a light post.

The question is why the grand jury did not indict. My view of the video is not the same as the hysterics in the media. Reading the comments on some of these news stories suggests a non-trivial number of people watched that video and saw a combination of Bull Connor and Torquemada torturing a black man to death on the city street. Even assuming they are attention whores performing their public act of piety, the easy choice for the grand jury was to indict, but they chose the hard path.

My suspicion is we’re seeing the backlash to the race baiting the last few years. The Ferguson was so outlandish and offensive to decent people they are pushing back. Just as the silent majority rallied to Nixon, not because they loved Tricky Dick, but because they hated the forces of chaos unleashed by the Left, middle Americans are rallying against the latest push for chaos by the Left.

Today, the main political line of division in the United States is not between the regions of North and South (insofar as such regions can still be said to exist) but between elite and nonelite. As I have tried to make plain … for the last 15 years, the elite, based in Washington, New York, and a few large metropolises, allies with the underclass against Middle Americans, who pay the taxes, do the work, fight the wars, suffer the crime, and endure their own political and cultural dispossession at the hands of the elite and its underclass vanguard.
— Sam Francis

The men and women on that Staten Island grand jury live in the shadow of the elites. That’s where the firemen, cops, construction workers live. They are the people snotty New Yorkers call the “bridge and tunnel” crowd or prols by this guy. They are also the people called racists by the mayor for not wanting to deal with guys like Eric Garner every day. They are the folks who watch the rioting in Ferguson and wonder if that’s coming their way. Asked to choose between flawed cops and the kind of guys loitering in front of the bodega hassling the patrons,  they voted for the cops. They voted for order.

They sent a message.

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Comments (Historical)

The comments below were originally posted to thezman.com.

8 Comments

Ganderson #3400 December 11, 2014 12:36 pm 0
by there I mean “in the red southern states” Sorry- writing too fast!
Ganderson #3399 December 11, 2014 12:36 pm 0
You are right about the N-S divide being not as strong, but my sense of things (and I have spent my whole life in the North, mostly in elite outposts). However, and I ask the questions- is it possible that the elites- the rich billionaires, journalists and academics are not as strong there? My sense of things is there are more what I like to call normal people there? Anyone with more experience than mine have an opinion?
Jack #3388 December 10, 2014 3:09 am 0
Love your work. I’m seeing the tentacles reaching into my life better now.Thanks
jdallen #3361 December 6, 2014 11:27 am 0
Looking at the video, the cop has his right arm under the guy’s right arm. That ain’t the way they taught me to do the “choke hold” in boot camp. It’s not really a choke hold, anyhow. The idea is to cut off blood flow to the brain. Hold it just long enough for them to go limp, they wake up soon. Hold it a bit too long, they don’t wake up at all.We practiced it on each other several times, trading positions. The cops need to do that too. They could use Gitmo prisoners to practice on. That way, if they lost a few, who would care?
Campesino #3356 December 5, 2014 2:58 pm 0
Tobacco is government’s biggest cash crop. Has there ever been anything like it? ================ Well, back in the 19th century, the British government in India made lots of money off sales of Indian opium in China. Even went to war with the Chinese government when it tried to stop it.
james wilson #3354 December 5, 2014 12:46 pm 0
This is primarily about the challenge to authority. There is nothing more infuriating to a cop or a government than to be told that they have no business poking around and touching everything. Tobacco is government’s biggest cash crop. Has there ever been anything like it?
UKer #3353 December 5, 2014 10:21 am 0
it must be galling for the Left that — after such concerted effort, all the trouble created with the unquestioning support of a compliant main-stream media — to see that their determined efforts to claw more money and power for the elite is grinding to a halt.Following the collapse of communism in most of the world, and numerous trembles in the few remaining outposts of Marxist dogma since, the Left resolutely soldiered on, believing in the face of all evidence that their ‘message’ would still make them stronger and richer. But that window of opportunity was broken a long time ago and now even the dogmatic among them are finally grasping the game is up. The Left still tries, as it will, to keep on keeping on in the hope of a few more thousand impressionable young and a few million disaffected welfare recipients will do enough stirring and destruction to make sure the elite can stay where they dream of being.But their time is up. The internet — which the Left has never fully understood as it has no ‘ elected leader’ and answers to no ‘approved agenda’ — has become the voice of ordinary people who are tired of all this crap. Once people realised that there is more to society than the Left pumping itself up and grabbing all that they can while directing ‘revolutionaries’ to burn down businesses and destroy cities, the Left were done for.They will return in time, if only because the enemies of progress and security will still beaver away in the dark places, but for now they are facing the harsh reality of discovering their lies and games are running on empty.
tripletap #3352 December 5, 2014 7:32 am 0
I think you are correct. The “silent majority” is starting to make its voice heard through elections, not looting in the streets. The right will win the presidency in the next election and then the big task will be to make those elected pols do what they said they would do. The “tea party” types will rise to leadership positions and the pendulum swing will be complete. Seen it before, will see it again.


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