I'm OK with that!
Posted on 08/26/2014 9:13:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
One of the unsung blessings of Twitter is the way it continually reminds us that willful ignorance is alive and thriving in the American body politic.
In the past week, we were treated to widely retweeted photos purporting to show Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol throwing a gang sign. The first controversial image showed up on an unvetted CNN social media webpage called iReport, and Internet trolls took it from there.
The only problem is that the hand sign in question was the greeting of Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically black fraternity of which Johnson is a member. He was posing with a frat brother.
Anybody could be forgiven for not knowing what the gesture meant. But the automatic imputation of criminal intent is a problem—actually, it's the problem at the heart of the unrest that has gripped Ferguson, Mo., for nearly two weeks.
The very reason that a black Missouri highway cop's image is on every TV in the land is that he's been sent to Ferguson to restore order. After demonstrations and looting erupted there in response to the shooting death of 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown by a white police officer, the city's police department made matters considerably worse with its over-the-top militarized response. Authorities needed to hit the reset button fast, and Captain Johnson was part of that effort.
After relieving Ferguson police, the governor put Captain Johnson in charge. It's no coincidence a black man was put in command. Captain Johnson's cadence and tone when speaking, his use of biblical references, convey to the black residents of Ferguson that he is one of them. His job is to restore order, but his standpoint for discharging that duty is understanding, empathy—the very qualities that apparently were heretofore lacking in the Ferguson Police Department....
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.baltimoresun.com ...
Apparently he is okay with pulling a gun on unarmed white people.
I can’t stand to see people making hand signs in pictures. They have no idea what they mean. I think a lot of them are making the Hook ‘Em Horns sign and don’t know it.
Guess he now has time to empathicize with burned down and looted store owners.
In the beginning, I was thinking that he was brought in just due to his race; not because of his experiences with all people from all walks of life. I sit back and gave him a chance, in case I could be wrong.
Personally as of now, I think Mr. Johnson fueled the flames when he aligned himself with the looters / by giving them this weird sense of support. That signal flew totally against one of his first public messages to the citizen in the street about how can he, Johnson, help the people that need hope. Johnson’s reply was solid.
I guess he just couldn’t be praised by conservatives or to be conservative amongst the black people and or he fooled a lot of people upfront. Him not being honest, no matter what the community feels, not getting the facts out, discouraging the looting by sympathizing with them. Yes, I have a problem with his intentions.
And, to the writer of the blog..Why clone Cpt Johnson!? He’s not being professional.
Most issues stem from liberalism in these police departments. Dems lie to the poor communities to get them hooked on welfare for their votes in return.
Must be quite something, to look in the mirror each day and say, I rather get people to like me versus doing what’s right as allowing the proper facts to be shared. The ole race card has made many undeservingly wealthy because it came to them by distortions.
I'm OK with that!
Leftists are always calling for "dialogue." If an old 1960s leftist like Jules Witcover wants to have an "honest dialogue" he might start with abandoning the euphemisms and call "communities" of color what they are, ghettos.
The problem with having a dialogue with the African-American ghetto is that honesty is not a treasured value, rather, it is despised as the weakness of a loser and a naïf. It is neither sought after nor expected but it is often disingenuously proffered.
Such is the pathology of the "community" Jules Witcover wants as our interlocutor.
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