Urban trekking around Denver the other day, I happened across a protest march of maybe a thousand people. Here’s what I observed.
The marchers were almost all white. I saw fewer than a dozen black people and no Hispanics.
Most were young women looking vaguely guilt-ridden. They were well-dressed, well-groomed and well-fed. I’m not passing judgment, mind you, but just reporting the facts.
Some were in small groups of similar young women. Some were with boyfriends, who were neither well-groomed nor well-fed. They were scrawny and scruffy, if you ask me, with thin beards.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a guy with a body and beard that are thin and a girlfriend who’s not. Again, I’m just reporting the facts.
Most wore COVID masks. In virtue signaling, their march and their masks made the day a twofer.
Many carried signs displaying slogans like “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George.”
I agreed with those signs, at least the literal words of them. George deserves justice just as everyone does, and black lives matter just as all lives do.
The marchers surely aren’t worried that we onlookers reading those innocuous signs will don our MAGA hats, pull our 9 mm and shout: “No! Black lives do not matter! And no justice for George!”
So why were the marchers there?
It was not to protest the murders of thousands of blacks each year, of which 94% are by other blacks. There were 18 in one 24-hour period last week in Chicago alone.
Protesting that would be politically incorrect. Protesting that would require real courage.
No, it was not real courage that they were displaying. It was cheap virtue. After a morning of mirror preening, they went out for some moral preening.
In that respect, their little picnic walk (I was offered a water bottle) was as harmless as it was pointless. I guarantee that these suburban girls and their girly men aren’t looters.
But one sign troubled me. It appeared in various incantations, but the gist was “Justice NOW for George.”
I’ll be clear. I’ve watched the video of George dying, and it was horrifying. If no exculpatory evidence turns up, then I hope those cops rot in jail. I’m guessing nearly all people – including other cops – hope for the same.
But notice the “if” in the preceding paragraph. We have a system here in America that is summed up with “innocent till proven guilty.” That proof of guilt is presented, and challenged, at a trial.
Here, the cop has been arrested and is in jail on a million-dollar bond awaiting that trial. Given that, what exactly does the shouted word “NOW” mean in “Justice NOW for George”?
Are the protesters demanding that we bypass the trial and just lynch the cops right now? What kind of justice is that? I thought we reserved that sort of swift and trial-free punishment for Republican judicial nominees.
What about people like me, who think the video looks very bad but the cop still deserves a trial? For that sentiment, would the protesters lynch me too? Or would they lynch me instead for my MAGA hat and 9mm?
What if the evidence shows that the cop was a Democrat who mourns global warming and drives to yoga class in a Prius with a COEXIST bumper sticker, and that George admired Justice Clarence Thomas?
If that’s what the evidence shows, will these protesters let the cop off while spitting on George’s grave?
Here’s the problem. These sheep-like feel-gooders are cowards but nonetheless dangerous in a way they naively fail to grasp. They advocate a world where guilt depends not on a person’s actions but on how the herd carelessly and conveniently perceives his identity.
It’s the very definition of bigotry.
Humanity has tried all this before. The results were like the strangulation of George, but 100 million times over. Let’s not go back there.
(Published in Real Clear Politics, Instapundit, Powerline, and elsewhere)
the Aspen beat 
Two observations: 1. To the mob, *justice means the result they want, regardless of law or logic. 2. Floyd will join the sainted Guevara, Mumia, Davis, Brown, and that woman cop-killer who fled to the workers’ paradise in Havana as icons of worth regardless of their objective behavior.
Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it!
If find it funny, Floyd supposely died of sucafication, yet there is no physical evidence of that, I read the coroner report. What kind of justice the mob really wants, sound like Ferguson all over to me. I expect this time the mob will get what the want.
Huzzah!!
These are the children of darkness emerging from our schools and universities.
The Children of DOOM.
Totally. And the first response of a rational government would be to stop funding this with infinite loans for students to go and get degrees in racial and gender grievance studies that only prepares them to do just this. (And one of the reason this time is so ripe for this other than George Floyd and the COVID shutdown is that THESE are about the ONLY people in Trump’s economy that have NOT benefited…. because it wasn’t an economy with a lot of need for people with SJW activism degrees. Which is all that liberal arts colleges have put out for the last fifteen years.
Excellent comment thank you
I have a degree in art. Graphic design to be specific. I benefitted greatly from the Trump economy. They didn’t teach us moral preening and woke puritanism when I went to school though. We mostly just learned to create art and profit from it.
How many steps or degrees away from gulags and firing squads are we when these people are in charge? Amazing and depressing times we live in.
The “sheep like” reaction to this incident of police brutality (which was extremely rare in its physical brutality) is reminiscent of the “Cultural Revolution” in Communist China, in which anyone who did not openly and enthusiastically show their adulation for Mao Zedong was forced to “confess” to being an enemy of the “Revolution.” It is the polar extreme of the anti-black hysteria that gave rise to the KKK.
For a rational, patriotic black person’s assessment of the issue, I recommend the comments by Condoleezza Rice in her interview on Sunday on Face the Nation. See https://www.cbsnews.com/video/condoleezza-rice-to-trump-twitter-and-tweeting-are-not-great-ways-for-complex-thoughts/#x
Although whoever created this You Tube video couldn’t resist labeling it with a comment that Dr. Rice made that was somewhat critical of Pres. Trump, it gives her the opportunity to give a thorough and balanced analysis of the issue.
You are absolutely correct. In the end, it is not about people accept or tolerate a viewpoint – it is about EMBRACING, enthusiastically, that viewpoint. Today it is the sheep chanting “Four legs good…” Tomorrow, it will be “Two legs good…” And then, the eating of the sheep will commence.
Mob action is the most extreme form of democracy, which is why this nation is not a democracy.
Last weekend there were 92 black people, many innocents, shot by other black people in the city of Chicago. At last count 27 of them have died. Were any of their names mentioned At George Floyd’s funeral? If not I can only conclude that black lives only matter if they are politically expedient.
You are 100% correct. Facts are irrefutable.
My oh my! My parallel experience in WA:
Debrief North Bend Moslem Brotherhood (BLM) Rally
Saturday 06 June 2020
Intersection North Bend Way and Bendigo Blvd.
Rally Scheduled for 1400-1700 Hours
Observed 1540-1610 Hours, From Moving and Stationary Automobile
Weather 55-60 Degrees, Intermittent Rain
Location of rally participants was 1.5 blocks east on north and south sides of NB Way from Bendigo and .5 blocks west on north and south sides of NB Way from Bendigo. Attendees packed @ five deep at the corners of NB Way/Bendigo but were spread out in single ranks at the curbs east and west on NB Way.
Rally attendees staged ad hoc from public parking within two blocks north, south, and east of the NB Way/Bendigo intersection.
Lots of large, upscale vehicles parked in the staging areas, unusual for that concentration in North Bend.
Participants were neither poor nor downtrodden.
Judging from the participants’ profile (below), I estimate many of those vehicles were filled with and waiting for affluent teen girls out on a jag.
Episcopal and Lutheran church parking lots were not full of vehicles, so were not ride sharing staging points for their members, as I had surmised they might be.
Peak attendance reached just before I arrived on scene.
I estimate 300 +/- participants. All locals or valley residents.
Single most numerous group: teen and early 20s girls.
Next most numerous group: teen and early 20s boys.
Very few gray-heads and fewer Karens than I expected to see.
Most adults, and they were few, were 30s-40s (early) husband and wife with/without small children.
Some mothers alone with child(ren).
No blacks or browns observed although some blacks may have been present. Certainly no packs of them.
Tone: a high school graduation party but on the brink of chaos.
They have been cooped up, missed a graduation, wanting to virtue signal to their friends, neighbors, and themselves. All signaling empty lives, empty futures, which is their parents’ fault, not theirs, at least not yet.
Most participants were HS sorority/fraternity/party types. Affluent, spoiled, spiritually looted, abandoned by uncaring parents, and brainwashed by ideologue teachers.
With so many girls screaming, wanting to whoop it up, a competent organizer could ramp it easily into an explosion the party kids could relish without knowing what had happened to them or whose drama in fact they were enacting.
I expect that were festivities to commence, that would be post-1700 Hours. As I write, it is 1720-1630 Hours, I am @2.5 miles away from the rally point, and I have not heard indications of an explosion, yet.
Several storefronts on NB Way boarded up, apparently from yesterday, when police alerted that they were contacted by a group (not specified, I suspect local clergy or their proxies) for help mounting the rally.
Police reported they told organizers they support peaceful but not violent assembly, the which posture by police is Constitutional.
No evidence of vandalism that I observed.
Police staged dismounts from an elementary school parking lot @ two blocks northeast from the NB Way/Bendigo intersection.
They pre-positioned an MRAP-type vehicle there, along with the dismounts’ cruisers.
Dismounts were two to a block around the NB Way/Bendigo intersection. Light coverage. They stood, bantering, behind the single ranks of participants lining the curbs.
Dismounts were armed but unarmored. They low-balled their presence.
No mounted (in-cruiser) police observed.
Undercover LEOs assumed to be present.
No rifles observed on roofs.
No police lights observed on moving or stationary police vehicles.
Caravan of two police vehicles with unrecognized markings observed approaching NB Way/Bendigo intersection from direction of I-90.
QFC, two blocks east on NB Way from NB Way/Bendigo intersection, operating ordinarily for day and hour.
Downtown Snoqualmie, @ 2.5 miles downstream from North Bend, in ordinary operation, to include Caadxi Oaxaca and Snoqualmie Brewery Pub.
Neighborhoods in North Bend and river-level Snoqualmie are calm, quiet.
Neighborhoods in North Bend and river-level Snoqualmie are calm, (AND ARMED), quiet. Both had armed militia guarding the city centers over the weekend.
I live in a smaller town outside Los Angeles. Even WE had to protests in town, at the opposite ends of our fair city. One was an ad-hoc affair. It was easily 80% women, white, hispanic, and asian. The rest were young men. They were all holding their black lives matter, home made signs. They were dancing about and smiling. Cars were honking at them.
The other was larger, in the old downtown area. Again, mostly females. This one had the police blocking off part of the main central street so people could “protest”. There were no blacks at either “event”.
I would think that protesting against institution racism, and what appears to be the murder of a black, handcuffed man, would be a somber, serious, even mildly angry event. No. The women were dancing around almost like cheerleaders. Many were showing a lot of leg. No doubt about it, they were having fun. It was insane. They were not protesting, this was a fun get-together with other like minded leftists. It’s like the folks providing entertainment at abortion rallies.
Really sick stuff. I have never seen anything like it.
Those type of women tend to attract liberal young men with the testosterone levels of a turnip.
Here in NE Oregon ( Red side of the state) we had one small group of protestors. all white, pasty females and a few soy boyfriends with scraggly mangy beards. one of th eWomen had “Black Lives Matter! on her car. No Blacks No Hispanics. they all have jobs. Nurses,truckers, locomotive engineers. farmers and ranchers some even own them. No time for this .
While I agree with the sentiments expressed in the piece about the presumption of innocence and evidence being presented at trial, everyone should be preparing themselves for a not-guilty verdict OR even, if whichever judge in the case is doing their job, the charges being tossed out before a trial.
Why? Because the prosecutor(s) in this case are doing precisely what those in other similar cases, making the same mistakes by filing charges in order to placate shrieking mobs of radicals that the burden of which can’t possibly be met at trial.
I’ve seen the video to and yes I understand that seeing death, any human death is troubling, but there’s nothing there that supports a murder charge of any degree. The original prosecutor filed a 3rd degree murder charge against one cop which was an already impossibly high bar to reach given what we already know and the now that the notoriously racist cop hater Keith Ellison has been tasked with prosecuting he’s filed charges against other cops and upped the original charge to 2nd degree murder putting an already unlikely conviction even further out of reach.
Taking the established facts so far, and there will certainly be more coming in the trial, there’s POSSIBLY a case to be made for manslaughter or negligent homicide, lesser charges a competent prosecutor might even get a guilty plea for, but murder? Not a chance.
The average attendee of the “march” described might not have the mental acuity or legal knowledge to understand that every time a person dies as a result of another person’s actions it is not automatically “murder” but every judge does and they will be instructing any future jury as such.
making the same mistakes by filing charges in order to placate shrieking mobs
YOu think it’s a mistake Ellison over-charged? Oh no, it was deliberate, in the hopes of generating another set of riots right around mid-October.
Sorry, but I’m too damn cynical to believe Hanlon’s Razor with these folks.
I read the coroner report, no tissue injury in the neck area, no sign of strangulation, strangulation verification came from watching video. Floyd had sickle cell and cardiovascular disease, how do you tell death from strangulation or if was heart failure do to the part of the heart that controls beating no getting enough oxegen from the struggle, by watching a video? A good defense lawyer will chew up the medical examiner on that. A good defense lawyer will check and see what happens to a health person if held down like that in a controlled experiment. If nothing happens he would bring that to court if indeed test subject had problem he would plead out the case if he can.
Presence of fentanyl and meth noted in Floyd’s system during the autopsy.
Arrested for passing counterfeit $20 bill(s).
Had a history of violent crime, including armed robbery.
Had a history with the cop, as both had been employed as bouncers at a local nightclub.
Pretty sure Floyd killed himself, just that the suicide was started hours earlier when he took the drugs. He was probably helped along by his fellow part time bouncer.
I appreciate your take on the judicial system. Mine is the exact opposite. It has become so corrupted that the facts and the law do not matter. This cop will be crucified. Fortunately there will be some justice in that.
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Whether the Nazis or their Bolshevik and Maoist close cousins all it took was a small number of true believers, less than 10% of the populations, to bring the murderous regimes into being which goes directly to a quote by Abraham Joshua Heschel from his book ‘The Prophets’: “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
There can be no debate as to the horrific nature of George Floyd’s death but justice requires a trial where are the evidence is presented e.g. Floyd had a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl in his system, was staging and saying I can’t breathe even before being taken to the police car and two heart arties were 80% and 90% clogged. Had he not died there may have been charges against the police but there neo-Marxist left would have been denied the perfect metaphor for “institutional racism”; the white man with his knee on the neck of the black man. It is that perception alone that explains the instant hundreds of thousands of protesters worldwide; neo-Marxists taking advantage of a tragedy to advance their agenda.
It can happen here and unless the American people demand a degree of the Maoist self-criticism from the black subculture there will be continuing violence, destruction and eventually widespread killing. I will repeat it as many times as necessary; recognize the hypocrisy of neo-Marxism for the evil it is and frame rebuttals using the same Rules for Radical tactic of demanding they live up to their own standards (Tactic Rule 7).
If every American is forced to bear the slavery mark of Cain and judged by the actions of a few then my response to “I can’t breathe” is Channon Christian. Perhaps in doing so the honest debates and House investigations will be rightfully directed at the black subculture…and all those self righteous white middle and upper class women will have something to think about that gives balance.
…staggering
If black lives mattered , they would have a known and present father
The “woke” bunch of leftists are forever claiming that when conservatives talk about racial issues they don’t really mean what they say, but are using “code words” and “dog whistles”. The way that many leftists are using the slogan “Black Lives Matter” as an excuse for ignoring the high level of violent crime by the black underclass as the main reason why police tend to “profile” young black males, it is their own “code words” for “Black Thugs’ Lives Matter Most.”
I discriminate all right, and it is between law-abiding black people and thugs. I have the greatest sympathy for the former and have demonstrated it by contributing to organizations that promote education and civility in black communities as well as in Native American communities (which are typically more economically disadvantaged but have much lower rates of violent crime). So, I don’t appreciate having a bunch of “woke” leftists inferring that people like me are either “racist” or “insensitive” for refusing to join in their hysteria over the recent extreme and rare example of police brutality. Aside from the mayhem that this hysteria has already caused — mostly harming innocent black people and other minorities — so-called “solutions” like de-funding the police can only do more harm to innocent people.
“Thin beards” That sounds like Millennials. Most of them have thin beards. I don’t get it, but that must be what their women like, because that is typically the sole deciding factor in men’s looks.
My town had a demonstration and from what I saw the crowd was 90% young white men and women. The town demographics is almost 40% black. We pretty much interact without color being a barrier. Maybe since it is a military town that makes it different I am not sure but BLM and ALM and universally people were appalled at the Floyd video. Also universally a trial is called for and not one person seemed to think lynching was appropriate.
Dear Mr. Beaton,
Your critiques carry some weight, but the virtue signaling you so deride seems to shine through in your own writing. This is cheap tribalism writing and though it may garner you the clicks you need or want, it doesn’t constitute any sort of grounded and thoughtful considerations. Obviously, attacking strangers on the internet doesn’t usually garner you friends, but then again, I’m not attempting to be your friend. I’m just asking you to consider the honesty of your words and their potency on elevating the nature of public discourse in this country. Reading them, I did not feel that they contributed much beyond your clear and well-reasoned argument for a fair trial (which was good and thoughtful and right). Lobbing insults at those who don’t think like you do and creating fake liberal arguments does not seem effective to me. I’m not sure why you choose to blog; maybe it’s for fun or maybe it’s an outlet. For the sake of our country, please refrain from this sort of writing in the future; I really don’t think it helps conservatives win the ideas battle.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
P.S. I might write the same thing to a similarly partisan and insult-lobbing article written by a flaming liberal con artist. Don’t think my concern is your party or your beliefs, but rather, your style.
Lighten up Francis… While there may be a few gentle insults in the article they are at least humorous. I don’t see him calling anyone a nazi or threatening their lives or livelihoods. As for the sake of the country I, being a resident thereof, feel that we are made of strong enough stuff to endure such gentle poking. And for that matter I don’t feel in the least threatened by his opinions or his manner of expressing them. If anyone should “refrain” from a “style of writing” in my opinion it is your censorious self..
But if “real courage” is protesting the overall level of violence against blacks as you claim, then why is your column talking about young white female protestors? Why don’t you come here to Chicago, spend some time on the South Side, and make some observations about the violence here that you so eagerly decry? Perhaps that is too far a stretch from the luxurious climes of Aspen? This is as phony as the protestors you seek to lambast.
John Oliver, you might want to brush up on your comprehension skills. I think it fairly obvious that he is differentiating between the social construct he observed, and reality. Since he is in Denver, actually not Aspen, he wrote about what he observed. Why don’t you write about the South side of Chicago? The people who are devastated in the aftermath of the serious protests there, well, let’s be honest and call them riots, have a very small voice; and the terror that marks their daily lives is largely ignored by the women described in the article, along with nearly every Progressive.
Further, I think he was advancing the perfectly reasonable argument that everyone is entitled to a trial; presumably a cornerstone of our society.
These are simply the rise of the sheeple strain of American liberals. Hopefully, like the lemmings they are, they will simply march over the “defund the police” political cliff that’s been laid out for them.
I wish I could adequately express to Glenn K. Beaton how much enjoyed this article but since I can’t I hope this will do.
A great piece.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
As a white college educated woman ( parents moderately affluent) of 28 years old, the most dangerous voting block is white college educated women of 18-28.
My peers. They mostly have rents paid by parents, indoctrinated by college professors, grew up on Instagram where their self worth is tied to likes, and in north east or ca have liberal parents.
Because celebs and amazon and Instagram pushing BLM anti Trump they just go along to get along. When you ask them to explain why they hate Trump they cannot. They don’t have the intellectual curiousity to search BLM funding or how many jobs are outsourced by Democrats.
Every GOP should have been on TV after Romney’s pitiful lm Marc stating – Romney outsourced more American jobs and invaded countries with hb1 and destroyed more black jobs than any other American.
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You want an inconvenient truth? George Floyd was complaining about not being able to breath when he was standing up outside of the police car. The meth and fet may have triggered his breathing capacity to become wooden. Did the officer contribute? Likely, but a jury will have a very difficult decision and with the drugs in the frame, the picture of an acquittal is quite possible for 2nd degree murder. Hold on to your seats.
I share, sadly, the pessimistic sentiments expressed here. And, Chauvin, if he is not railroaded, just might deserve to be found not guilty. I think even Baden will ultimately agree that fentanyl killed Floyd and Floyd would have died even if Chauvin had done everything hindsight tells us he should have done.
Great article. Great comments.
Chauvin, if he is not railroaded, just might be found completely not guilty. I think even private coroner Baden will come to agree that fentanyl killed Floyd and that he would have died even if Chauvin did everything that today’s hindsight tells us Chauvin should have done.
I am not a lawyer and from my previous comments am highly critical of the gross over-reaction of the public in general, and rioters in particular, to this particular incident.
But I have also participated in the legal system as a juror and have seriously regarded my obligation to determine whether guilt of a particular charge has been proven beyond reasonable doubt (in criminal cases).
From what I gather of the facts in this case, Floyd was acting erratically before being arrested — apparently by being on drugs. That presumably warranted some level of restraint, but not of the extreme nature imposed by Chauvin while the other police who arrested him stood by and watched. Seeing that he was physically and mentally impaired, they should have done the opposite of what they did — regardless of any personal animosity towards him — and used extra care in restraining him and promptly called for medical assistance.
At the very least, I would say that the cops were guilty of “depraved indifference” or manslaughter, but I would look for evidence of intent to kill Floyd before reaching a verdict of murder. I can imagine that each side will find “medical experts” to testify as to whether Floyd would have died without Chauvin’s knee on his neck, but it is obvious that Chauvin’s actions were a contributing factor.
I will add that I support enhanced efforts to improve police training and hold individual officers responsible for violating the rights of any and all citizens. That support will require more funding of police departments, not less.
Baden won’t change his view because his gig is taking money from people to provide any opinion they want without benefit of doing legitimate autopsies.
Not many people are aware even though it’s noted in the Wikipedia entry concerning his involvement in the matter, that Baden’s “autopsy” was done without access to “tissue and fluid samples” so his comments on the issue are without foundation and are irrelevant.
If you want a good laugh today go read Michael Baden’s Wikipedia page and see how many times he’s been involved in cases where his bought and paid for “findings” have been contradicted by physical evidence at trial.
There are racists in Colorado. Who knew?
Well, I’m not in CO, but close and I can attest after watching what I could stomach of the media over the past several days that because I don’t spend a sufficient amount of my time obsessing over the differences in the amount of pigment in my skin as opposed to others who may have more and yielding enough attention to the problems of of those possessing larger quantities I am now defined as a racist. Who knew? On the other hand those who do obsess over such things and judge all others by their devotion or acquiescence to these obsessions in preference to just living a life of their own are happily free of that stain. Where can I go to be seen flagellating myself and is there any hope of salvation? Yeah, I didn’t think so…
“their little picnic walk (I was offered a water bottle) was as harmless” Yes, that crowd was harmless while walking on the street. It’s when they’re walking into the voting booth that they’re dangerous.