Even Some Left Leaning Publications (or at least their opinion columnists) Get it Right Occasionally...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


Rev. Al Sharpton speaks during a news conference outside the Department of Justice while discussing Trayvon Martin case. Sharpton called for the federal government to investigate civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. (Win McNamee / Getty Images / July 16, 2013)

The following article from the opinion pages of the liberal Los Angeles Times is without need of  further comment.

By David A. Lehrer and Joe R. Hicks - During the week since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, the responses to the tragic event, the trial and the verdict have been predictable.

That an unarmed youth lost his life and the perpetrator of the act walked free catalyzed angry and sometimes violent street protests. However unfortunate, that is hardly surprising. The legal nuances of second-degree murder, manslaughter, evidentiary rules and jurors' decisions don't often penetrate through the fog of the 24/7 news cycle. Many people inevitably respond to headlines and passion. There also have been some reasonable discussions of the propriety and impact of "stand your ground" laws and whether Florida's played a role in the verdict.

What isn't reasonable or appropriate is the hysterical response of some civil rights leaders and advocates who have peddled a dishonest and hyperbolic analysis of the tragedy. Unfortunately, their message has been repeated ad nauseam and has become the settled wisdom for some: Young black males are at physical risk in this country, and it is the bigotry of whites that has put a target on their backs.

Jesse Jackson said last year that blacks were "under attack.… Targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business." Last week he said, "A wave of nameless fear is gripping our country." The musings of Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Al Sharpton echoing the same theme — America is a dangerous place for young black males — have been widely reported. Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP warned that black youth be advised on how to dress and talk, and talked of how hard it is to tell them to be "timid about asserting" their freedom. Tavis Smiley opined that the verdict was "just another piece of evidence of the incontrovertible contempt that this nation often shows and displays for black men."

We received a newsletter from an African American civil rights lawyer who wrote about walking into a convenience store last Saturday night: "Wow. All these people have heard the verdict. Do they now think that I am fair game? Will someone hurt me now that they know that Zimmerman walked?"

What is so insidious about this message of victimhood and division is its dishonesty. Despite the tragic death of Martin under circumstances that no one will ever know the true nature of, there is no "big business" of killing blacks in America. There is no wave of bigotry directed at blacks. All this talk is demagogic posturing, and it's dangerous. Young people will absorb this message and view the "other" with suspicion and fear.

These leaders know, even if many of their adherents might not, that the biggest threat to the lives of young blacks is other young blacks, not white bigots. Between 2000 and 2010, 4,607 black murder victims 17 or younger were killed by other blacks (4,441 of the killers were 17 or younger), according to the Wall Street Journal. There were 340 black victims 17 or younger killed by (non-Latino) whites. That means black youths were 13 times more likely to be killed by a black person than by a white one. {Read More}

Via: Memeorandun

Comments

  1. Some Left leaning publications (or at least their opinion columnists) get it wrong occasionally...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As the choir sings. Chirp, Chirp, Chirp the song of crickets.

      Delete
  2. Applying the term "civil rights" to these avaricious race-bating riot-flamers now looks quite bizarre. Sure, there's a legacy reason for it to be there... but do these men have anything to do with actual civil rights any more? Have they for a long time?

    The false accusations and appeal to the worst instincts of emotion and prejudice by Sharpton and Jackson surely has contributed to this situation: this situation as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, Les, it appears that somebody pissed you off....

    Now, claiming to be the unemotional rationalist that you are why don't you think about this post.

    Just because George Zimmerman was found not guilty by our legal system does not mean that "justice" was served.

    Now, just because a few folks want to make the unjust decision of the legal proceedings in Florida a racial issue does not make it okay to go all out stupid in the other direction.

    Now, your biases are showing....

    You can criticize "liberals", "Progressives," and "left leaning...." all you want but at the same time knowing that most of your readers are conservatives and libertarians who claim to be all about "individualism" and Ayn Rand baloney they are also the first ones to defend racial profiling, stereotypes, and the idea that Trayvon was a trouble making punk thug who got what he deserved.

    I think this link pretty much shows the stupidity of that argument:

    http://youtu.be/I6OuP-wiiQg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well tao, again you got it wrong. Someone pissed me off? Right, that analysis does however fit your template.

      Ya know dude your opinion is just like everybody else's opinion. Consider it taken under consideration and duly posted here at RN USA.

      Delete
  4. Les said: "Well tao, again you got it wrong"

    Indeed. He is saying you thought justice was served. When in fact you have repeatedly stated that it was not.... seems Tao jumped in with an assumption and ran with it, without thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dmarks, don't get out much do you?

      I never made any assumption about what Les believed. I am not JMJ, a strawman Les set up to give folks like you a strawman to feed off of.

      So, go back and read what I wrote....

      Delete
    2. A point of correction Tao... your statement that jmj is a strawan set up by me is an assumption on or part. Either that or an outright and falacipus lie aimed at IDon't know what.

      If jmj is a strawman as you say rather than a real person then he has been set up by who knows who. Perhaps you tao?

      Rather sleazy of you tao that you made the statement and even more sleazy if you set up the strawman. It is not something I expected from you.

      Delete
  5. Cut tao some slack, Les. That's how the extreme leftwingers operate.

    Anyone who agrees with them must be deranged or, my favorite, ANGRY. ANGRY WHITE MEN AND THEIR PRIVILEGES! ALL THIS AND MORE EXPLORED IN DEPTH BY NOBODYS WEARING EYEGLASSES AND IMITATING REAL NEWSPEOPLE ON MSNBC!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah silverfiddle, you are such an idiot....but an adorable little idiot....

      Delete
    2. Thanks tao, for making my point for me.

      Check and mate...

      Delete
    3. How adorable anon. Chuckling actually.

      Delete
  6. A couple right wing wack jobs write a column in the LA Times and all us libs are supposed to feel a "things that make you go hmmm" moment. LOL!

    This country treats it's black folks horribly and always has. The drug war is a race war - and a multi-front race war at that. From the way we distribute healthcare and education, to the laws we enact and how we enforce them, black people have always gotten the short end of the opportunity stick and the heavy blunt end of the punishment stick.

    Lehrer and Hicks don't have a clue in the world what they're talking about. You may as well as read the opinion of a polar bear concerning the Amazon.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone recently said you were part of the problem not part of the solution They could be right.

      Delete
    2. Indeed. With a larger proportion of blacks getting handed such things as totally free health care, food stamps, and Pell grants (which covers the two things mentioned by Jersey: healthcare and education), not only are blacks not getting "the short end of the stick", they are getting the much longer end.

      The war on drugs is a race war only if you assume that all blacks are drug abusefs.

      Delete
    3. Going on and on about "black on black" crime, a sleazy misdirection, is what's part of the problem, Les. What the %$#@ does "black on black" crime have to do this subject? Sleazy. Don't want to talk about something? Change the subject! Want to be sleazy too? Change the subject to one that casts a negative shadow on one of the groups in that subject! Yeah! Sleaze! (I believe the ability to do that is a FOX News resume requirement.)

      Here's all you need to know about _____ on _____ crime: Criminals tend to commit crime near where they live, violent crime tends to occur between people who are connected to each other somehow, the more the poverty the more certain kinds of crime. There. Explained all _____ on _____ crime in one compound sentence..

      Lehrer is nobody on either of these subjects, and Hicks is an anomaly. Both of them offer nothing to address anything, just complaining about other people complaining. Typical con sleaze. Someone mistreated and complains about it? Complain about the complaining! (Another FOX News requisite character flaw.)

      JMJ

      Delete
    4. Your rambling jersey... An opinion you don't like. Oh well. I'm guessing many do. Many don't. It's called difference of opinions.

      Oh, the same can be said of MSNBC as well.

      Delete
    5. Jersey said: " Someone mistreated and complains about it? Complain about the complaining!"

      Except typically those initially complaining weren't mistreated at all, and are demanding mistreatment of others. Complaining about them? Great idea.

      Les: I knew Tao was a joke when he said unions were no longer relevant (unions... which bankrupted California and currently force millions of workers to join in that state alone).

      Delete
  7. "I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved." Even Jackson doesn't believe his own BS anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Les,
    Some libertarian food for thought:

    Zimmerman Case is No Grounds for Gun Control

    -- Silverfiddle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't get why you are posting under Anon and signing Silverfiddle, if you are indeed Silverfiddle.

      As to the article, some valid observations as guns, properly used and secured are not in and of themselves "evil." The looney extremes on the issue of firearm control are the "evil."

      Aside from that the article misses the boat.

      Delete
  9. Les: Silver is all borked up for sure. I can't even comment as myself on his Blogspot blog. I think the situation that makes him post as Anonymous is related.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Les and Dmarks,

    It has to do with my browser at work.

    -- Silverfiddle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you can't sign into your account all you have to do is select "name and URL" and enter your name. It's quite easy. The only difference is that your picture doesn't show up.

      -- Not Silverfiddle

      Delete
    2. Silver: It's a Google Blogger/Blogspot blog. Just like mine and "Rational Nation". You shouldn't have to do anything different there... something's messed up.

      Delete

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