Valery Dunaevsky | A few grossly negligent cops and a deluge of thuggish protesters

Institutionalized racism? Where is it? Presented are the comments on the botched protests in response to the death at the police hands of an unarmed, non-violent black offender.

By now, Memorial Day’s horrific and intolerable image of a handcuffed and prostrate George Floyd with a white police officer kneeling on his neck—a racially tinged confrontation that resulted in the death of the former—has been emblazoned in the memory of millions. It was certainly the greatest outrage of the past week. Also prompting outrage is that the Minneapolis Police Department apparently retains among its ranks a group of officers with professionalism poor enough to cause death of a nonviolent, unarmed black offender. Now, additional outrage has emerged in response to the out-of-control, destructive, and violent protests arising across the country (especially in Minneapolis) that have been triggered by Floyd’s demise. Although some leading jurists praise the initial actions of the Minneapolis mayor and Minnesota governor as prudent, it is frustrating that the Minnesota political leadership did not immediately move to subdue the rioters, vandals, and anarchists among the protesters and that some media and political figures confused the rioters’ actions with a noble cause. Minnesota’s governor declared on Thursday that the continuing violent protests (incited by the extreme left and even, some say, the extreme right) are no longer to honor the memory of George Floyd. Stating that the protests aim to destroy society, he mobilized the National Guard to meet the vandals with full force. As the rioting spread to large cities across America, governors of affected states and President Trump have joined the Minnesota governor in condemnation of the violent protests and expressed resolve to stop the anarchy. It appears that the beefed-up security and overwhelming show of force has worked—the protests have somewhat calmed down.

Unlike leftist oracles, I very much doubt that the Minneapolis incident indicates systemic racism among the police and the white populace. This myth has been debunked many times. For example, the officers charged with power abuse in the Fergusson, MO and Baltimore, MD riots were vindicated. Statistics shows that more white people died at the hands of law enforcement than those of any other race in the last two years. Many years ago, I nearly contributed to these stats by failing to immediately stop my car in response to a police car’s lights and sirens after I inadvertently passed a red light. When I eventually stopped, the approaching police officer informed me that he had been ready to start shooting had I not stopped. Dura lex, sed lex—law is harsh, but it is law.

I recall that one of my former black technicians did not buy into the notion of widespread white racism promulgated by various black and white leftist media pundits. Even back in the 1990s, he looked at me with surprise when I asked him directly about his encounters with bigotry during his many professional trips across the country. He believed that such bigotry was a thing of the past, that life had changed since the 1960s and early 1970s, when many blacks, he said, were afraid to leave their homes. He added that this fear is why he had not attended college.

Indeed, the huge array of pro-minority programs was instituted in the US since the human rights movement of the mid-1960s, including the Habitat for Humanity program sponsored in part by large corporations. In this program, sponsors build essentially free housing for minorities. As a former employee of a big Minneapolis corporation in the mid-2000s, I participated in building such a house.

Therefore, while white racism is gradually becoming a thing of the past, at least according to my black technician, anti-white and anti-police violence still exist. Regretfully, I know about this firsthand—16 years ago at the age of 84, my late mother was attacked by a mob of black youth. Trying to snatch her purse, they pushed her down the stairs from the second floor lobby of her apartment building. Fortunately, she survived the rolling fall, and the nefarious juveniles were quickly apprehended. At the hearings, the thug who pushed my mother explained that he had done it because his companions taunted him that he was afraid to snatch a purse from an old woman. What a good justification for violence! More details about the episode can be found in my memoir, A Daughter of the ‘Enemy of the People’, Xlibris, 2018, which is dedicated to my mother. My cursory reviews of racial issues in America are also reflected in several articles published on kontinentusa.com.

I hope that the death of George Floyd was not in vain—specifically, that law enforcement training will be improved and that state governments will become better prepared to quickly squelch violent protests.