The Ferguson Effect

Due to the proliferation of red light cameras, innocent motorists are slowing down precipitously at intersections, leading to greatly increased instances of rear end collisions.  There is absolutely no evidence to support this conjecture, but it sounds right, so it must be true.

According to FBI Director James Comey and acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg, crime is on the increase because police, unhappily confronted with citizen cell phone cameras, are hesitant to get out of their cars for fear of being recorded in the performance of their duties.  Although there is absolutely no evidence to support this idea, it sounds right, so it must be true.

"Well, you know," one hypothetical police officer possibly might say, "it could look bad if a film of me pushing some old black woman's face down on the sidewalk gets on the internet — but if she stops her walker in a no stopping zone, what am I supposed to do?"

Indeed, what is he supposed to do?  Better to stay in his car and lay low, rather than risk embarrassment.  Better yet, he should resign from the police force and stop collecting a salary for not doing his job.

Crime rates, just like death rates for middle aged white Americans, are up — and both probably are up for the same reason: more and more people are leading lives of desperation.  Crime is up, along with suicide, drug abuse, family violence, and a general loss of hope.

Cameras help to slow the rate at which drivers run red lights, and the rate of deaths arising from such behavior.  Cameras help to reduce the rate of police abuse of ordinary people, and the erosion of all our civil liberties.  Let's keep the cameras rolling.

That other shooting...

A black teenager identified as Antonio Martin was shot to death by a police officer in Berkeley, MO, a couple of miles from Ferguson.  This shooting didn't get as much attention, though, because the kid "had a gun."

But did he?

The police "recovered" a gun at the scene, but somehow the officer "forgot" to wear his body camera and "forgot" to turn on his dashboard camera.  A very indistinct security video from the gas station where the shooting took place shows Martin raising his arm, but it is impossible to say if he was aiming a pistol, much less that the pistol "recovered" at the scene was his.  Since the Michael Brown shooting, at least, I'm betting a lot more policemen patrolling poor black areas carry "throw-away" guns.

The other thing I can't tell from the video is the race of the officer.  Unlike Ferguson, Berkeley has a black mayor, a black police chief, and a fairly diverse police force.  If the officer was black, many might hesitate to accuse him of an unjustified shooting.  The sad truth, though, is that black policemen are scarcely more enlightened that white policemen when dealing with young black men.  You don't have to be white to prejudge a black boy in a hoodie.

Thanksgiving catch-up

There were a number of things I wanted to mention this month, but it's been a little hectic.  Anyway:

Obama acts on immigration
ICE is the largest government agency, and an extraordinary bureaucracy.  Its administrators and agents already have ignored more than a few clear "guidances" from the White House.  Who says they'll follow orders this time.  To wit, Obama has been saying for over a year that he only wants "criminals" deported, to which ICE responded by deporting any "criminal" they caught whose only crime was entering the country illegally.

Bibi and the "Jewish State"
Isn't it bad enough that we already have an "Islamic State," and to hear many on the right express it, a "Christian Nation?"  Arab Israelis already have diminished status in Israel.  The proposed "Jewish State" law would fully institutionalize that, along with the semi-formal apartheid that already exists.

Ferguson
Anybody who ever served on a Grand Jury knows that a prosecutor who makes even a minimal effort gets an indictment, because only the state's version of events is presented to the jurors.  In the Michael Brown case, apparently, the local prosecutor's version was that the police can do no wrong. Robert P. McCulloch, whose whole family was wrapped up with the police force, and whose policeman father was killed by a black man when McCulloch was twelve years old, never should have had jusrisdiction.  The conflicts of interest were just too great.

Chuck Hegel
Chuck's problem, as anybody who was paying attention must know, was that he just wasn't part of Obama's "inner circle," a very exclusive group who have the president's ear, but have not proven themselves especially adept at giving good advice.  Hegel is well out of it, but the Oval Office cabal will be with us for two more years.

Arming the Syrian "moderates"
Who's kidding whom?  All the rebels are intent on overthrowing Assad first and foremost.  They may even work together until he's gone, and only then get down to the business of exterminating each other.

Recip Tayyip Erdogan
The President of Turkey prefers to have Sunni extremists on his border than an independent Kurdistan.  Don't look to him for help in controlling the Islamic State (or in helping to secure the rights of Turkish women.)

Race in America

It's not pleasant to be black in America, especially if you happen to be young and male.  It's not even especially pleasant to be a Harvard educated, dark complected President of the United States raised in a middle class white household who won office with a ton of Wall Street money.  The die-hard racist elements in American society don't make any particular distinctions.

 Black Americans were jubilant when the Hawaiian was elected and re-elected.  It seemed like some sort of turning point.  It wasn't.


I suspect the biggest problem is that so many white people (and Asians as well) think young black men are just too damned scary.  George Zimmerman thought Trayvon Martin was so scary he just had to follow him and shoot him.  Police officer Randall Kerrick thought auto accident victim Jonathan Ferrell was so scary he just had to shoot at him twelve times, hitting him with ten bullets.  There are plenty of other examples, so we don't have to speculate on why police officer Darren Wilson just had to shoot Michael Brown six times — twice in the top of the head, suggesting that he might already have fallen down face first after the other four shots.

So why are young black men so scary?  Well, part of the answer is that a lot of them want to look scary.  They want to look like those thug rappers, perhaps, or they want to look scary so other people will just leave them the hell alone.  Maybe, sometimes, it works.

Sometimes, though, it doesn't.

Trouble Spots

Singar Mountain
Only rarely do I hear about a religious group I've never heard of before, so the Yazidis certainly caught my interest.  According to Wikipedia, they probably are a product of Middle Eastern syncretism, with aspects of Sufi, Zoroastrian, and other religious traditions.  Frankly, I don't think the author of the article knows very much, or has many dependable sources, since the Yazidis are supposed to be kind of secretive.

One thing we do know is that when confronted by the Islamic State with the proposition of "convert to Islam or die," they are greatly inclined to die.  Personally, I wouldn't fault anybody for a little hypocrisy when confronted with such a choice, but then I don't have any god to offend, much less a "Peacock Angel."  The alternative of "tribute," as in "the Koran, tribute, or the sword" (as they taught me in junior high school) apparently is unavailable to Yazidis, since a lot of orthodox Muslims (and some Christians as well) identify the "Peacock Angel" with the nefarious Shaitan (Satan), making them devil worshipers.

It seems that the recent military reconnaissance of Singar Mountain by United States forces, which reported that the state of emergency was over, only reconnoitered the north side of the mountain, where it was safe for helicopters: no problem there.  The south side, Yazidi voices tell us, is still a humanitarian catastrophe.

Eastern Ukraine

Putin's "humanitarian convoy," last I heard, was still on its way.  The International Red Cross was a bit confused as to whether or not it had blessed the operation.  Kiev had seized the crossing point Russia intended to use from pro-Russian forces; nobody knows what's in the trucks.

I have no faith in Putin, or in anything he says.  I have no faith in anything Plutocrat Poroschenko says.  I do, however, have concerns for the innocent people of Eastern Ukraine.  Ordinary people, just trying to live their everyday lives, do not deserve to be caught up in geopolitics — but, of course, they always are.

Ferguson, Mo.

Maybe there are more young black men committing crimes than young white men — I honestly don't know.  They certainly get arrested and jailed a lot more often, while young white men get a free ride.

What I do know is that if a cop is struggling with a kid for control of his hand gun, the kid doesn't wind up shot in the back from 35 feet away.

South Sudan

Nothing much has improved in South Sudan, and nobody is paying attention.  Pay attention!