You can get off your knees now ...

It’s time for everyone to get off their knees.

What happened to George Floyd was bad. The cops involved have been arrested and charged.  They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  I’m sure they will be. 

Since everyone seems to be in complete agreement with the above, why aren’t the protests drawing to an end?  Why are the BLM folks planning even more?

It’s because the protests aren’t really about Floyd. Or justice.  The protests may have started that way, but after more than two weeks of nonstop protests, and the charging of the officers, it’s now about something well beyond the terrible death of Floyd. 

So what are they about?  What do the protestors want? Perhaps to be more to the point, what do the people trying to keep the protests going want?      

Nobody can really define precisely what the protestors want. The protestors can’t either.

They want their voices to be heard.  They say they are demanding an end to racial injustice. An end to racial inequality.  An end to systemic racism in America.  Okay. We’ve all heard all that. 

At the risk of belaboring the blindingly obvious, who wouldn’t want those things? Who would be in favor of racial injustice, racial inequality, and systemic racism?  Nobody sane.   

But there’s scant evidence that any of those are as pervasive as BLM and the protestors claim.  If anything, the preponderance of factual evidence supports just the opposite. The overwhelming majority of Americans are not racist.  Nor is the justice system racist.

Are there racists still among us? Sure.  There are racists in every race, including among blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans – whites don’t have a corner on racism.  There always will be racists; no amount of mass protesting will ever change their minds.

The reality is there aren’t that many of them anymore. Seriously, there aren’t.   

There are still some in police departments, but I’d suggest that’s a much smaller number than BLM and the media want us to believe. There’s certainly no evidence at all that racism is pervasive in routine policing by police departments across the nation. Police go where crime is, and unfortunately that’s most often in black communities, especially in urban settings.

That’s not to say there aren’t high-profile racists out there. We all know who they are.      

Some like Ralph Northam are leading states.  Some like Bill DeBlasio are leading cities. Some, like Ilhan Omar, AOC, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Talib, are actually sitting members of Congress, which baffles me.  Some, like race baiter, fraudster and tax-cheat Al Sharpton, always seem to be on TV and taken seriously.  Some like Jerimiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan are in church pulpits.   

if you view everything only through the lens of race you are a racist. If you judge people and their motives by their race alone, you’re a racist.  

All of those I named above fit that description. 

In fact, by that standard I’d wager there are more racists in BLM and in the people carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs than in all the police departments in the entire country.

The BLM leaders and others leading the protests, know this.  That’s why if you ask them to provide evidence that Americans are consciously engaging in any of what they’re striving to end, they’re lost.  They can only cite outcomes as proof these exist.  

A higher percentage of blacks than whites in prison. Far lower average wealth in black households than white households. Higher unemployment among blacks than whites.  

Now, all these things are true.  But the reason for these outcomes most often has less to do with racial injustice, racial inequality, or systemic racism  than with other causes.

Like the breakdown of the nuclear family in black communities – only about 29% of blacks are married compared to about 48% of whites.  Like the much higher percentage (over 75%) of black children born to single mothers, compared to 30% for whites. 

Like the fact that blacks account for 13% of the population but 52% of homicides, and 38.5% of all violent crimes according to FBI stats. 

If anyone does the math, it should not be surprising that blacks are about 40% of our prison population. They aren’t there because of racial injustice, however, or targeting by police, but for the simple reason that they commit more violent crimes.     

At any time, about 25% of all black males have been, or currently are, in the justice system.  That means there are fewer black males out there to serve as responsible role models for younger blacks; more black males with a criminal record.    

And black males missing by incarceration means more single-parent households, which can have a harder time raising and supporting children. It also means those same black males with a criminal record have a harder time getting a good job or moving up the economic ladder.

All this ripples through everything in the black experience and is a major reason why the black community has seemingly permanent impediments to escaping poverty and crime.

Yet the protests are not about any of this.  Nor about the fact that over 90% of murdered blacks were killed by other blacks. Nor that the leading cause of death for black teenage males is murder.  Nor the fact that police killings of unarmed blacks are fewer than a dozen a year; more unarmed whites than blacks are killed by police each year.  

These stats are well known.  But also widely ignored or buried.

So what are the protests over Floyd really about? 

One word: intimidation.  

And to a large degree, it’s working. They’ve managed to get Senators, Representatives, governors, police chiefs, National Guard, pro athletes, and vast numbers of others to kneel in submission to them. 

It’s been embarrassing to watch, because the whole “movement” has been a fraud, starting with the canonization of George Floyd. 

Mr. Floyd was a career criminal who once participated in a home invasion and held a gun to the belly of the pregnant black woman while his pals ransacked her home looking for money and drugs. He had multiple arrests on his record and spent years in prison for everything from assault to drug possession with intent to distribute. 

When he was arrested this last time, and as it turns out his final time, it was for trying to pass a forged $20 bill while he was high on meth and fentanyl. Yes, those both showed up in the toxicology reports from both his autopsies – but you’d never find that from media reports.

It’s been carefully hidden from the thousands marching to honor him.  Instead, we’re continually told by morons in the media and BLM types, race hustlers like Sharpton, as well as Floyd’s family, that he was a good man, a pillar of the community, and was turning his life around. 

No, he wasn’t any of that. He was a common criminal. He didn’t deserve to die as he did, but he’s not up there with Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr.  Not even close. It’s disgusting to see people abase themselves at the altar of a criminal like Floyd.

It's even more appalling to hear our politicians and celebrities kissing up to something they know is an outright fraud. And trust me, they know it’s all a fraud.  The only reason they are sucking up to this is they’re afraid of the mob; they are afraid to speak out for fear people won’t like them.  In that regard, BLM and the protestors’ goal of intimidation has succeeded. 

It’s empowered them to demand more. Kneeling’s not enough anymore. Now that they’ve got politicians, celebrities, the media, over-the-hill lefties, young white guys with man-buns and tats, and rich white girls trying to act “street,” on their knees, they want more.

Like getting rid of the police.  I think they’re just trying to see how far they can push their power.  Testing behavior, in other words. But of course the Democrat Party, never one to miss the opportunity to pander shamelessly, is starting to support this numbskull idea.   

Suddenly, everyone has to believe in Black Lives Matter. Or else.   

Everyone but me, I guess. I believe black lives matter as much as white lives, Asian lives, Hispanic lives and others, but no more than those other lives matter.  I simply can’t accept the BLM movement at face value.     

If Black Lives Matter, then why do only blacks shot be police, and not blacks shot by other blacks matter?  If Black Lives Matter so much, then why did 18 blacks die in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, with another 85 shot, and the black mayor says she has everything under control?  If Black Lives Matter, why is okay to loot and burn down black-owned businesses, and torch black neighborhoods – to protest racial inequality? 

It time to get off your knees, everyone.  Stop buying the BS that this matters.  That by kowtowing to the mob they will like you. That you have something to be guilty about. 

It doesn’t. They won’t. And you don’t. Stop embarrassing yourselves.