June 19^th

Pat Buchanan is whining about the unfair news coverage of police aggression against blacks. He claims that race relations are more poisonous now than at the Selma bridge on bloody Sunday in 1965. Well that’s a stretch. Cops then treated protesting black people like outlaws, releasing police dogs, beating them with night sticks and hosing them with powerful water cannons. We no longer have this mass bullying; now it’s a bit more piecemeal.

Buchanan claims that the “Times” rehashes old (by which he means a year ago) stories of police excesses. Of course they do and they do it to remind their readers that these are not isolated incidents. Buchanan prefers they not do that; perhaps he prefers the public not be allowed to see any pattern.

Then he describes the cop at the pool party who with a well applied wrist lock forces a teen-aged black girl to the ground until her face is in the dirt. The “Times” had many pictures of this as did most news services. This made great theatre; beefy cop vs. fifteen year old girl in a bathing suit, you can guess the outcome. But then just to make it clear to one and all who was in charge, the cop pulls out his gun and waves it around at other kids who were trying to duck and dodge away from him, He was the senior officer present but the other two cops seeing this as a bit excessive try to restrain him. They do, fortunately, before he kills anyone. This particular cop was a ten year veteran and subsequently resigned; it’s a shame he didn’t resign a day earlier.

Now Buchanan asks if this story would have had any traction if the girl had been white. The story would not exist if the girl had been white because in that case the cop would never have done what he did. Cops do not behave that way with white girls, or if they do they know that they will be looking for a different job the next day.  It’s Interesting that the photographic evidence shows these cops completely bypassing a white male teenager in trunks and a t-shirt to focus their attention on the black kids. Later, in an interview, this white kid said that he couldn’t understand why some of his black friends were hassled while he was ignored.

Then Buchanan can’t understand the outrage at the police killing black people because most killings of black men are by other black men. Of course most child abuse in this country is perpetrated by relatives of the child. Does this mean that we should have no concern about Catholic priests abusing children?