Acting Like Something Matters

Anyone who thinks that policemen are the only target of the thugs unleashed nationwide by communist-led activists and their media apparatchiks in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting is wrong. Video of a brutal attack on the St. Louis MetroLink shows an adult male (pictured) -- This is no man. -- using the incident as an excuse to attack someone who refused to let him use his cell phone. It is law and order, and the reasonable expectation of being free to mind one's own business, that are the real targets. (Emboldened criminals and their abettors are just useful idiots.)

According to the 43-year-old victim, a man in his early 20's asked to use his cell phone. When the victim declined to let the suspect use his cell phone, the suspect sat next to him and asked what he thought about the "Mike Brown situation." When the victim responded that he had not thought much about it, the suspect began punching him in the face, according to the police report. "I think it was disgusting that no one [helped]," the victim said. "People were sort of laughing and smiling about it. No one offered to help and no one attempted to call 911."

A popular slogan among the protesters and their sympathizers is "Black lives matter."

The media made sure (first link above) that Michael Brown's actual moral character received little attention, so let's set that aside for the sake of argument. If lives, black or otherwise, matter, the things that make them possible matter. These things include property rights, the ability to sit on a train without fear of being attacked, law and order, and respect for other human beings as individuals. The attacker, his immediate accomplices, and the cowards who smiled and laughed -- all seem, by their actions, to think that none of those things is important. It's easy to say, "Black lives matter," but understanding what that really means and then acting like it takes effort.

There is a strong case for police and municipal government reform, but our society's problems don't stop there. Nor are government officials the only people who must be held accountable for their actions. I think the declarations of open season on policemen (vice actual reform) and the canonization of Michael Brown are manifestations of a soft bigotry of low expectations or crude pandering. The problems these exacerbate are not confined to rough parts of town or to members of one race. Until we all start insisting on civilized behavior from each other and doing what we can to promote law and order, we will continue our descent into barbarism.

-- CAV