Criminal Inversion

Two weeks ago, we observed the 51^st anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon.  Neil Armstrong first set foot upon the moon on July 20, 1969, followed by Buzz Aldrin (who I had the pleasure of hearing speak a couple of years ago at the Printers Row Lit Fest) while Michael Collins circled above, waiting for them to reunite and ferry them safely home.  The moon landing was one of America’s singular achievements of the 20^th century and all of America was transfixed by this scientific, engineering and, yes, government accomplishment.

Armstrong’s death, like his life, was observed in a rather low key and modest fashion.  It was reported in the news and PBS ran a special on his life, but his modest funeral service was attended by a few hundred people and he was buried at sea with little fanfare.  There are only a couple of statues of him – one at Purdue and one at USC (thankfully, not destroyed yet).   Armstrong was truly an American hero, an iconic and yet modest man that risked much to do what America asked of him (the lunar module had only about 15 seconds of fuel remaining when it set down on the lunar surface).

Fast forward about a half century to the funerals of George Floyd.  His death came at the hands of an overzealous rogue police officer with a string of complaints of rough treatment of citizens.  But Floyd himself had quite a record of criminal behavior, imprisoned for 5 years for assault and battery of a pregnant woman.  His run in with Chauvin arose out of passing counterfeit money and he had fentanyl and meth in his system.  However the trial of Chauvin turns out, the fact remains that Floyd was not someone you would want as your neighbor. Yet Floyd’s passing was marked by 4 funerals, a gilded casket, wall-to-wall news coverage and sobbing and wailing by liberal politicians.

The contrast between George Floyd’s funeral with Armstrong’s memorial service couldn’t be more stark.  In 50 short years, this is where we are.

The criminal inversion has been brewing for some time.  Barack Obama gave it legs by claiming the police acted “stupidly” in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and then welcomed Black Lives Matter into the White House with open arms.

Like most really bad ideas, the criminal inversion—lionizing and freeing criminals and punishing law abiding citizens began in the university system.  It began at Oberlin College where the local bakery had 3 black youths prosecuted for shoplifting.  The university began a campaign to drive out the bakery, organized protests and canceled its contract with the bakery, claiming the bakery was “racist.”  The bakery sued for libel and obtained a $25 million judgment (reduced to $11 million).  The Gibson’s Bakery case was really the first significant case of an attempt to turn the victim of a crime into the perpetrator.

But with pandemic and the George Floyd incident, things have rolled downhill very quickly.  While prison reform was passed,  COVID19 gave progressive (read: Marxist) politicians the excuse to empty prisons.  Bail reform and feckless prosecutors like Kim Foxx declined to prosecute cases.   And then with the George Floyd incident, the insane “defund the police” movement gained traction, with New York, Minneapolis, Portland and other cities substantially reducing resources devoted to policing (Chicago had quietly done this over time) with a concomitant spike in violent crime.

The citizenry noticed when, during the pandemic, criminals were set free and rioters were let loose to wreak havoc, smash retail establishments and steal goods, while normal, law abiding citizens were arrested at beaches, playgrounds and parks for violating social distancing rules.  Local governments gave protesters a free pass to gather in masses while ordinary working people were forbidden to attend church services.

In Atlanta, the police officer that shot Rayshard Brooks after Brooks stole the officer’s taser and fired at him was charged with felony murder.  Brooks, like George Floyd was lionized by the press and even some politicians like Indiana senator Mike Braun.  ABC wrote a glowing profile of Brooks, calling him a “dedicated family man” even though he beat his wife and child and had multiple felonies on his record.

Most egregiously, the McCluskeys of St. Louis were charged with a felony for the unlawful use of a weapon when they responded to a mob that had broken down their gate and threatened to overrun their home.  None of the threatening mob was charged.   And now there are reports of prosecutorial misconduct as there are allegations that the prosecutors office tampered with Mrs. McCluskey’s gun to make it operable (it was heretofore inoperable).

Beginning with the Obama administration, there was a concerted effort to degrade police officers, distort the true incidents of police brutality, and criminalize the police and private citizens while at the same time liberating criminals through “criminal justice reform,” low or no bail and the pretext of COVID19 risk (while placing the risk of criminal behavior on law abiding citizens).

What’s behind this?  Nothing less than the wholesale destruction of American society.  Saddam Hussein emptied his prisons on the eve of the U.S. invasion figuring that dispersing criminal elements would make the country ungovernable by an occupying force.  The Radical Left is using the exact same tactic to fracture American society.  By demonizing the people whose job it is to keep the peace and freeing and lionizing those that would do us harm, they are making our society ungovernable.  If this continues, only a totalitarian right or left leader will be able to regain control, and the Radical Left is betting that it will be the latter.