Rich Lowry Spinning Furiously—NOW He And NR Want Ferguson PD To Enforce The Law
08/16/2014
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After a week of publishing screeds from National Review Online's resident illegal alien, and my personal nemesis and on whom I have declared kanly, Kevin Williamson, as well as Charles Cooke, and Jim Geraghty, Rich Lowry suddenly got the old-time NRO religion on race relations. All it took was a night of rioting under the new, non-militarized, policing policy. Geraghty is the curious one, as he is NR's inside baseball reporter on the practice of politics with a column titled The Campaign Spot, which may excuse his ignorance of law enforcement and race issues, but that is no justification for his stupidity in his Ferguson column.

First, Lowry:

NRO August 16, 2014 by Rich Lowry

New Police Tactic in Ferguson: Betray Local Business Owners

We’ve been told for days now that that the reason there was rioting in Ferguson is because protesters were “provoked” by militarized police. I agree with some of my colleagues that cops should look like cops (see Kevin’s excellent piece here), and it is deeply unsettling to see police atop armored vehicles training weapons on protesters. On the other hand, there is no justification to throw projectiles at police, no matter what kind of uniforms they are wearing or what kind of vehicles they have, nor is there any justification for destroying or stealing other people’s property.

Now, we’ve had a real world test of the “provocation” thesis. The highway patrol came in with a much softer and friendlier posture and it seemed to work Thursday night in reducing tensions, but it didn’t last night. Shamefully, the cops evidently stood by while looters destroyed and stole things. We’ve heard an awful lot about the function of police in our society the last few days. Well, how about this as a function? Protect the property of innocent people.

And:
NRO August 16, 2014 by Ryan Lovelace

An ‘Impromptu Street Festival’ Turns into a Riot in Ferguson

Friday night started festive, but after midnight, cops did nothing to stop the start of looting.

Ferguson, Mo. — The protests in Ferguson started off not somber or angry on Friday night, but instead celebratory. Then, as the night wore on, the protests grew violent and looters ransacked local stores...

Protesters wandered through the streets drinking and smoking without fear of retribution from the cops. Missouri State Highway Patrol captain Ron Johnson tells NRO that he, St. Louis County Police chief Jon Belmar, and other police had decided to stay away from the center of Friday night’s protest on West Florissant Street — near the destroyed QuikTrip — because the situation appeared stable and he didn’t want people to think something had gone wrong. Johnson and Belmar were stationed with police at the Ferguson Market and Liquor store parking lot.

As the night turned to morning, looters approached the market, and police reportedly were ordered to “stand down” and allowed looters to take over the liquor store, St. Louis County Police told Fox 2 in St. Louis. Looters set fire to a Domino’s Pizza, hit the liquor store, and broke through a beauty store. Much of the looting took place after 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, and storeowners told CNN they were frustrated that police did not intervene.

There we have it, hands-off policing as advocated by Cooke and Williamson. The result was predictable, more rioting by black thugs. It should be no surprise as Captain Ronald Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol was photographed earlier with Bloods gang members. It appears that Johnson was protecting his fellow blacks from arrest.
Note the Bloods gang members identified by their red bandanas and red baseball caps. Red is the color of the Bloods.

Here is Williamson:

NRO August 14, 2014

Looks That Kill

The second principle is “to recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions, and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.” He called this “policing by consent.” The policeman, in Peel’s view, was a citizen: “The police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

The conclusion then is that blacks have withdrawn their consent from policing, which would only be news to the eternally dense Williamson, since blacks long ago embraced crime as a political response to white Americans. The police in black areas are an occupation army, as blacks no longer consider themselves part of the American nation. If your response to the shooting of a convicted felon caught fleeing from a strong-armed robbery is to riot, then you are not part of the commonweal.

Such stupidity is no surprise from Williamson and Cooke, but what was shocking was the posting from Jack Dunphy, who in his long career with the Los Angeles Police Department, given a wood shampoo to many a black rioter.

NRO August 15, 2014 by Jack Dunphy

Ferguson and the Unwritten Contract between Police and the Community

When the Ferguson officer drove onto the block and saw Michael Brown and his friend walking down the middle of the street, he expected them to move to the sidewalk as soon as they realized a police car was approaching. When they didn’t, the officer took it as a violation of the contract, even a challenge. Which in a way it was.

What happened after that has yet to be fully revealed, but if it’s true that Michael Brown was 35 feet away from the officer when he was shot, I can’t imagine a set of facts that would justify it.

Still, even if the shooting is as unjustified as some are claiming, how this translates into a license to pillage the neighborhood escapes me.

One would think that Dunphy, who defended the California Highway Patrol officer who had a video-taped scuffle with a crazed homeless black woman wandering on a freeway would have defended the officer in Ferguson as well, but he, like Rich Lowry, was too busy positioning himself early in the issue. Too bad breaking news has shown Michael Brown was fleeing a strong-armed robbery when he was shot. Dunphy should have held his tongue, for as usual, the cultural-Marxist narrative has fallen apart.
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