Tom Finneran: This Is So Wrong, Part Two and Three
Monday, June 01, 2020
Tom Finneran is the former MA Speaker of the House
Events intervened as they so often do. Those events require comment.
First, the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin reminded America that the issues of police brutality and race relations are always on high simmer. As if we needed such a reminder………….
Good cops everywhere are now endangered. Black parents everywhere tremble at the thought that their sons and daughters remain at risk. A stubborn, perverse, and persistent tension exists between communities that need and deserve service and protection and the uniformed men and women who are trained and sworn to provide that service and protection.
One might quite reasonably think that by now, in the year 2020 A.D., we might all get along quite comfortably with each other, be we black, brown, or white. Facts, however, stubborn frustrating facts, quickly dispel such reasonable thoughts. Instead, suspicions abound. Our racial history, so ugly, so violent, and so cruel holds us all in an ironic bondage.
Each side of this exhausting struggle has its facts:
Police officers are front-line witnesses to the horrific acts of black criminals holding black communities hostage to guns and violence. Those officers are front-line witnesses and victims of a hatred and contempt which is impossible to comprehend.
Black citizens are front-line witnesses to harsh police brutality and cruel police indifference far too often. So often indeed, that a weary exhaustion sets in, along with a sullen sub-surface anger at the glacial pace of positive change.
To the person who might be able to bridge these gulfs we should confer a Nobel Prize for Peace.
A word about the rioters and looters:
You are not emissaries of change. You are not noble rebels. Your vicious beating of shopkeepers, your celebratory burning of police cars, and your joyous looting of stores does a grave disservice to the life and memory of George Floyd. Your taunting and provocation of the police advances no worthy cause.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, two law enforcement men have been gunned down. David Underwood was killed while guarding a federal courthouse in Oakland, California. For those who think that skin color is relevant, Mr. Underwood was black. Mr. David Dorn, a retired St. Louis police captain, was gunned down by looters intent on robbing Mr. Dorn’s friend’s store. For those who think that skin color is important, Mr. Dorn was black. Go figure---two black men get gunned down by thugs who are angry about a black man being killed.
I close this saddest of weeks with a prediction:
Gun sales in America will increase. The scenes of violence playing out on our television screens will convince people of the need to protect themselves and their families against social chaos. I offer no comment or criticism of such a decision.
I only note, with profound sadness, that good Americans, black and white, know that matters are slipping away.
America knows---all of this is so very very wrong.
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