Why Did the Actions of a Minneapolis Police Officer Become Assaults on Law Enforcement Personnel Everywhere?

Why does the perceived misconduct by a police officer against a black person generate attacks against cops in general and rioting in the neighborhood where the subject event occurred?

And why is the policeman’s actions in Minneapolis a cause for protest and rioting in Atlanta and Los Angeles, for instance?

Why is the conduct of a single person in a particular city attributed not only to that city’s police force but to law enforcement everywhere?

A half-century ago in the era of Bull Connor and the Birmingham, Alabama, police force, the actions of policemen attacking civil rights marchers was fairly characterized as the policy of the local government.

But now?  And of all places, Minneapolis which is run by liberals.  (The very same could be said about the Baltimore riots of only a few years ago.)

Has the Left’s propensity to place Americans into racial camps borne bitter fruit indeed?  If one’s sense of identity is primarily racial, instead of one’s personal individual character, then an attack on, for instance, a fellow black is taken personally as if it is on oneself.  That is motivation to revenge the attack on a fellow tribe member. 

Following that line of thinking, the police officer is a member of the law enforcement tribe, so any cop is a fair target for retribution.

That’s simply crazy – and such thinking is truly dangerous for Americans.

Abuse of power by police will always occur.  Some people will allow authority to go to their heads.  We can do our best to weed out (and major police departments do) those deemed risks, but the nature of humankind is that power corrupts – always has, always will.  Should we, therefore, abolish police forces – because some members will be abusive – and let anarchy reign?

The culprit in police brutality and misconduct episodes in tolerant modern day America is the individual alone (unless there is evidence to the contrary).  Culpability does not belong to broader forces.  

Viewed from such a perspective, the media coverage of the riots appears shameless and outrageous.

Where are the voices making clear that “violent protest” in the context of a civil society is an oxymoron?  And why don’t we hear an outcry from the Left and black leaders of condemnation against the rioting which destroys the property and lives of those in the typically vulnerable communities affected?

Be assured that to the extent significant segments of society tolerate and excuse such conduct - as is certainly the case now – inevitable future deaths of black criminal suspects will generate an even more violent reaction against “them” (members of the other “tribes”).

Tribal thinking – promoted by the Left – is indeed a danger to the American nation.