I was channel surfing over the weekend trying to take my head out of the coronavirus cloud when up popped protests and riots. So much for social distancing, America. It all went out the window with one blatant act of police brutality caught on video. By all indications, it was one bad cop, one bad scene, one bad arrest.
The tragedy is that this takedown was the “exception“ and not the “rule.” Some people would disagree with that, but they would be wrong.
Many friends and members of my own family are involved in law-enforcement and detective work - the most dangerous job in America. Each and every one of them is committed to serving the community, setting a positive example for young people, and being proud of being first-responders to crime scenes and potentially life-threatening situations. They are the rule and not the exception.
Yet, this was a bad collar made worst by an arresting officer who, evidently, personally knew his suspect and caused him bodily harm while under “protective” custody. That form of takedown, knee-to-throat, is not in any police manual or guidelines anywhere in America. Period. Yet, the damage was done. What should have been a routine arrest turned into a national crisis, and just like that, COVID mitigation was over.
There are now protests and protesters in every major city, marching arm-in-arm, chanting into the air without fear, and without acknowledging the benefits of Hydroxychloroquine.
I envisioned the NIAID director Dr. Tony Fauci hiding in a bathroom somewhere with an old-fashioned slide-rule and spreadsheet. FAUCI: “Lemme see - 80 thousand new cases, times an infection rate factor of X, plus or minus the square root of pi...” The man must be beside himself seeing these untethered crowds.
Then, I heard the chants on my TV: “DEFUND THE POLICE!” I thought it was an audio glitch at first. Then, I heard it again: “DEFUND THE POLICE.” Some protesters later painted 16th St. NW with those same words - the street which leads up to the White House.
Later that night, came the hushed videos of the looting and rioting which took place after peaceful protests. During the day, you have a lot of well-meaning people coming from a lot of different directions ending up with cross-purposes. But, generally peaceful. It’s a different story at night. After curfew, others come out - looters and arsonists. Also, political agitators - who really don’t care about anything other than themselves and their own knee-to-throat “takedown” of America. It starts with, “DEFUND THE POLICE” and recruits desperate folks who loot and burn alongside them.
In the middle of all this, the specter of the Coronavirus has dropped from sight. Who now can honestly prohibit large group gatherings, or a visit to the beach, a boating trip, an open outdoor concert, or even a political rally?
You can’t.
We were all “told” to shelter in place for three months. Then, we opened our windows and were told, “DEFUND THE POLICE!” We can do one - but not both.
Defunding the Police is of course insane. Taking the police presence out of public schools, which is also a mantra, is ludicrous as well. We’ve been down this road before. We just got our children back into true “safe zones.” Their perimeters are now secure and the deterrent is set - unless its defunded.
I can understand the concerns of governors and mayors for the health of their citizens and keeping them sequestered and locked up in their houses. Even, Gretchen Whitmer, the Machiavellian governor of Michigan who fought so hard to keep people from motorboating or buying seeds for their garden, even she was seen leading a vociferous group of protesters.
All that mitigating - now 2020 hindsight.
So, as huge groups of people continue to march arm-in-arm, breathing in each other’s faces, and yelling out demands to us all, the rest of us should all take some comfort in knowing that the Pandemic is now officially, “over” - we were strangely forced back to “normal” due to a national protest.
Unless of course, there is a huge spike in the coronavirus and tens of thousands of protesters, Democrat mayors and governors, all suddenly end up in the COVID Emergency Room - uh, not likely.
It’s funny, how some things go down.
As for the numbers of how we actually got to this remarkable comeback to normalcy - we will have to leave all that up to Dr. Fauci - as soon as the poor fellow comes out of the bathroom with his spreadsheets.
Victor Pisano is a member of Ford Plantation.