Seattle’s embarrassing, dishonest reaction to Ferguson

Good news, Seattle. A bunch of white hipsters blocked the streets of Capitol Hill Monday night to protest the decision in Ferguson. All racial tensions have been quelled as a result. Right?

Without fail, activists who yearn for something to complain about, came out in full force Monday night in Seattle as an apparent response to the grand jury’s decision in Missouri not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. They started protesting before they read any of the grand jury documents released, which include eyewitness testimony of what actually happened.

Unfortunately, they just couldn’t stay peaceful or reasonable. It’s not what they do. They shout insults at the cops who they call if someone breaks into their home. They vandalize local businesses. They shut down the I-5 freeway. And even though these activists usually speak out in favor of gun control, one of the activists was armed with a handgun and arrested on a weapons violation. These people are an embarrassment.

Moments after President Obama asked us to accept the rule of law, Mayor Ed Murray dangerously and dishonestly called the Brown death a “murder” so he could pander to the city’s out-of-control activists, which now include rapper Macklemore.

That kind of rhetoric only fans the flames of activists reacting based on their emotions, not on any facts. The mayor has given no indication he’s read the grand jury documents released. He said we’re failing black people in this country and in this city. (If we are, maybe he should remind us of the last time we had a Republican mayor or majority city council in Seattle that thinks a little bit differently than they do – have those folks been allowed to present their ideas on fixes?).

Murray said the city is no Ferguson, but we still have our problems, (though activists want you to think black people are being mowed down by cops in this city, not that last year we had 19 homicides and this year, so far, 17 – hardly outlandish for a city of this size.)

Local businessman and social justice activist Nick Hanauer, trying to be clever I suppose, tweeted, “Retweet if you believe that anytime a police officer kills an unarmed citizen they should go to jail.” Hanauer has given no indication he’s read the grand jury documents released.

What all these activists and city leaders have in common is they didn’t bother to read the grand jury documents because they don’t actually care what happened. Injustice, to them, is when the justice system fails to deliver the results they want – even if those results aren’t based on those pesky little things called facts. They based their judgment on completely discredited Twitter witness testimony and they don’t want to admit they were wrong. They don’t want to admit that the #HandsUpDontShoot movement may not actually be based on reality. Witness #10, for example, told detectives,

“I never seen him [Brown] put his hands up or anything… he started charging towards the police officer… He stopped running and when he stopped running the police officer stopped firing. Then Mr. Brown continued, started again to charge towards him and after that the police officer… started to fire once more at him.”

Had the grand jury indicted, you’d have heard activists say the jurors overcame the systemic, institutionalized racism in the justice system to stand up for an innocent black life. They push phony narrative after phony narrative for no reason other than to quell their own white guilt over our undoubtedly racist past, but the keyword is ‘past.’

Does racism still exist? Absolutely. Is it pervasive? No, thankfully. Are black people in this country suffering a genocide at the hands of racist cops? Not even close. Think differently? I’m sure some of you do and you’ll self-righteously tell me how much smarter and more in touch with reality you are than I am, but how about you pause on the social justice sloganeering and present some actual data points to back up your position and we’ll have an honest and civil discussion.

Perhaps, if you view problems within a certain community, try offering up solutions that go beyond explaining how evil police officers are.