Don’t let them get away with this.

The Straw Man logical fallacy occurs when a person ignores the actual issue being debated and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of the opposing position that is easier to rebut. For years, there has been an organized effort in the Obama Administration, the progressive movement, the civil rights movement and among black activists to represent American society as racist, along with the American law enforcement system and justice systems, and to maintain  the false narrative that racism was responsible for several high-profile deaths of black men, and that specific police officers, such as Darren Wilson, were guilty of racist executions and exonerated by a racist system.

The strategy has been richly fertilized by relentless accusations that white voters and the Republican party hold racial animus against Barack Obama because of his race. The deliberately divisive effort has resulted in a level of fear, anger and distrust of white Americans in the African American community not seen in over half a century, with white police officers serving as the immediate targets. Predictably, two New York City cops were assassinated by a deranged black man after posting social media messages referencing the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, and critics have correctly stated that the reckless race-baiters have “blood on their hands.” Sensing that a looming tipping point may be going against their divide and conquer agenda, they are ducking and weaving like Muhammad Ali in his prime.

The news media’s main defense is to condemn such accusations as “the blame game.” ‘This is a time to come together, not to start pointing fingers!’ is the theme. How convenient for those who have been making this moment inevitable for six years or more, and the lazy, complicit press that followed their lead. This isn’t blame, this is accountability. What we are reading and hearing is #46 on the Ethics Alarms Rationalizations List,  Zola’s Rejection, or “Don’t point fingers!”

The rest of the race-baiting team meanwhile, are resorting to two tactics: denial, and most of all, the Straw Man diversion. The denials are ridiculous and embarrassing: I have read them in comments on Ethics Alarms threads with astonishment. Oh no! We’re not suggesting, when we hold our hands up and shout “don’t shoot!,” that a white cop executed an “unarmed black teen” in the street because of his race, even though “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” is the false narrative begun by Mike Brown’s companion when he was shot, formed the basis of the original protests, and is immediately associated with Ferguson…even though Mike Brown’s parents and lawyer have insisted that he was executed, and because of his race…even though they have so accused the police officer before a United Nations agency…even though the suggestion that Brown was executed means that a white police officer is a racist murderer and that he was freed by a system that refuses to give justice to blacks. No! This gesture doesn’t mean what gives it meaning, or refer to what everyone knows it refers to!  It’s just a powerful symbol that calls for reform! It’s just a coincidence that it happens to suggest that an innocent cop is a racist killer.”

The Straw Man argument is now being used to bolster the denial. In this case, the Straw Man is that protesters and public officials were never anti-police—they just were trying to point the way toward reforms. The poet laureate of this dishonest effort is resident Slate race-baiter Jamelle Bouie, who has authored an essay titled Battered and Blue: Police departments shouldn’t feel under siege. The public just wants better policing.

Incredibly, given the topic, Bouie manages to avoid using the words “race,” “black,” “white,” or “African American” anywhere in his piece. “Race? Race is an issue here? Nahhh!!” Instead, he pretends that the issue is all about “better policing.” This is all constructive! Why is everyone so upset?

Better policing! That’s all Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) meant when he wrote this month in The Atlantic,

What has happened to the soul of America that makes citizens more interested in justifying these murders than stopping them?Dr. King declared in his 1967 speech, “Racism is evil because its ultimate logic leads to genocide …. It is an affirmation,” he said, “that the very being of a people is inferior,” and therefore unworthy of the same regard as other human life. Do Americans accept the deaths of hundreds and thousands of young men and boys simply because they are black? Ignorance of their day-to-day lives is no excuse for what is done in society’s name.

In the presence of injustice, no one has the right to be silent. Members of government and the business, faith, and even law-enforcement communities must stand up and say enough is enough. Let the young lives of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sean Bell, John Crawford, and Trayvon Martin serve a higher purpose to shine the light of truth on our democracy and challenge us to meet the demand for equal justice in America.

If this isn’t about race, why are the only police shooting victims mentioned by Louis black? Why isn’t he equally concerned, for example, about John Geer?

Well, we know why, and so does Bouie.

Sometimes Bouie strays from his “let’s change the subject” course into outright lies, as when he writes,

“Police officers aren’t under siege from hostile elected officials. At no point, for example, has de Blasio attacked the New York City Police Department.”

Really? What does the Mayor’s statement, “Is my child safe, and not just from some of the painful realities of crime and violence in some of our neighborhoods,” said de Blasio, “but safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors? That’s the reality” mean? Police seem to think it means that De Blasio’s child, who is black, may not be safe because “the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors”—that is, the police—are into killing black kids. So do I.

“Likewise, neither President Obama nor Attorney General Eric Holder has substantively criticized police,” continues Bouie. Nice word, “substantively.” Nice word, “police.” No, they both just made it clear that certain white men had profiled young men that “looked like they could be [Obama’s ] son” or even the young future President himself, and killed them. But this wasn’t a general criticism of police, so see?

It’s all a big misunderstanding!

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Sources: Slate, The Atlantic