Is This An Example of Systemic Racism?
On July 3, 2021, Bryan Rhoden drove a Dodge Ram pickup truck into a sand trap at a golf course in an Atlanta suburb. When Gene Sillers, the course’s golf pro, came to check on the situation, Rhoden, police claim, shot Sillers in the head killing him. Two other men were dead in the pickup truck, including the truck’s owner.
Rhoden had a series of run-ins with the law.
In 2016, Rhoden’s gun was used to shoot a 19 year old in the chest three times. In the incident, Rhoden, who was then 18, got shot in the chest. It seems to have been a drug deal. But the district attorney did not prosecute Rhoden.
Do you think if Rhoden were black it would have been a different outcome?
In January of 2020, Rhoden punched a police officer at the Atlanta airport and elbowed another officer. He was charged with simple battery and obstructing an officer then released from jail on bond. He pled not guilty and the case is pending.
Can you imagine if Rhoden had been black how this would have been treated?
A few months later, police arrested Rhoden again after a traffic stop. He had a few thousand in cash and 44 marijuana joints in his car. But he was let go again. A few months after that, Rhoden led Indiana police on a car chase. Again, they let him go on a bond.
You have to ask yourself again what the response would have been if Rhoden were black, given how progressive activists claim the justice system works against black men.
If that’s not enough to show you just what a double standard the justice system has for people of different races, the night of Gene Siller’s murder, Rhoden got pulled over for driving a Maserati with a broken headlight and tail light. The car’s license plate did not match the car’s VIN number. Rhoden had a Georgia license and a South Carolina license, both with his photo, but with fake names. And again Bryan Rhoden was given bond and let out of jail.
This is a repeated pattern, time and time again, over several years where Bryan Rhoden got released from jail on bond after assaulting police, leading police on a chase, etc. etc. etc. Imagine how much tougher in each individual instance and cumulatively the police and justice system would have been on Bryan Rhoden if he were black.
Except, of course, Bryan Rhoden is black.
Also on July 3, a group of well-armed men tied up traffic in Massachusetts. Progressives on Twitter immediately rushed out their hot takes that the men had to be white because the police would have otherwise dealt harshly with them. The men identified as a black separatist movement of Moors and were actually black. The police dealt responsibly with the men.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the “systemic racism” in our justice system really aren’t racial issues. This is like the supposed anti-Asian hate, wherein the data shows most of it is caused by young black men, but progressives say it is still white supremacy that is the problem.
Anecdote is not evidence. But I would suggest screaming about systemic racism is a distraction from what are bigger issues related to reform and justice. “Systemic racism” is an unfalsifiable claim with a lot of evidence suggesting there are other issues. But it sure makes a certain type of white person feel good to say they believe the nation that elected Barack Obama and Kamala Harris and let Bryan Rhoden out of jail repeatedly is systemically racist. It’s a convenient way to not have to deal with deeper issues like the break up of the family and the failures of progressive social policy like the Great Society and the supposed war on poverty.
A Double Standard
Texas Democrats have fled Texas. The state legislature has gone into a special session. The Texas constitution requires a two-thirds quorum. The Democratic legislators fled the state on a private air charter with a case of Miller Lite to Washington, D.C. They intend to protest for a federal voting rights bill.
The media has heralded the Democrats as brave heroes taking a stand.
What they are actually doing is stopping the lawfully and democratically elected legislature from meeting democratically to change a law. I thought that was bad, but apparently only when Republicans do it. The media always gives Democrats a pass on this sort of behavior.
In reality, this is all performance art. The Democrats cannot slow this down because they have to come back for redistricting. That will happen in another special session. If they refuse to come back for that, Texas law allows a committee of most of the statewide officials — all Republicans — to draw the lines. I suspect a few Democrats will sneak back in exchange for safe state legislative seats.
This gets media attention. The media has pushed the “For the Peopl Act” relentlessly to no avail. This will not get it passed either. But the left gets a preferred media narrative. The GOP is interested in winning the fight. The Democrats just want to win Twitter.
Where Are The Mask?
An NBC reporter in Texas tweeted out the picture the Texas Democratic legislators took of themselves on their air charter.
They’re on a commercial jet to Washington without masks. Several of these legislators openly assailed Governor Greg Abbott for getting rid of the mask mandate and reopening Texas. So where are their masks?
Or are masks just for the little people?
I heard Joe Biden give a speech today, yelling really, about how everyone should just accept the outcome of the election. To move on, it is what it is. I personally do not have a problem doing that. However, for four years that Donald Trump was president the democrats never accepted that he won the election. They never moved on. They acted like two year old's. They never respected him as president. So why is Joe yelling at people - about something his party could not do. Joe didn't yell at Nancy or Chuck or any democrat for not accepting the outcome. Double standards I see in everything.
:) All we can do is pray for them!
Right on target Erick - It was maddening to learn of Rhoden's extensive rap sheet with no apparent application of justice. I know of a non-black kid who spent 10 days in jail for smoking pot in a car. I guess it depends on where you break the law. We don't need to defund the police, who appeared to have done their jobs on all of Rhoden's arrests. We many need to defund the weak DA's offices or at least remove the "Let's Make a Deal" app on their iPhones.