The more I work at getting a big picture of current events, the less I see racism and evil conspiracies by oligarchs, and the more I see incompetence and irresponsibility. I know racism and evil oligarchs exist, but I am starting to think that they receive more than their fair share of blame for our problems. Specifically, much of what we perceive as racism on the part of law enforcement officers is the incompetence of police, the media, those confronted by the police, greedy oligarchs, and the rest of us.
I'm not qualified to say whether the officer in McKinney, Texas acted appropriately or not, just from watching the viral video. I get the impression that controlling that situation would have been an enormous challenge for any police officer. Throwing the black girl in the bikini to the ground may not have been a good idea, but he did not seem to take race into account when he brandished his weapon.
The video reminded me of a question I had shortly after the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri last summer: How did the officer and the shooting victim end up in the front seat of the police car, struggling for the officer's weapon? I get the impression that the officer was unprepared and the shooting victim was unnecessarily combative.
The first reports I heard about the incident in McKinney glossed over the reason the police went to the pool party in the first place; that the party had gotten out of control. A fight broke out between two women. Also, the party was overwhelmed with uninvited guests. I don't know what the women were fighting about, but I heard that the uninvited guests learned about the party from stray tweets.
So, personal conflicts escalated to the point where the police needed to be called. One officer used more force than necessary. People at the scene were uncooperative and even obstructive. The media got a hold of the video and focused on the most sensational thing they could find in order to gain advertising revenue.
The media pander to our thirst for the sensational. A few years ago I saw a story on the news about the police in London arresting a protester swimming in the Thames. The story said nothing about what the guy was protesting. They don't concern themselves with getting all the facts or presenting all sides of a story.
We like to think that the evil oligarchs undermined the media, public education and the government in order to control us. We like to say that the evil oligarchs are responsible for the race baiting that divides us. This assumes a certain level of competence on their part. I think they're making it up as they go along, just like the rest of us. They know they can make money by giving us what we want and don't think about the consequences.
The oligarchs don't need to undermine our government, media or public education. They just wager on our apathy. We wanted a less rigorous educational system, and the oligarchs didn't think that giving it to us would result in a less educated workforce for them. We wanted cheap cameras and free social media, so the oligarchs made it possible. They don't care if we use these things to share videos of our cats or our racist cops, as long as it turns a profit.
The rest of us are incompetent either because we are racist or because we don't appreciate what a law enforcement officer's duty is. Racists will use the video of the pool party to as an example of black people behaving badly, ignoring the fact that white people behaved just as badly. Those who assume racism on the part of the police will see only the black girl in the bikini being thrown to the ground. They will not appreciate how the officer and his comrades had an extremely volatile situation on their hands, and had a duty to prevent anyone from getting hurt.
There is plenty of racism and greed in the world. There are probably also plenty of conspiracies, but I now think most conspiracies come about to cover up incompetence. I am starting to think that incompetent law enforcement officers are more dangerous than racist officers who are at least competent at police work. If they're competent, they will know how to use force appropriately.
Before we accuse the police or anyone else of racism, perhaps we should examine the incompetence of all parties to dispute, and examine our own competence as citizens and media consumers.
