Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders being scolded by a Black Lives Matter supporter, even though Bernie is very sympathetic to their position.
The "Black Lives Matter" movement is beginning to bother me. I completely understand where their indignation comes from. I really do. But the direction this movement is taking, along with many, many other signs I'm seeing every day here in the US and around the world leads me to believe anarchy is beginning to gain a solid foothold. Example:
Several weeks ago an Arlington, TX (DFW suburb) trainee police officer shot and killed an unarmed black youth, Christian Taylor. Here's what we actually know at this time: The youth stepped over the barricade at a new car dealership and vandalized several cars. He then got back into his car and drove through the locked barricade and rammed into the dealership showroom, then went inside on foot. An "officer-in-training" arrived on scene and walked into the dealership. We know all this because it was on the dealership video surveillance tapes and aired on TV.
But within just a few days a gentleman who identified himself as part of the Black Lives Matter movement was demanding that the officer be fired and charged with murder. His quote was, "The officer entered the building with his gun drawn with the intent of killing Mr. Taylor." And the crowd gathered around him nodded their enthusiastic approval.
With the intent? How does he know what the intent of the officer was? Until an investigation is complete, how do any of us know what the intent of the officer was? Lots of evidence needs to be analyzed first. The CSI-types will determine who's story is corroborated and who's is contradicted. Shouldn't we find out the facts before we decide whether to prosecute or not?
And of course during all this the "hang 'em high" crowd was saying Mr. Taylor "got what he deserved." Since when is vandalizing cars a capital offense? All this hysteria from both sides before any facts have been determined is to me an early sign of anarchy.
More?
Just last night police in St. Louis shot and killed a black youth who they said pointed a gun at them. The scene quickly grew into a riotous crowd, with police reinforcements being called in. Whoa...whoa. Was the youth armed or not? Did he point a gun at police or not? Shouldn't these questions be answered first before the riots begin? Knee-jerk reactions seldom work out well.
Now protestors have taken over the microphones of several legitimate presidential candidates, both Democrat and Republican, driving them off their podium. Shameful! Seems to me BOTH sides should have the right to free speech. But now apparently only the loudest has that right. Creeping anarchy?
Ordinary people everywhere seem to be fed up with the status quo (including me). Look at who the polls say are our leading presidential candidates so far: Donald Trump, with the establishment Hillary Clinton stalled-to-fading (with a majority unfavorable rating) and the rebel / independent Bernie Sanders gaining ground. How big a step is it from being "fed up" to jumping into anarchy feet first? Look at the pro-anti gay rights, pro-anti abortion, pro-anti gun control, pro-anti Occupy Wall Street, etc crowds. Sentiment is nasty and getting more tense by the day it seems. I can only imagine how far things might deteriorate by election day, 2016.
And it isn't just here in the US. Look at the extreme anti-establishment parties now on firm footing in Europe in places like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and elsewhere. Like our own Tea Party, these very vocal disenchanted political parties are intimidating the majority into doing things their way. Study your history....the National Socialists (Nazi's) never achieved actual electoral majority in pre-war Germany. They gained absolute power by bullying the silent, docile majority. The comparison is eye-opening (although I'm not at all suggesting any of these will ever resort to the barbarism of the Nazi's in WWII).
And then there's the Mid East. Oh, Dear God! What a dysfunctional, anarchical mob they are! Hello....Al Qaida? ISIS? Muslim Brotherhood? I even saw in the news this morning that one group claiming responsibility for a deadly bombing in Cairo, Egypt was the Black Bloc, a militant, anti-Islamic group of soccer fans. Soccer fans? Really? Who's next, the Crazed Stamp Collectors Society?
Many are now predicting that Iraq and Syria, and probably Libya, too, will never again function as legitimate homogenous countries. You might as well throw in Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, and a few others, also.
So, am I being paranoid? Am I a "Doom and Gloom"-er? Ummm....I don't think so. I'm just a person, a realist, who pays attention. And what I see is creeping anarchy.
S
