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Insights on Charlottesville

Liberty Man Van:  Welcome.  It is 8/25/17.  In this episode we’ll discuss recent events of violence in Charlottesville where violence was perpetrated by two nasty groups of people- one from the extreme left and one from the extreme right.  The right wing group had been granted a permit to march and protest the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, VA.  The action started on Friday night 8/11/17.

Video clip: Shows white supremacists marching in Charlottesville on Friday night, 8/11/17.

Liberty Man Van:  Torches reminiscent of the KKK.  The march continued on Saturday when the left extremist group antifa showed up.

Video clip:  Shows antifa picking a fight with alt-right on Saturday, 8/12/17.

Liberty Man Van:  The then took a more violent and tragic turn when a murderer with a car showed up to mow down some folks.

Video clip:  Shows car storming through a crowd of counter-protestors.

Liberty Man Van:  Really nasty stuff.  One was killed and several were injured.  President Trump made these remarks the same day of the tragic events.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

August 12, 2017

Remarks by President Trump at Signing of the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act

Trump National Golf Club
Bedminster, New Jersey

3:33 P.M. EDT

…But we’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia.  We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides.  On many sides.  It’s been going on for a long time in our country.  Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama.  This has been going on for a long, long time.

It has no place in America…

I just got off the phone with the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now.  We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection — really — and I say this so strongly — true affection for each other.

…Above all else, we must remember this truth:  No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first.  We love our country.  We love our God.  We love our flag.  We’re proud of our country.  We’re proud of who we are.  So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it.  And we want to see what we’re doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.

Liberty Man Van:  A couple of days later the President made these remarks:

For Immediate Release

August 14, 2017

Statement by President Trump

Diplomatic Room

12:38 P.M. EDT

…Racism is evil.  And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Liberty Man Van:  The next day, 8/15/17, he made these remarks:

For Immediate Release

August 15, 2017

Remarks by President Trump on Infrastructure

Trump Tower
New York, New York

3:58 P.M. EDT

Liberty Man Van:  A couple of days later Trump was asked about the alt-right and its relationship to the violence that had occurred.

…But when you say the alt-right, define alt-right to me.  You define it.  Go ahead.

THE PRESIDENT:  No, define it for me.  Come on, let’s go.  Define it for me.

Q    Senator McCain defined them as the same group —

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay, what about the alt-left that came charging at — excuse me, what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right?  Do they have any semblance of guilt?

Let me ask you this:  What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs?  Do they have any problem?  I think they do.  As far as I’m concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day.

Q    Sir, you’re not putting these protestors on the same level as neo-Nazis —

Q    Is the alt-left as bad as white supremacy?

THE PRESIDENT:  I will tell you something.  I watched those very closely — much more closely than you people watched it.  And you have — you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent.  And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now.  You had a group — you had a group on the other side that came charging in, without a permit, and they were very, very violent.

Q    Is the alt-left as bad as Nazis?  Are they as bad as Nazis?

THE PRESIDENT:  Go ahead.

Q    Do you think that what you call the alt-left is the same as neo-Nazis?

THE PRESIDENT:  Those people — all of those people –excuse me, I’ve condemned neo-Nazis.  I’ve condemned many different groups.  But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.  Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.  Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

Q    Should that statue be taken down?

THE PRESIDENT:  Excuse me.  If you take a look at some of the groups, and you see — and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not — but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.

So this week it’s Robert E. Lee.  I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down.  I wonder, is it George Washington next week?  And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?  You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?

 Q    Should the statues of Robert E. Lee stay up?

THE PRESIDENT:  I would say that’s up to a local town, community, or the federal government, depending on where it is located.

Liberty Man Van:  Many were quick to criticize President Trump for not denouncing the white supremacists at the rally by name in his first statement.  This is to be expected from the democrats but they are not the only ones who hate Trump.  The establishment wing of the republican party don’t like him either.  The next two clowns get my chicken poop award for being so “brave.”

Video clip:  Paul Ryan makes “brave” statement denouncing bigotry.

Liberty Man Van:  This would have been a brave statement in 1840.  Welcome to the 99% Paul Ryan.  Virtue signaling.  Look at me.  Take note media.  I am against hatred and bigotry.  I am better than Trump.

Video clip:  John Kasich makes “courageous” statement condemning the neo-nazis.

Liberty Man Van:  This is sour grapes.  He lost to Trump in the republican primary for president and will take every opportunity like the democrats to try to make him look bad.  He is a cowardly establishment republican, the type that lost two elections to Barack Obama.  He represents the spineless branch of the republican party, by far the largest branch.

Liberty Man Van:  Let’s contrast that with how the media covers violence from the left, in this case black lives matter.  Is this a hate group that should be condemned?  You be the judge.  Here is the first clip.

Video clip:  Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.

Liberty Man Van:  That’s right, they are chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.”  Is this hate speech?

Video clip:  What’s better than nine dead cops.  Ten dead cops.

Liberty Man Van:  What’s better than one dead cop.  Two dead cops, etc.  Is this hate speech?  But wait.  That is not all…

Video clip:  What do you want?  Dead cops.  When do we want it?  Now.

Liberty Man Van:  They are chanting What do you want?  Dead cops.  When do we want it?  Now.  Is this hate speech?  If so, wouldn’t that make BLM a hate group?

Video clip:  Denounce BLM violence?  No, CNN commentator makes excuses for the Dallas police sniper.

Liberty Man Van:  Here the commentator blames systemic racism and poverty for black violence.  This is the same old tired argument that has been made for decades.

Video clip:  Denounce BLM violence?  No, Former congressional black caucus leader uses this “gun violence” episode to push for gun control legislation.

Video clip:  Commentator blames cops for the violence against cops.

Text: In barber shops all across America… When I was home with my daddy on the gulf coast of Mississippi, who has been worn in some ways by the history of that state, he said in response a long time ago- It might have been Mike Brown- “If they don’t do something we’re gonna start killing them.  Somebody’s gonna start killing cops if they don’t do something.”  That conversation- I’m giving some insight that white America might not have heard before.  That conversation has been had and it has been had before.  If you are not going to protect us; if you are going to subject us to this, right, then there are going to be elements in our community that are going to respond.

Liberty Man Van:  So here we have a commentator excusing violence against police officers.  In addition, the entire premise of BLM that blacks are more likely to be shot by the police is misleading.  Blacks are proportionately more likely to be shot but they are also more likely to be involved in crimes and thus encounters with police.  If you take criminality into account blacks are not more likely to be shot than whites.  It is simply a myth.

Liberty Man Van:  President Trump was attacked for not condemining right wing extremists early enough and often enough after the events in Charlottesille, VA.  Next, we will contrast President Obama’s response after a left wing extremist sympathetic to BLM killed five police and injured several others in a sniper attack in July 2016.  As we will see, he NEVER condemns this hate group and in fact lends them legitimacy in his speeches following the calculated killings.  In contrast to the spur of the moment vehicular killing carried out by the right wing extremist, the left wing extremist killer in Dallas executed a pre-meditated, racist series of murders.  Let’s get to then President Obama’s comments following the Dallas cop killing spree.  Here are some excerpts from his first speech following the attack.

… We still don’t know all the facts. What we do know is that there’s been vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement. Police in Dallas were on duty, doing their job, keeping people safe during a peaceful protest.

Liberty Man Van:  Obama and the mainstream media would wear out the phrase “peaceful protest” in the days that followed.  Never mind that many of the BLM protests have been anything but peaceful and have encouraged violent action against cops.  He ignores that important point.

Obama:  These law enforcement officers were targeted, and nearly a dozen officers were shot, five were killed. Other officers and at least one civilian were wounded. Some are in serious conditions and we are praying for their recovery.

… I will have more say about this when the facts become more clear. For now, let me just say that, even as yesterday I spoke about our need to be concerned as all Americans about racial disparities in our criminal justice system. I also said yesterday that our police have an extraordinarily difficult job and the vast majority of them do their job in outstanding fashion.

Liberty Man Van: Comment “racial disparities”, “vast majority do a good job”.

Obama:  … We also know that when people are armed with powerful weapons, it unfortunately makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic and in the days ahead consider those realities as well.

Liberty Man Van:  Gun control advocacy opportunity not missed.

And let’s look at some of the text of the speech Obama gave at the funeral service for the slain officers:

…For the men and women who protect and serve the people of Dallas, last Thursday began like any other day. Like most Americans, each day you get up, probably have too quick a breakfast, kiss your family goodbye, and you head to work.

But your work and the work of police officers across the country is like no other. For the moment you put on that uniform, you have answered a call that at any moment, even in the briefest interaction, may put your life in harm’s way.

OBAMA: Lorne Ahrens, he answered that call. So did his wife, Katrina, not only because she was the spouse of a police officer, but because she’s a detective on the force. They have two kids. Lorne took them fishing. And he used to proudly go to their school in uniform.

On the night before he died, he bought dinner for a homeless man.

…For a while, the protests went on without incident. And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were.

In fact, the police had been part of the protest planning. Dallas P.D. even posted photos on their Twitter feeds of their own officers standing among the protesters.

Liberty Man Van:  Good, mentions all the slain officers by name tells us something about each of them.

Obama:  …Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience.

Liberty Man Van:  “Unfairly targeted by police.”

Obama:  …The police helped Shetamia Taylor as she was shot trying to shield her four sons. She said she wanted her boys to join her to protest the incidents of black men being killed.

Liberty Man Van:  “Black men being killed.”  Makes no mention of nuance in these cases.

Obama:  … And today in this audience, I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers. I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In this audience, I see what’s possible.

…When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety. And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves, well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.

Liberty Man Van:  Here he makes an oblique reference to BLM but does not call them out by name.

(APPLAUSE)

…We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation. They didn’t necessarily stop when a Dr. King speech, or when the civil rights act or voting rights act were signed. Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. Those who deny it are dishonoring the struggles that helped us achieve that progress. But we know…

(APPLAUSE)

But America, we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain. Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this. And so when African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country, voice a growing despair over what they perceive to be unequal treatment, when study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently. So that if you’re black, you’re more likely to be pulled over or searched or arrested; more likely to get longer sentences; more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime.

Liberty Man Van:  Blacks are arrested more often and in the same proportion that they commit crimes.  For example, in 2013 blacks were six times more likely to commit murder than non-blacks.

Obama:…When mothers and fathers raised their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer — yes, sir; no, sir — but still fear that something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door; still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right might end in tragedy.

Liberty Man Van:  The vast majority of episodes of blacks being shot by police occur when they are resisting arrest.  Obama might have helped this statistic by saying simply “Stop resisting arrest.”

Obama:  …When all this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid.

Liberty Man Van:  There is that phrase “peaceful protest” again.

(APPLAUSE)

Obama:  …We can’t simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and coworkers and fellow church members, again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us.

Liberty Man Van:  How about having black politicians blame you for black criminality again and again and again.

Obama:  …As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs.

Liberty Man Van:  If poverty automatically leads to criminality then why don’t we see a crime spree in Appalachia?

Obama:  …We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

…Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes. So that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie, who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous.

…And I understand these protests — I see them. They can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt.

(APPLAUSE)

Protesters can get hurt. They can be frustrated. But even those who dislike the phrase “black lives matter,” surely, we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family.

Liberty Man Van:  He finally mentions BLM but does he call them out as a hate group.  No, he goes out of his way to make excuses for them.

Liberty Man Van:  President Obama mentioned Alton Sterling and Philando Castille in this speech as if they were innocent victims of police aggression. Baton Rouge Police were responding to a call from a complaintant when they encountered Alton Sterling.  Police shouted to him “Get on the ground.  Get on the ground now”.  Instead of getting on the ground instead he resisted police.  He had a gun.  He was shot in the altercation that ensued.  Officers tried to subdue him with a taser but that was not successful.  Sterling continued to resist.  Sterling had been in trouble before.  He was on probation and was not allowed to carry a gun.  Sterling had recently been released from prison and was selling bootlet cd’s, an illegal activity.  Sterling had had many previous encounters with law enforcement.  He was a convicted child sex offender and he owed much in child support that he had not paid.  He was not an innocent victim.

President Obama also mentioned Philando Castile as if he were the innocent victim of a police shooting. Castile lived in Minnesota and a convenience store near where he lived had recently been robbed and photos of the assailants had been posted.  Police pulled him over a few days after the robbery because he looked like one of the robbers.  Catile was with his girlfriend and her four year old daughter from a previous relationship.  There was marijuana in the car.  He had a gun in the car.  He pulled the gun and he was shot.  The officer was already on high alert thinking this guy may have already committed an armed robbery a few days ago.  Castile’s girlfriend starting streaming video after the shooting; we have no video record of what happened prior to the shooting.  Court records showed that Castile had at least 55 Minnesota traffic violations.  He had multiple marijuana arrests including one in which he had over 1.4 grams.  Facebook posts seem to indicate he was involved with or at least sympathetic to the crips gang.

The main topic of our show today has been about mainstream media bias and we will recap what we have learned shortly.  But before leaving the subject of policing I would like to bring a libertarian perspective to the topic.  Who do the police work for?  The state.  If you happen to be shot by a cop who will decide the cop’s guilt or innocence?  The state.  Does this give the cop a “home field advantage?”  I think it does.  One solution to this problem would be to have an independent court system, such as arbitration, that is not run by the state.  Another solution would be to have the police more accountable to the public.  This might be accomplished by contracting policing out to a private company as we do now when we hire private security guards.  If we thought these police were unfairly targeting a minority group we could refuse to renew their contract.  In other words, we could fire the rascals.  We don’t have that option now.  The police could do a totally awful job and the department will still continue to exist.

Libertarian author Murray Rothbard sheds some light on this subject in his book For a New Liberty.  He remarks:

How shall the police allocate their funds which are, of course, always limited as are the funds of all other individuals, organizations, and agencies? How much shall the police invest in electronic equipment? fingerprinting equipment? detectives as against uniformed police? patrol cars as against foot police, etc.? The point is that the government has no rational way to make these allocations. The government only knows that it has a limited budget. Its allocations of funds are then subject to the full play of politics, boondoggling, and bureaucratic inefficiency, with no indication at all as to whether the police department is serving the consumers in a way responsive to their desires or whether it is doing so efficiently. The situation would be different if police services were supplied on a free, competitive market. In that case, consumers would pay for whatever degree of protection they wish to purchase. The consumers who just want to see a policeman once in a while would pay less than those who want continuous patrolling, and far less than those who demand 24-hour bodyguard service. On the free market, protection would be supplied in proportion and in whatever way that the consumers wish to pay for it. A drive for efficiency would be insured, as it always is on the market, by the compulsion to make profits and avoid losses, and thereby to keep costs low and to serve the highest demands of the consumers. Any police firm that suffers from gross inefficiency would soon go bankrupt and disappear.

Liberty Man Van:  In summary, we have learned today about media bias and how political groups on the left and right are treated differently.  We have learned how presidents on the left or right are treated differently.

If you are a left leaning political group, such as BLM or antifa:

 

• You can perform acts of violence and the mainstream media will make excuses for you.
• You can show up at a right wing political rally or event, pick a violent fight and have the media blame the right.
• You can do your best to suppress the free speech rights of the right while at the same time calling yourself “antifacist.”
• You can engage in hate speech towards cops and never have your group noted by the SPLC or the press as a hate group.

If you are a right leaning political group:

You can be engaged in a peaceful protest, have antifa show up and mace you or throw rocks at you, then have the media blame you exclusively for the violence (Trump rallies, Charlottesville rally).

• You can have a controversial author such as Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopolous scheduled to speak at a taxpayer funded university, such as UC-Berkeley, and have your speech suppressed through the threat of violence by antifa.
• You can have a mainstream conservative author such as Charles Murray threatened off your campus.

If you are a left leaning president, such as Barack Obama:

 

• You will never be called out for not denouncing “hate speech” if that speech comes from the left (Pigs in a blanket…, What do you want? Dead cops!)
• You can criticize cops for shooting people with long rap sheets, carrying gun, and resisting arrest without so much as a whimper from the media.
• You can call into question the motives of police officers during the funeral of police officers and expect crickets from the media.

 If you are a right leaning President:

 

• The media will always portray your actions in the most negative light.
• You will be criticized for condemning violence from ALL quarters.
• Some members of your own party will use any opportunity to make you look bad and engage in virtue signaling.

 

All of this demonstrates how the mainstream media portrays progressives as if they always have the best of intentions and conservatives as if they always have the worst of intentions.

 

I will leave you with a study of news coverage conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.  They analyzed news coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office.  They found the following:

Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days set a new standard for negativity. Findings include:

• President Trump has received unsparing coverage for most weeks of his presidency, without a single major topic where coverage, on balance, was more positive than negative, setting a new standard for unfavorable press coverage of a president.
• Every news outlet in the study was negative more often than positive.
• Fox was the only news outlet that came close to giving Trump positive coverage overall – though they did not – 52% of news reports on Fox were negative towards President Trump. Only 48% were positive.

Here’s how the various news outlets treated Trump:  Graphic, comment on graphic

 That’s the show for today.  Join us next time for another episode of Liberty Watch.