Who is behind the system of systemic racism?

Update: Apparently some people think I am endorsing the concept of "systemic racism." In fact, this essay is throwing the accusation back at those who make it. If systemic racism is real, then there are no places where it is more blatant and entrenched than in the cities named by George Korda, just below, and others under Democrat dominance for many years, even decades. 

If racism is systemic in America, then it is a human-made system, not a creation of nature. So who are the humans responsible for its longevity and power? Why, the very same people who want to accuse everyone else of it.

George Korda: Are we being honest about who is to blame for systemic racism?

Minneapolis, Minn. has been under Democratic control since 1978. Chicago has been under Democratic control for 89 years; its present mayor is a black woman. Philadelphia has had Democratic mayors for 68 years; three of its last five mayors have been black men. Six of the last seven Atlanta, Ga., mayoral administrations were led by black Democratic mayors, and the present mayor is a black woman.

A city runs its police department and other services; therefore, if there is so much ‘systemic racism’ in these organizations, why hasn’t it been corrected over so many years under Democratic leaders?

Why aren’t these cities garden spots of racial tolerance, understanding, and virtue?

Because tolerance, understanding, and virtue don’t promote Democratic power. ...
Unfortunately, in too many cases when people say they want an open and honest discussion about race in America, what they mean is they want an open and honest discussion only about what they say is wrong with people who aren’t them. When people talk about the need to deal with systemic racism, if they’re not willing to talk about the systems run – often for generations by the political party or politicians they support – they aren’t interested in an open and honest conversation; instead, they want only to use the issue as a club against people who aren’t them. (HT: Glenn Reynolds)

I am a retired Army officer. Not long after the Vietnam War, a group of colonels got together to assess the state of the Army postwar. I entered active duty in 1977 and there were a lot of Vietnam vets still serving, and I talked in person with two of the colonels who did the assessment.

What they learned was that the Army's ethic of "Duty-Honor-Country" had been transformed by the Vietnam War to, "Me, My Ass, and My Career." Sorry, that was the way they put it.

Why did that happen? The answer would not have surprised Napoleon. The colonels found that there were still some units that embodied the virtues of the service. What made them stand apart was the moral character of the senior leadership, starting with the brigade commanders. As Napoleon put it, "There are no bad brigades, there are only bad brigadiers."

What went wrong in Minneapolis? It didn't start the day George Floyd was murdered, but many, many years before. The murder of George Floyd was decades in the making, as George Korda explains.

The four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the murder of George Floyd.

Ask yourself this question: Why did Chauvin and the other three officers get fired in Minneapolis, and later charged with murder?

One reason only: A passer-by video'd them. Chauvin and the other three cops did what they did because they thought what they had been taught to think by decades of one-party rule in the city, that the fix was already in: if the pols keep their hands off the cops, the police union will deliver the votes.

That has been going on for decades and not merely in Minneapolis.

What needs to be done now? Very simply:

1. Dis-establish public employee unions, starting with unions that represent people who carry guns and the authority to use them.

2. Revoke qualified immunity for police.

3. Stop electing Democrats. Put Republicans in office, and then after 10 years or so, fire them, too,

The NY Daily News - hardly an example of the vast rightwing conspiracy - said about three years ago that cops should be required to pay for liability insurance, at least in part. I am not sold on that right now, but it is worth considering, especially if qualified immunity is revoked.

Update: Law Prof. Ilya Somin posted this piece.

Update: KT Cat at The Scratching Post points out that my list is incomplete. Maybe he is onto something.

Update: Kevin Williamson also: Comforting Abstractions - We have real people to hold accountable, and we know their names.

Who is responsible for the mess in Minneapolis? The answer to that question is not unknowable — but it is, in many political quarters, unspeakable.

Minneapolis’s municipal government, its institutions, and its police department are what they are not because of the abstract Hegelian forces of capital-H History, but because of decisions that have been made by people. Who these people are is a matter of public record. We know their names: Jacob Frey, Betsy Hodges, R. T. Rybak, Sharon Sayles Belton, Medaria Arradondo, Janeé Harteau, Tim Walz, Mark Dayton . . . the rogues’ gallery is practically inexhaustible.

But, oh, the transmuting magic of partisanship! Minneapolis is a Democratic city, with a Democratic mayor and a Democratic city council (0.0 Republicans on that body), in a state with a Democratic governor and a Democratic state house; these are the people who hire police chiefs and organize police departments, who specify their procedures and priorities, who write the laws that the police are tasked with enforcing — Democrats and progressives practically to a man. (Not every member of the Minneapolis city council is a Democrat — there’s a Green, too.) That’s a lot of lefty power, hardly anything except lefty power — but, somehow, the bad guy in this story must be Donald Trump. ...

...  one of the problems here is the power of police unions, which resist efforts to increase accountability and oversight of their members. There is a political party in this country that is very much committed to increasing the power of public-sector unions, that has worked hard with some success to do that, and that is enormously dependent upon the financial and political support of those unions for its campaign efforts — and it is not called the Republican Party. It’s the other one.

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