There’s a game afoot across America these days: have a person of color commit an egregious crime, then get hunted down by local police. A scuffle of some sort ensues. The perp is stopped, sometimes lethally if he resists violently. Then the perp, if still alive, or his family, if he’s dead, sues the cops, the city, and God only knows who else. A media hungry for controversy publicizes the brouhaha on page one. Nightly news stations have “BREAKING NEWS” on the latest cop violence, with young, ambitious on-camera talent reporting breathlessly from a court house. Conversations in coffee shops drift toward “killer cops” and the need to restrain them. Anti-cop types like Cat Brooks rub their hands with glee, while ambulance-chasing lawyers line up interviews with reporters to explain how their client was a victim of “systemic racism.”
That’s the game, in a nutshell. It plays out every day somewhere in America. Yesterday, I reported on the California Racial Justice Act, which aims to institutionalize the game forever by allowing the most vicious felons to get off scot-free by claiming racism in their indictment. Now, a group of Black men who were ordered off a plane are suing the airline “alleging they were victims of racial discrimination,” while in a separate case a Pittsburg Black man is suing the police for shooting him after he engaged in “a 20-hour standoff” with them. The cops were responding to 9-1-1 calls about a man acting erratically in a hotel room, breaking glass and screaming. The perp was in a mental health crisis, his lawyer, the ambulance chaser Adante Pointer, said. “Why did the police turn this from being a mental health wellness call into what looks like a military operation?”
Let me dispose of the second instance first. I’m tired of all these defense attorneys bleating that their clients were in a “mental health crisis” and should not have been arrested. First of all, how’s a cop supposed to know that a thug is having a mental health crisis? What the hell does “mental health crisis” even mean? The cops show up at a crime scene and are confronted with a violent resister. Are they supposed to freeze-frame reality while they call in a psychotherapist? Let’s get real. Cops respond to violence violently. When you’re being attacked, you don’t have the luxury of time. Legislatures should make new laws declaring that the “mental health crisis” excuse is not valid.
As for the Black men ordered off the plane, the media reports that exist are unclear about why the airline took that step. But does any rational person seriously believe it was because of their race? Do you think American Airlines is stupid enough to do that? My hunch is that they were doing something disruptive and became confrontational when first approached by a flight attendant. These days, we see a stream of news stories about disruptive passengers being removed from planes. And I think we want these unruly people to be thrown off flights. Most of the time, when TSA officials finally show up to escort the bad behaver out, the remaining passengers applaud. State legislators ought to pass new laws making violating the peace and safety of an airline flight a major felony, and making it impossible to sue the airline for a made-up reason like “racial discrimination.”
For too long, civil rights groups have gotten away with these stunts, but fortunately, the American public is realizing the scam. Actual acts of racial discrimination in America are vanishingly small in number, and yet these “racial discrimination” lawsuits seems to be mushrooming. We have to do everything we can to discourage their filing, because they’re just a drain on everything, and benefit no one except the ambulance chasers. And by the way here’s another new law that legislators should pass: if a felon sues the cops and loses his case, then the felon, or his legal survivors, have to pay all associated costs, including defense attorney fees.
Steve Heimoff