I'm not someone you would call a "Social Justice Warrior".
Lately, though, I've been running into a lot of posts, blogs and statements from libertarians and anarchists that have sided with the police as it relates to police brutality on blacks, which has been a big topic of discussion lately.
I understand the mechanism behind racism - as well as misogony - becoming popular among people who are anarchists and libertarian; reduction of government and being pro market is an ideology that is most popular among young, white males, and young, white males have a reason to feel the most threatened by governments in the western world, since they are systematically the only "group" that doesn't receive preferential treatment from the government, while basically all non-white male groups do.
In my estimation, however, this is not a valid reason to get intellectually lazy.
Even if the perceived unfairness is a real thing, the police are a far bigger threat than those said groups that are merely the beneficiaries from government policies. Just like it's generally a waste of time to shame an unemployed person, for receiving government aid, since what should be looked into are the market mechanisms caused by different types of government meddling in the job market.
I've run into statistics claiming that blacks are guilty of more crime than whites, and therefore there is no problem is blacks being targeted by police violence, since they "deserve it". Now, whether or not the stats are accurate, let's just say that they are. What's worth taking note of, and this often not mentioned at all, are factors like the blatantly racist motivations behind the war on drugs. Marijuana was seen as a part of "the black culture", and that was a big reason why marijuana was banned, and the war on drugs in general is a big cause of police on black brutality.
While it may be true that blacks are guilty of more crime, that alone is not enough, and what should be looked into is what constitutes "crime" and in what situation. I must admit I've been disappointed with some people in the freedom movement taking the side of the blue protection money collecting gang of the state on the issue of black crime. Anarchists, if anybody, should know that just because something is a law, doesn't mean breaking said law is immoral. Namely doing drugs, whatever the drug may be.
And even with more "legitimate" crimes, let's not pretend like there haven't been tons of examples of someone "reaching for their gun", but it later coming out that the shot victim was completely unarmed It happens, and it happens a lot.
When an anti-white male bias in our culture is being discussed, in a lot of the situations, I'm completely on board with exposing and being critical of the bias. But when it comes the police in the US, there absolutely is a racial, anti-black bias among the law enforcement. I think claiming otherwise is intellectually dishonest, and that is something I wouldn't want to see from people who claim to get their ideology from facts and logic.
In fact, you could say that what captures my interest in writers, thinkers and the like is when they say something that goes against the "in-group". And yes, there absolutely ARE sheep among the freedom movement. Especially with certain libertarians and anarchists having gained something of a celebrity status, there are people who will follow them till the bitter end, whether he or she makes sense or not.
This is why it's been so frustrating to see certain strong figures take the law enforcement's side on the issue of #blacklivesmatter, and seeing people repeat their lines like parrots. Even the freedom movement is not immune to the circle jerk mentality. And this post will probably get me some heat, but then again, I don't mind, I've gotten heat from the left for years, so if the right wing wants to bring it, they can bring it. I'm not here to particularly please anybody. If you like my stuff, great.
Back on topic, let's remember what the police are, at their core, and why you should never take their side, if you are for freedom and against the state.
The police are the gang collecting the protection money for the mafia. They are the reason why people are too afraid to stand up against the government. If it wasn't for the police, people could riot against the state, but because it just so happens that the government has the cops on their side, it creates a pretty harsh speedbump on the road to a revolution.
The "to protect and to serve" gimmick is just a smokescreen, and what the cops actually do is collect taxes and shoot your dog.
Also, what kind of a person decides to become a cop, really? What drives a person to do that? What type of people are we dealing with?
I try to stay away from the overly philosophical stuff and focus on how stuff works, but chew on this:
Let's say a law was tomorrow that made it mandatory for cops to shoot everyone wearing a green shirt. No matter what the cops chose to do, it would prove my claim that laws are illegitimate to begin with and cops should not be respected.
If a cop decides that shooting people simply for the fact of wearing a green shirt, he would admit that laws are not perfect, and would therefore need to apply the same logic for all laws in existence - kicking down a door and rushing into someone's home all guns blazing for drug plants, for instance. That person should stop being a cop, because being a cop is based on protecting those laws that we have just proven are illegitimate.
If the cop decides to just follow orders without question, he shows that he does not apply his own moral code to his duties as a police officer, proving that he should not be respected as a human being, and there's no reason to take their sides, even if a black person or people decide to attack them first and gang up on them.
Either way, law enforcement as an institution does not deserve people in the freedom movement on their side, because either way it is not consistent with the freedom ideology.
Racism as a personal value is something a person is absolutely entitled to, it can't be and shouldn't be "criminalized", not even ostracized just for the sake of, as a general rule, or anything like that, but having your racism cloud your judgement when it comes to cops is inconsistent with being a voluntayist, in my estimation.
I will now go back to watching episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. So much better than the movies, it's not even close.