Maniacs and Causation
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Neither ideology nor rhetoric, whether from the left or right, causes murder
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The stunning assassination of 2 on-duty New York City policemen yesterday could not have been more of an affront to civilized society. Even a foreign enemy wading ashore can be better understood and dealt with.
The already high tension between the New York City police and Mayor de Blasio increased geometrically as evidenced by a statement by Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, who laid the blame for the deaths of the officers squarely at the feet of the mayor. “That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor,” he said.
But as the facts are rolling out, this seems to be yet another case of a maniac with a gun.
Killers like James Holmes (alias “Batman”) or Charles Manson are motivated by insanity, evil or both; not public discourse
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“I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today,” the now-deceased suspect apparently wrote on an Instagram posting, where he also referenced the death of Eric Garner, a black man killed in a confrontation with police on Staten Island. “They Take 1 Of Ours, Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”
According to court records from Georgia, the suspect had a history of both crime and mental illness. This individual would’ve done something similar if he had to use overcooked pasta as an excuse.
Which gets us to the causation of, and reaction to, such atrocities.
While many are blaming the anti-cop atmosphere that started in Mayor de Blasio’s campaign last year and intensified since the non-indictment of police officers who killed an unarmed black man, the truth of the matter is that maniacs like the one yesterday and those who walk into schools or movie theatres and murder are motivated by mental illness or just plain evil.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton, in fierce combat with Republicans, tried to slickly accuse right-wing radio for causing an atmosphere that motivated Timothy McVeigh to commit the atrocity he did. While not properly called out on it by a media that was agog over the first Democrat President since 1981, his accusation got no traction with reasonable, thinking people (the current line-up of MSNBC shrills was not around then).
Wrong, too, is the suggestion that de Blasio and many of his Liberal cohorts were a cause of yesterday’s barbarity.
The real harm, though, that President Obama, Mayor de Blasio and others who have tried to paint a Jim Crow mentality of white policemen is that the jobs of police will become much harder resulting in possible deaths because of a poisoned relationship between civilians and police.
While professional agitators like Al Sharpton may never get this message, seeming adults like President Obama and Mayor de Blasio should take such lesson from this tragedy.
-I.M. Windee
