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My Take On The Ferguson Tragedy:
The Roundtable Open Forum # 137

FATEHPAL SINGH TARNEY

 

 

 





 

I would like to preface this commentary on the Ferguson tragedy by stating that I have been left-of-center politically for most of my life. 

However, my words here will not only be controversial, but inflammatory and will offend, I expect, most ‘blacks’ and ‘white’ liberals.

The elephant in the room is something that goes unmentioned even in conservative media. ‘Whites’ are leaving the Democratic Party in large numbers because of fear and resentment of black and Hispanic crime and illegal immigration. President Obama’s worst enemies are not conservative Republicans or the so-called Tea Party, but street criminals and he is a victim of guilt by association and the perception that he is unready or unwilling to do enough to curb street crime and violence.

The following is a quote from an even-handed columnist in a Detroit, Michigan newspaper:

"… an officer who shoots a citizen has the same due process protections as a citizen who shoots a cop."

This is what blacks and white liberals refuse to accept and they take everything that Michael Brown’s friend said at face value and at the same time reject everything the police officer said. This ‘friend’ was not without legal problems in the past, including perjury.

Someone wrote this, which I think is very telling: “From the very moment of the shooting, there were those who decided Officer Darren Wilson's guilt, and would have dragged him into the public square for punishment even before an investigation, let alone an indictment or conviction.”

One attorney for the Brown family defended Michael Brown by saying that while he did steal cigars, he did not strong arm the store clerk, but merely pushed him. The pertinent question is what would he have done had the clerk tried to take the cigars back?

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, has said some very truthful, but politically-incorrect things about Ferguson and has, of course, been accused of race-baiting. I happen to agree with his assessment. He said:

"I think just as much, if not more, responsibility is on the black community to reduce the reason why the police officers are assigned in such large numbers to the black community,"

He added: "It's because blacks commit murder eight times more per capita than any other group in our society … If I'd put all my police on Park Avenue instead of Harlem, thousands more blacks would have died during my time in office."

Is there ever sufficient outrage from the black community when innocent black children are killed in drive-by shootings by black gangsters? 

What is truly troublesome is that most whites do not think so.

Therein lies the Great Divide.


THE ROUNDTABLE OPEN FORUM # 137

We invite your comments on the issues raised and opinions expressed hereinabove.




[The author is a combat-wounded Vietnam War veteran and a retired prep school history teacher and coach. He divides his time between Florida and Michigan.]

December 2, 2014

Conversation about this article

1: Bikram Singh (New York, USA), December 02, 2014, 5:55 AM.

I agree with all that you have to say, Fatehpal ji. Nevertheless, my sympathy still lies with the Black community. We can't brutalize a people for centuries and when they start exerting some vestiges of power -- still minimal, having had to overcome heavy odds -- we can't expect them to behave in accordance with the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. The 'majority' has always skipped the rules whenever it was expedient for it to do so. Now that power is shifting, it wants everybody to strictly play by the rules. A caveat: please don't read into this that I'm condoning any bad behavior on the part of "Blacks". All I'm saying is that ultimately all blame and responsibility lies at the door of the 'white' community. Am I generalising? Of course I am ... but only to answer your generalisation of 'blacks.' So, while I agree with you entirely, I cannot absolve the majority community one bit of its historic -- and current -- crimes and excesses. To use a 'white' phrase, "That's how the cookie crumbles!" [We are currently reaping the same whirlwind vis-a-vis the Middle-East, aren't we?]

2: Harjot Kaur (Windsor, Ontario, Canada), December 02, 2014, 8:11 AM.

Indeed, there is a sinister new development all over the world -- the lead comes from North America -- to have trial by media and not bother with due process. The Blacks in the US are merely following the example set by the mainstream. The most glaring current examples are the Bill Cosby case in the US and the Jian Ghomeshi case in Canada. In both cases, no doubt the charges are alarming and warrant serious investigation and action, but not the public lynching that is going on -- egged on by the media -- with no regard whatsoever for due process. Why blame the Blacks for something that the majority community practices so readily, widely and freely? Why should Blacks be held to a higher standard?

3: Gurinder Singh (Stockton, California, U.S.A.), December 02, 2014, 10:08 AM.

My boss was an Irish-American who owned the company. A very decent and fair minded person, he was a scientist of repute. He was a fatherly figure to me. He treated me and my family very well and arranged my immigration to USA after he saw my work for a couple of years. He was also critical of blacks. (In the 1980s, the Hispanic population in the US did not count.) He used to say that blacks had spoiled family values in America. Was he a racist or a bigot? I will never consider him one as he was a fair and morally upright person.

4: Gurteg Singh (New York, USA), December 02, 2014, 12:16 PM.

Minorities and particularly blacks do face discrimination and hostility in USA, but every thing is not that black and white and Fatehpal Singh has a point of view that gets obscured in the politically correct media narrative. This Youtube video by a black gentleman has gone viral; it advises blacks to take responsibility for their actions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2v64Ykxc0#t=30

5: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), December 02, 2014, 2:08 PM.

I think the biggest problem in the United States is the inability for Blacks and Whites to come to a middle ground on the issue of race discrimination. The Black community needs to understand that not every time that a black man is arrested by a police officer that it is the product of racial discrimination. As this article points out, the Black community does statistically have higher rates of crime. You can't blame white people for this. There needs to be a social revolution in the black community to educate their young men and women and move away from destructive cultural values. There is indisputable proof that the young man who was shot and killed in Ferguson committed a theft in broad day light and manhandled a shop keeper who tried to protect his business. I have seen the video and I can tell you it was a lot more than a push. I am not saying that this justified his death, but that the black community should be more careful about the 'martyrs' they pick to represent their frustration. The young boy who was killed recently for flashing a replica gun is probably a much better example of how poorly the relations between blacks and police officers are. White people on the other hand completely refuse to recognize that Blacks are subject to racial profiling and that there are legitimate cases where they are victimized by police officers because of their skin color. I have noticed that this trend has gotten worse since 9/11, a vocal section of the white community refuses to recognize that racial inequality and discrimination exist. These people literally see these things as nothing more than colored people complaining about something which is not there. It is becoming common for Whites to claim that they are the real victims of racism and that the system is created for minorities to enact their vendetta against the white community. This is of course completely untrue. The system is still firmly in the grips of the white male.

6: Baldev Singh  (Bradford, United Kingdom), December 02, 2014, 6:46 PM.

Unfortunately every single problem caused by the so called 'Black' community stems back to that one simple incident centuries ago when the first African was taken a slave by a European! And that is pretty much it! When the source or beginning is 'wrong' then everything from then on is going to be a mess! We need to replace this evil European - later, to become American -- heritage with the universality of Guru Nanak!

7: Parmjit Singh  (Canada ), December 03, 2014, 8:24 AM.

Fatehpal ji, having read some of your other articles I was not offended, where otherwise I might have been. History helped me better understand and respect your perspective. There are no doubt racial biases on all sides. That does not minimize racial bias on any one side. Brown, black, white, or brilliant Sikh, let's look in the mirror and point fingers at ourselves first for our thoughts, actions or lack thereof. Only then have we begun to bridge any divide.

8: Beant Singh (Chicago, Illinois, USA), December 03, 2014, 9:16 AM.

I don't recall white people rioting after the OJ Simpson trial.

9: Jessi Kaur (Tennessee, USA), December 03, 2014, 9:59 AM.

You're correct, Beant Singh ji. It's because they've tired themselves out with all the lynching they did in the South. And their young ones are all away in Afghanistan and Iraq, busy murdering Muslims.

10: Beant Singh (Chicago, Illinois, USA), December 03, 2014, 3:33 PM.

Jessi Kaur ji, we Sikhs face more discrimination than African-Americans do today. A short while back, a Sikh man was shot to death by the police in Lodi, California after a family member called 911 during a domestic dispute. He was a Gulf War veteran. Did we resort to looting and vandalism? Where was the media outcry then? Every time a white police officer kills a black man the media always plays up the racial undertones. It is fear mongering and they do it because it generates ratings. This trial was about whether or not there was dereliction on the part of the police officer. The jury determined there was no dereliction because Mike Brown was the one who escalated the physical altercation, which is backed up by the forensic evidence. Please don't fall prey to the media hype machine. Have some sympathy for the innocent people who have lost their livelihood amongst this hysteria. Also, if the American military is going overseas to kill Muslims, then why are we so eager to have Sikhs join this criminal enterprise?

11: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), December 03, 2014, 4:49 PM.

@8: Last time I checked black juries do not indiscriminately find white offenders as being guilty. There is legitimate racial discrimination in the legal system of the United States. However, what happened in Ferguson and the grand jury's verdict in regards to the police officer, is not an example of this.

12: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), December 03, 2014, 4:51 PM.

@9: My feeling towards armed action against a group of people whether it is using a "legitimate" or "illegitimate" use of force is the same. However, the nature of the armed forces in the United States is not to murder people from other cultures, however the countries which they have had conflicts with in the last few years have this aspect to their culture.

13: Gurinder Singh (Stockton, California, U.S.A.), December 03, 2014, 10:07 PM.

America provides all opportunities to better one's life. My black brothers who take to violence need to take advantage of the system to get educated. That will solve most of their problems. Discrimination is in every society and country. In comparison, the American people are very tolerant.

14: Inderjit Kaur (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA), December 05, 2014, 3:35 AM.

And pray, what're we to make of the murder of Eric Garner in New York by a police officer and the law's abject failure to hold him accountable? Please don't retort by saying Garner asked for it by being a petty criminal! His 'crime' was that he was Black. Yes, Houston, we do have a problem.

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The Roundtable Open Forum # 137 "









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