viewpoint: ben cohen

Don’t let Palestinian radicals hijack U.S. debate

Posted

Over the last fortnight, large parts of the country have seethed with anger, first at the decision of a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown  — 18 years old and black — and second, at the decision of a grand jury in New York not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island police officer who placed Eric Garner — 43 years old and black — in the chokehold that contributed to his death.

The proximity in timing of the two killings, together with the proximity in the timing of the grand jury decisions, has dealt a blow to the artfully simplistic notion that with Barack Obama’s election in 2008, America entered a new, post-racial era. Many Americans now believe that, as far as law enforcement is concerned, the lives of African-Americans — and particularly those of African-American men trying to eke out a living at the margins of the economy — are worth far less than the lives of everyone else. 

Moreover, it’s a belief that is spreading. Those persuaded that there were enough procedural and moral ambiguities in the Brown case are finding it hard to reach the same conclusion in the Garner case, because we’ve all seen the video of the New York Police Department officers rounding on Garner, and we’ve all heard the pitiful plea of “I can’t breathe” as he was wrestled to the ground. And I’m pretty positive I was not alone in reacting to Officer Pantaleo’s claim that he was trying to protect Garner from being injured by his colleagues with an inner groan of contempt.

In this charged environment, no mental gymnastics are required to understand why slogans like “Black Lives Matter” — something that really shouldn’t have to be said in a civilized, democratic society — become appealing. 

Page 1 / 4