As for the series in the Inquirer... the reaction of folks around me is a bit different than yours Field.... the articles ASSUME that the arrests are all legit. That is a problem. There is no mention of the fact that people are arrested for things they didn't do all the time. They make it seem that the ONLY reason they are not found guilty is the DAs office... not wrongful arrests... which are a problem. One I see literally every day.
Also, they wrongly and fallaciously argue the few represents the many. No one disputes that the problems exist, but some of what they cite as the "norm" is not. It just is not. Interesting, the authors of the series are not the writers that cover the courts every day and I know of one attorney that called the writer to complain that DOES cover the courts, and he disavowed having anything to do with it.
Instead I want to measure Jody's response in the context of the standard analysis of those who are defensive of a system and thus wave off any criticism there in.
We all know the narrative of how the Southern establishment fought tooth and nails over time to defend their indefensible way of life. While it was a party for those who received protection from the system - the Blacks caught hell universally and the "Poor White Trash" suffered economically as their bondage toward the system that stifled their development also had them operating as the primary executors of the physical oppression of Black people.
Jody and other Progressive-Fundamentalist are not protecting the "system" of law enforcement, business or the classical protection racket that we are used to seeing.
Instead they protect the STATUS QUO WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
The cover they provide is in the way of explaining away the destructive results that is born out of the eco-system that is entrenched on the streets of Philadelphia. Thus is done in the context of their protection of the political and ideological establishment that reigns supreme within.
Jody and others, however, face one insurmountable fact: They are staring the order in the system that they worked so hard to assemble - RIGHT IN THE FACE. Philadelphia, like so many other large cities, is a "single party town". Thus while we are likely to hear generalized pronouncements about the system: "ie: the American system has ALWAYS oppressed the Black male - what we see is merely a modern form of the usual", we will not hear Jody and others make note of the fact that the present "OPPRESSORS" stood in judgment at the polls and were found worthy by Jody and the prevailing balance of her ideological soul mates that now run Philly.
Jody claims special insight in that she deals with many court cases each day where a Black male is wrongly accused of a crime. I have full confidence that this is the case.
My challenge to Jody's world view is to ask this fundamental question: As we all read the newspaper series that attempts to MODEL the real world conditions on the streets of Philadelphia - are we able to factor out the claimed inaccuracies and agree that there is a massive problem that extents far beyond the claim of INJUSTICE and the drive to OPPRESS THE BLACK MAN as the main driver?
Today the Chief Executive Of the City of Philadelphia is a Black Man (Nutter)
Today the top Legislative officer in the City Council is a Female (Verna)
In a few short weeks the top Prosecuting Attorney in the city will be a Black Man (Seth Williams)
Once again we see the pattern of: THE GRASP OF ENCUMBANCY but the DENIAL OF ACCOUNTABILITY.
I must ask again - What good does it do our community to seek this POWER over these institutions when we allow the forces who strung us along to escape from the results that are delivered?
The Consequence Of This Defensiveness
With the process of obtaining power by attrition via their political activism AND by remaining amorphous regarding their willingness to peg a specific force for the cause of the problems that they are always struggling to defend against - Jody and those who think like her effectively decouple the functional purposes of their activism from the actual delivery of results on the ground for the benefit of those they purport to be working on behalf of.
They are forced to depart this "field of battle", as they run to the state and national legislature to WORK ON BEHALF OF those who are in need at the local level. Since they are not planning to topple the local establishment that they assisted in assembling this outward expansion is their only option.
The flaw in the Black community is that we failed to seek "earnest money" at defined check points along the way as we assisted in the construction of this present order. Now we are asked, one more time to "keep the faith". Help the establishment to make one more run at our national enemies. Though they have moved away - their personal safety deposit boxes have retained the resources that we need for our fix. The quest is to break open these treasuries and spread the resources out in a more fair apportionment.
The key flaw is that the education and productivity is not made as the ESSENTIAL ELEMENT of this movement to be successful ALONG THE WAY.
Instead enhanced education and productivity of the aggrieved masses are positioned as the future FRUIT OF their successful conquest.
(Please re-read these two sentences to insure you understand the differences)
In summary they want to WORK ON BEHALF OF BLACK PEOPLE.
They need to get the Black community aligned so that all of its efforts are PLACED IN LINE WITH OUR PERMANENT INTERESTS.
- What good is it that you now run the schools when this has not enhanced the quality and quantity of the graduates? Are they now better positioned to be the professional service agents in their own communities?
- What good is it that you now have a favorable regime over BOTH SIDES of the criminal justice system? Are your communities safer?
- What good is it that you now have the RIGHT to health care? Can the aggregate productive capacity in the domain that you now control produce the financial resources necessary to deliver these services?
These type of challenges to the Progressive orthodoxy is not going to be asked from a loyal insider. They are too smitten by their apparent election day victories and apparent progress forward.
I only ask all of you to lay out the point in the future where Philadelphia experiences a massive revolution and correction once your systems that you have locally are made more entrenched nationally? Help me out. I can't see it.
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