A Crisis of Our Own Making
A Crisis of Our Own Making
Trust in the military and police is collapsing. America stands at the precipice of recession and crisis. What happens next?
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown walked down the middle of Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri with his friend Dorian Johnson. Officer Darren Wilson ordered them off of the road, as they were obstructing traffic. After stopping his vehicle in front of the two men, Darren Wilson was then attacked by Michael Brown as he reached through the window of his SUV and attempted to steal his service pistol. Wilson struck Brown with one of two rounds, injuring Brown’s right hand. Brown and Johnson fled, and Wilson pursued. Shortly thereafter, Michael Brown turned and ran at Darren Wilson. Officer Wilson shot and killed Brown to stop him from advancing for fear of his life, with Brown having shown a willingness for violence.
All of the above facts were certified by the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice in 2015, almost a year after the shooting had taken place. None of these facts are in dispute, despite local prosecutors attempting to reignite a racial vendetta against Officer Wilson, who lawfully used lethal force. The crisis would grow exponentially from this moment in time, having started in earnest when President Obama said that Trayvon Martin, killed two years prior, “could have been me 35 years ago,” and that “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin.”
While President Obama may not have known (but likely did, given his demeanor) that his comments in both the Martin and Brown cases would spark a movement that would become a defining feature in American politics, the activist wave has thoroughly consumed America from the top to the bottom. Eight years on from the death of Michael Brown, and ten on from Trayvon Martin, this country has been made worse by the activism that began in response to their deaths. Guilt and victim politics have consumed discourse. Strength and authority are degraded, and America is now decidedly a weaker, more lethargic, and more cowardly nation.
As we ended the Obama administration and began the Trump years, the crisis shambled forward. While continued erosion in public institutions continued, its degradation was limited to local events and reforms, sometimes reaching the national conversation. 2017 went by with only one disputed killing Jocques Clemmons, which has largely been forgotten by the public memory. The true reckoning, however, would begin in 2020, even before COVID sent the nation into a self-imposed, useless shelter-in-place.
First was the killing of Ahmad Arbery, stirring outrage beginning in February. The media termed it an “actual lynching” taking place on camera, with commentary placing the killing as a group of rednecks killing someone because of racism. By the time the headlines ran, the conviction was already set in stone.
Only a month later, Louisville Police raided the residence of Breonna Taylor. Whatever you might think of their tactics and negligent use of firearms, there was not a lack of reasoning for the warrant. Breonna Taylor knowingly associated with drug dealers, had a rental car under her name used to hide the body of a murder victim, and her then-boyfriend fired at police through the door after hearing them announcing themselves as police. It was not the “wrong house” as was claimed in the aftermath, nor was Taylor not the intended target of the raid. She was involved with Jamarcus Glover for four years prior and was a target of one of many raids in the city of Louisville that were intended to break up the drug ring.
These two events in close sequence brought the issue to the forefront again, becoming an increasingly important issue in the run-up to the presidential election. Democratic candidates and talking heads ran up the Democratic party’s support for BLM and the broader “racial justice” movement.
Then, the trigger is pulled.
The Spirit and Clearness of “Defund the Police”
George Floyd was previously arrested for trespass, possession of controlled substances, aggravated robbery (plead down to “theft from person”), and aggravated burglary of a residence, among other minor crimes. Research for this piece already becomes nearly impossible at this point — search engine results are so bogged down with “fact check” articles trying to play off the record, disputes of who-was-who in robberies, whether the burglary victim was pregnant at the time, and whether it was Floyd who threatened her specifically — all muddled by the media. As an experiment, do try to search for these records. They exist, but how much they’re buried will shock you.
The bodycam, often not viewed, contains several tidbits that I’d like to present to you.
Floyd, through the entire video, is clearly not well and obviously under the influence of some sort of substance. His autopsy backs this up, with a chemical analysis of his blood showing that he was under the influence of the following:
Delta-9 cannabinoid THC
Methamphetamine, 19 ng/mL
Fentanyl, 11 ng/mL
Norfentanyl, 5.6 ng/mL
Of the above, Dr. Andrew Baker, the chief medical examiner of Hennepin County, noted that the amount of fentanyl was “pretty high […] a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances. [Dr. Andrew Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were n other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death.” This seems to be visually corroborated by another bodycam video, with a screenshot taken below, where it appears Floyd is consuming some sort of pill, a strategy that often results in death.
Floyd attempts to remove himself from custody after being handcuffed, trying to hop away at 4:04. He acts erratically throughout the entire video. He either falls to the ground intentionally or is unable to stand, as seen at approximately 7:02.
Floyd, only ten minutes into the video, begins claiming that he can’t breathe. This is before he is even on the ground — at this moment, he’s currently resisting being put into the police cruiser, and eventually is removed from the cruiser. He complains about being unable to breathe the entire time. The official transcript lists him saying this at least six times before he’s removed from the vehicle and placed on his stomach. Once on the ground, Floyd says that he cannot breathe for nearly four minutes.
Given the above, a clean conviction is in dispute. The cleanness of conviction becomes more questionable given that sitting members of Congress were encouraging the public to get “more confrontational” (read: violent) if Chauvin was acquitted. An alternate in the trial directly admitted that they felt intimidated by the variety of black leaders threatening violence if they did not get a guilty verdict and Biden weighing in for the “right verdict.”
But alas, Chauvin was convicted, as were the three other officers that were present, for…depriving Floyd of his civil rights. Two of the three had Chauvin assigned as their training officer and were brand new to the department. One of the officers had only started that week but was held culpable all the same. Tou Thao was tasked with controlling the scene, largely uninvolved in the confrontation itself, but was convicted all the same.
The conviction of these officers, as well as the trial of the officer involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, did little to placate the mob. Cops are no longer pillars of American life; instances of shootings that news media admit are justified result in long non-prosecutions, such as the case of Rashard Brooks.
This outrage also created a movement: calls to “defund the police.” The common defense from Democrats and the left is that this is merely an activist’s call and not the position of any officeholders. However, it doesn’t take much to find that such statements are simply an obfuscation: while the Governor might not support it, the Lieutenant Governor and Intergovernmental Affairs secretary did. Details, right? These links are not difficult to make. These activists often fill decision-making and rank-and-file jobs in administrations, so while the chief candidate may have a clean record, everyone who makes the important decision-making in the office doesn’t.
The “defund the police” movement was successful in some aspects, such as the elimination of certain police divisions such as NYPD’s plainclothes division, and ended up trying to cut and shift approximately 1 billion in funding away from the NYPD. New York has now consequently experienced a spike in crime that has become part of the national conversation in more ways than one. Sheriff Alex Villanueva of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department makes the case much better than I ever could:
While the conference is long, his points are plain. While they may publicly stop, efforts to “defund” the police continue through less obvious means: not matching pace with inflation, decreased share of the budget, and privatization of police functions. Sheriff Villanueva also covered the results of defunding in several other police jurisdictions, all of which have been negative.
As the Sheriff’s page elaborates, from a separate press conference:
A graph that separated murders by supervisorial districts showed the highest murder rate in Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s district. Ironically, Mitchell has said that she does not want any money going to the Sheriff’s Department.
These politicians do not have the back of their police. Sheriff Villanueva is lucky to be in a position where he can point out this hypocrisy: the politicians who govern the most crime-ridden areas are the likeliest to defund the police and try to stab them in the back. The outcomes are the same whether under or overhanded, and the problem only compounds the crime.
There Won’t Be Enough Cops
Police departments are now struggling to fill positions across the entire nation. The NYPD has lost almost 1600 officers in only the first five months of 2022 — a 38% increase over last year, and 46% over 2020. Chicago police are now reaching out to the military to try and resolve the recruiting crisis, competing with another arm of the government that is struggling with retention (this will be covered later) Even small towns and mid-sized cities are facing similar problems in recruiting and retention. Austin Police are down nearly 250 of 1809 officers, causing other departments to have to fill spots so that they’re able to respond to 911 calls. Dallas last year had almost the same issue, though the resolution of this problem is ongoing and not public. Nationwide, resignations increased 42.7% from 2019 to 2021, and retirements increased 23.6 from 2019 to 2021.
Additionally, if you are now a cop, you have a target on your back. This much has been true since the 2016 killing of 5 Dallas PD officers by a Black nationalist, riled up by BLM activism and rhetoric. Ambushes on police continue in recent years, with the FOP claiming that ambushes are up over 100% from 2020 to 2021. Cities around the country continue to see cop deaths from confrontations with violent suspects, with crime increasing in what Steve Sailer termed the “racial reckoning,” with America having gone up a “murder plateau” in 2020 and 2021.
Major cities in America are routinely releasing repeat offenders, who go on to be violent criminals again on the street. Cashless bail, lowering of thresholds, and lighter penalties overall have led to several notable cases at the national level, as well as the general reputation cities and states like New York have received.
The question from retiring police is simple: who would want to be a cop today? Councils and city governments look to defund or undermine you at any possible step (often denying they’re doing so at the same time), communities reject your help, and the American public scrutinizes every action that involves crossing racial lines. Known “defenders of democracy” such as George Soros publicly lobby for prosecutors that undermine your job. Corporate America took a stand, to the tune of 50 billion dollars, with an organization and movement that calls for the abolition of the entire profession. Democrats cannot walk away from this, or distance themselves as moderate: it’s your party, and they’re in it. BLM and AOC have been claimed as Democratic trailblazers and at the end of the day, they are practically the agenda setters.
There Won’t Be Enough Soldiers
The position I take on foreign affairs is perhaps contrary to what most may think — see my “Other Countries Have Security Interests” piece if you desire more details — but America’s foreign policy is, unfortunately, a monolithic, hard-to-move creature. Currently, it seems American security is aimed simultaneously at three hot zones in our sphere of control:
Eastern Europe, where NATO and the United States participated in a coup against a legitimately elected president of Ukraine to install a State Department-approved puppet and a succession of governments that refused to cooperate with the Minsk accords, guaranteeing a war in the Donbas (and if you deny this, you have experienced severe Ukraine-related brain rot)
Southeast Asia, where the United States is, unfortunately, beholden to Taiwan’s security interest due to our out-vestment of semiconductor and chip production, on which our country relies heavily.
Balkan Europe, where NATO garrisons Kosovo to guarantee a shaky status quo established in the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, recently facing challenges from Serbia.
America is poised to enter conflicts or begin acting in significant ways to back certain parties in said conflicts. Participation or aid would likely involve our military in some way or another. To that end, the state of the American military is poor.
The current problems, emerging from the Biden administration’s handling of the DoD, are matters of culture and policy.
First among them that the Biden administration made their own was the vaccine mandate, with religious exemptions largely ignored and put aside with no consideration to their content. For those of you who think that vaccines are effective, I refer you to my personal source on the “pandemic”, eugyppius. A long story made short: they are not effective, necessary, and for young men especially, present major risks in the realm of cardiovascular health.
Second, is the military’s mass adoption of left-wing culture issues and propagation of left-wing ideology, making itself plain as an instrument of the GAE. Some of the recent developments include:
Pride month adverts (seen above)
Suggested reading on “white rage” at service academies (West Point)
A stand-down over the issue of “extremism” (that excluded leftists)
Coverage of transgender procedures for service members and dependents
Bases hosting Drag Queen Story Hour (that simply moved after pressure)
Growing racial and leftist extremism in service academies and adoption of curriculum material relating to “whiteness”
The National Guard’s use as a political tool in the wake of January 6th
All of these issues go against the largest demographic that the United States military relies upon — largely white, mostly southern or midwestern American men, who are mostly middle or lower-middle class. These areas have either been conservative or are becoming more conservative as 2016 showed us, and the military is now acting in outright rejection of these demographics.
On top of this, the American military’s usage by the Biden administration in the catastrophic failure in the Afghanistan drawdown still resounds with those who look at America’s place in the world. Leaving Afghanistan was positive, but the embarrassment the US military and government received as it did so — using poorly thought out procedures that resulted in the useless death of 13 service members and leaving behind billions in equipment — showed only incompetence, impotence, and failure.
And, as retribution, America’s military is hollowing out from the bottom up.
The Army, with two months remaining in the Fiscal Year 2022 (which starts October 1 of each year, and ends September 30 of the following year) has only reached 66% of its annual recruiting goals, with other sources claiming only 40% of the enlisted recruitment goal has been satisfied. While the full recruiting data will not be available to the public for some time, it does not take a genius to speculate where these losses are coming from.
This comes alongside growing domestic instability, with the usage of the National Guard and other branches for domestic stability as the police forces stateside continue to fall apart. As Patrick Buchanan recounted in his famous “Culture War” speech;
Hours after [the 1991 LA riots] ended, I went down to the Army compound in South Los Angeles, where I met the troopers of the 18th Cavalry who had come to save the city of Los Angeles. An officer of the 18th Cav said, “Mr. Buchanan, I want you to talk to a couple of our troopers.” And I went over and I met these young fellows. They couldn’t have been 20 years old. And they recounted their story.
They had come into Los Angeles late in the evening of the second day, and the rioting was still going on. And two of them walked up a dark street, where the mob had burned and looted every single building on the block but one, a convalescent home for the aged. And the mob was headed in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old men and women inside. The troopers came up the street, M-16s at the ready. And the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated because it had met the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, and backed by moral courage.
Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend. Here were 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their lives to stop a mob from molesting old people they did not even know. And as those boys took back the streets of Los Angeles, block by block, my friends, we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country.
As America enters recession under President Biden, America may well be on the last rise before the real American decline begins. America sees itself as a world power by virtue of its economy. Never mind that our economy is built on the back of speculation, business services, and government spending as its pillars. While China builds an economy with a mix of production of goods that it requires, America builds a service economy of do-nothing jobs of speculation. China produces 95% of America’s ibuprofen and 90% of America’s antibiotics. America believed it could sit atop the world as an Empire, with subjects containing outsourced labor supplying it for all eternity. Instead, America rots from crime, drug abuse, illegal migration, and looming stagflation with an absentee President. There will be no calls of “O Captain, My Captain!”
With that collapse will come even less faith in government institutions, with includes the police and military. And if recession spirals into depression, with the aggravated socio-racial-economic-political state of America among every imaginable dividing line, unrest is sure to follow. America no longer has a self-sacrificing stock of 18, 19, and 20-year-old boys to serve their country or their community. The right is growing less supportive of these institutions as well, especially along the lines of federal agencies such as the FBI, Capitol Police, and ATF, and these agencies will probably only be staffed by their enemies going forward.
What these institutions have instead, now, is a self-hating, over-medicating, obese, deranged, and mentally-ill class of activists that desire nothing more than to destroy the United States of America from the inside out. And maybe — just maybe — that’s what they’ll get.