Candace Owens just wants you to stop making a martyr out of George Floyd
But if that's the case, why not just say so?
Candace Owens reminds me a lot of the kind of people I often critique on the left. Is she the equivalent of the “woke” lefty, simply positioning herself on the right instead? I’m not sure. I don’t think the two sides display quite the same characteristics or employ quite the same tactics, even if each is waging a war of identity politics. Even if each side seems to engage in the kind of tactics and rhetoric that screams “pay attention to me!”
I tweeted about this tweet from Owens yesterday and wondered if she was basically saying that Floyd deserved to be killed by the cops for his past crimes—killed without trial, without a chance to defend himself, and not for the crime in question to begin with.'
Many, many people replied that Owens is actually just pointing out how wrong it is to make martyrs out of Floyd et alia. She wants to interview the victims of these criminals’ past crimes to get their side of the story and that, I guess, is her way of saying we should stop making heroes out of criminals who have done bad things in the past.
I guess I’m just old fashioned, but I think if you’re going to say something you should just say it. If you want to say “stop making martyrs out of George Floyd and Jacob Blake” just say that. It isn’t very hard. Speak plainly. Own your words.
On the other hand, I tend to agree with the idea that we shouldn’t make Floyd or Blake into martyrs. I don’t think we need—or ought to—even consider the character of a man like Floyd at all. He can be a hero or a knave for all I care. He still shouldn’t have been killed by Derek Chauvin on the street. He should have gone to jail and faced trial and been given his due process. That was his right. It doesn’t matter if he was a burglar or a mugger or a rapist or a killer himself. Justice is blind. That’s why we all get lawyers, all get juries of our peers. Even the bad ones.
Some people pointed out that Ma’Khia Bryant was in the process of trying to stab another girl when she was shot. Once again, I agree with people who point this out. This case isn’t like the others and I’m definitely irked by all the attempts I’ve seen to make it out to be.
A policeman’s job is to serve and protect, and if a cop sees a woman about to stab another woman, that cop is compelled by the law and by their duty to stop them, including the use of lethal force. We’re foolish to think we know better or that we would have made a different, better choice under those very difficult circumstances.
I see some people ask “why didn’t he shoot for the knee?” and the answer is simple: Cops aren’t actually allowed to do that. Police training works like this: Once you draw your weapon, if you’re going to shoot you shoot to kill. You can try to avoid shooting in the first place. You can try to talk someone down. You can hope that the threat of being shot subdues whoever you’re pointing your gun at before any actual shooting takes place.
But once you pull the trigger you shoot to kill, because the alternative is potentially much worse. The perp could shoot and kill you or another innocent person. Ma’Khia Bryant might have killed the girl she was trying to stab. This is just a reality of policing.
We need police reform, obviously, but we have to debate the realities of the here and now, not engage in wishful thinking or talk about things we don’t understand. We need police reform for any countless number of reasons, but arguing about it in bad faith—something both sides of this endless debate engage in—helps nobody.
Candace Owens is full of shit. She lumps in Ma’Khia Bryant because she knows that case isn’t like the others. It’s a distraction technique. Now people can use that example to distract from her overall message.
The fact is, we shouldn’t make Floyd into a martyr. Back in 1991, Rodney King tried to escape police while driving intoxicated in Los Angeles. That’s not particularly heroic, but it doesn’t mean he deserved to be viciously beaten. Imperfect, flawed men and women, even criminals—especially criminals—still deserve to be treated fairly under the law.
I often defend free speech. I defend the free speech of those I fundamentally disagree with, or art I find personally offensive. That’s the thing about freedom and justice. As H.L. Mencken once said “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
It doesn’t matter if Floyd was a hero or a scoundrel. He didn’t deserve to die the way he did. He deserved justice. We all do, kings and beggars alike.
"Candace Owens reminds me a lot of the kind of people I often critique on the left. Is she the equivalent of the “woke” lefty, simply positioning herself on the right instead?"
To me, this is only a valid foundation to start with if you believe that she believes what she's saying. I'd bet money that Candance Owens is simply a grifter. Her positions are ubiquitously in-line with the hivemind that no real person could fully align with. I'm not convinced that her positions are worth debating because of that, at least not when they come from her.
George Floyd being a not-so-great dude and not deserving to die the way he did can both be true at the same time. Look at Batman (okay, yes, he's a comic book dude but I think there's a principle at work). He refuses to kill. Why? Because he must maintain a moral high ground. I mean, yes...he kind of sends dudes to the hospital with brutal injuries but...you know...moving right along...
As a guy who's center-right (aw heck, I'm a conservative) I can't listen to Owens or Shapiro or some of those folks for anything other than measured doses. You just realize they're singing for the choir. They have some good things to say, but after a while you realize there's nothing truly novel (or, not much) that they have to add to the discussion. They know what their audience wants to hear, and they give them that.