The Patriot Post® · Race and Police Both Sides of Same Coin

Erick Erickson, who writes over at Red State, says liberals and conservatives are both partially correct in their analysis surrounding what happened in Ferguson. Many police forces in the nation do disproportionately target minorities – particularly blacks, but the details of Darren Wilson’s actions do not fit into that trend, as a grand jury found Wilson justified in his use of force. Fueling all of this is a media obsessed with scandal; if it bleeds, it leads. “Conservatives have a tendency to say young black men need to rise so far about the stereotyped behavior they cannot be blamed,” Erickson writes. “Liberals say that is unfair. And the truth is that in some cases they could rise as close to the standard of Jesus as possible and some policeman somewhere still might pull them over. If only we could all rely on our better angels. But I am a pessimist on this issue. Too many people on both sides have too much of an incentive to keep tensions going. It is a TV ratings bonanza for cable news and reality shows. Too many profit off it.” While America must have a conversation on the power and trust it gives its law enforcement officers, more times than not the character people display is how the police will respond in kind. More…