Which lives matter?

The moment Ma’Khia Bryant picked up the knife on Wednesday, the police were doomed for systemic racism.

The police arrived at the Columbus, Ohio address to find several young people fighting in the street, one armed with a knife. Officer Nicholas Reardon, faced with an impossible situation, made the split-second decision to fire his weapon, and tragically, Ma’Khia was killed.

And right on cue, the protests about police systemic racism began to reverberate around the country, right up to the White House.

The officer had shot and killed a black girl, so he was guilty of racism, for not valuing the life of a black person.

But if he hadn’t shot her, she would have stabbed, and likely killed, another black girl, so the officer would have been guilty of racism, for not valuing the life of the black victim.

So maybe the police shouldn’t have attended the scene.  Then they would have been guilty of racism for not protecting a black neighbourhood from crime and violence.

And if the concerned citizen didn’t call the police to report the incident, that would also show the police as guilty of racism, because the community didn’t feel safe or worthy of calling the police to their street.

No matter what the police did, they were guilty of racism.

This is where America finds itself, and sadly, Australia is rapidly following the same path.

Thankfully, and rather surprisingly, CNN stars Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo agreed that the police officer had to shoot to prevent Ma’Khia from killing others.  If only more from the Left came to their senses, and recognised this reality.

On the same day, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on three counts for the death of George Floyd.  No evidence of racism was presented, or mentioned in the verdicts, but that didn’t stop Vice-President Kamala Harris decrying the “systemic racism” that supposedly played a major part in Floyd’s death.

And while much discussion has already happened, with more to come, over whether the verdicts were correct, the simple fact stands that the verdicts will forever be tainted.  Did the jury come to their decision solely on the evidence presented, or were they swayed by the violence-inciting threats made by people like Congresswoman Maxine Waters who flew from California to Minnesota directly to interfere with the legal process, and tamper with the jury.  These jurors would have had last years riots, looting and destruction fresh in their minds, as they heard people promise more of the same if Chauvin wasn’t found guilty.

On Sunday, police in Minnesota were again involved in a shooting incident with a driver.  Black Lives Matter protesters knelt for a moment’s silence outside the Governor’s mansion, and planned to march in protest of the shooting.  But when they found out that the victim was in fact white, and had been shooting at the police before they shot him, they called off their protest and went home.  The initial assumption that any police shooting must have involved a black victim, and been a result of systemic racism, is becoming the default position, despite all the evidence to the contrary.  This position is unhelpful to all people, demonising law-enforcement, and enforcing a victimhood status for minorities.

We have seen the same approach in Australia, and it is rapidly gaining momentum. With the thirtieth anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, protests continue, often despite health-order restrictions on gatherings.  People protest the police brutality that causes indigenous Australians to die at an alarmingly higher rate than non-Indigenous prisoners.

Except that’s not the case.

The Royal Commission reported in 1991 that the deaths they investigated were not due to police violence, and that indigenous deaths in custody occurred at the same or lower rates than non-indigenous prisoner. Reports since then have shown that indigenous deaths continue to be at a lower rate than non-indigenous deaths, a point completely ignored by protesters as inconvenient to their narrative.

The report in 1991, and subsequent studies, correctly noted higher rates of incarceration for indigenous Australians, and this is indeed a pressing issue that needs a solution. But this gets lost in the need to paint police as racist and violent, and all indigenous people as helpless victims of oppressive colonial rule.

If we continue to paint all indigenous, or black, people as victims, blameless, even righteous, and worthy of praise, and to paint all law-enforcement, and all white people, as oppressive, controlling, and evil, then nothing will ever improve for anyone.

US Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked George Floyd for “sacrificing your life”, as if he chose to die, and said his name would forever be linked to justice.  This, despite Floyd’s multiple convictions for drug possession, theft, trespass, and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.  While his death was a tragedy, he should not be exalted as a saint, or even worse, as a sacrificial Saviour.

Martin Luther King Jr famously dreamt of a day when people would not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

Sadly, we have moved to a position where people are being judged solely by the colour of their skin, and character is irrelevant.

If an altercation involves a white person, and a black person, the white person is immediately guilty of any crime, and is also clearly a racist.  And doubly so if the white person is a police officer.

If an altercation involves two black people, everybody moves on, because there is no tale of racism to tell.

Leonydus Johnson (@LeonydusJohnson on Twitter) recently posted a list of children who had been shot and killed in America this year, often from drive-by shootings. He listed 18 children, aged from 11 months to 12 years. Where is the outrage and outpouring of grief for these innocent victims? Does the race of the perpetrator actually make a difference?

If you need to see racism everywhere to support your ideology, you will find racism anywhere, and sadly you will ignore anything that doesn’t feed that narrative.

Let us push to see King’s dream finally become a reality.

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Grant Vandersee is a former secondary teacher who is now horrified at what is being taught and promoted in schools. A husband and father, political engagement runs in his family with three generations serving in local government. He's been personally involved in party politics for 20 years and is a member of the Liberal National Party. Grant is a staunch advocate for life, family, free speech, individual freedom and religious liberty.