Elsewhere (193)
Heather Mac Donald on the myths of Black Lives Matter:
Police officers —of all races— are disproportionately endangered by black assailants. Over the past decade, according to FBI data, 40% of cop killers have been black. Officers are killed by blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police. Some may find evidence of police bias in the fact that black people make up 26% of the police-shooting victims, compared with their 13% representation in the national population. But as residents of poor black neighbourhoods know too well, violent crimes are disproportionately committed by black people. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, blacks were charged with 62% of all robberies, 57% of murders and 45% of assaults in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009, though they made up roughly 15% of the population there. Such a concentration of criminal violence in minority communities means that officers will be disproportionately confronting armed and often resisting suspects in those communities, raising officers’ own risk of using lethal force.
College Fix reports on the importance of getting in that leftist indoctrination while minds are soft and yielding:
Stef Bernal-Martinez, a self-described “radical queer progressive educator” at Central Park School for Children in Durham, North Carolina, took her entire first grade class to a local Black Lives Matter rally this past Thursday. Yes, during the school day… “The project that my class took on in this quarter was a study of the Black Lives Matter movement,” she says. “And so, we’ve been investigating and asking questions about the issues and the causes that people are fighting for, and my kids… were very excited to, sort of, join the movement themselves.”
Parents of the children in her class were informed,
The students will be wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts during the march on Thursday.
No, don’t raise that eyebrow. When it comes to impressionable six-year-olds, progressive role models are important. Ms Bernal-Martinez is of course enthused by “social justice work” and tells us that she endures a life of oppression in a “White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.” When not busy indoctrinating the small children left in her care, she spends her time “envisioning a world without physical or intangible borders.”
And Guy Sorman on Finland’s experimental welfare model:
This year, the Finnish government hopes to begin granting every adult citizen a monthly allowance of €800 (roughly $900). Whether rich or poor, each citizen will be free to use the money as he or she sees fit. The idea is that people are responsible for their actions. If someone decides to spend their €800 on vodka, that is their decision, and has nothing to do with the government. In return for the Universal Basic Income, however, the public accepts the elimination of most welfare services.
One catch that springs to mind is what happens when those who are inadequate to the task of living spend the $900 on booze or drugs or whatever and then find themselves in dire straits – hungry, possibly homeless. Will the Finns allow such people to face the consequences of their own choices and irresponsibility? And what about any children they might have? And then of course there’s the issue of incentives and the corrosion of the work ethic, as discussed here previously in the lively comment thread following this post, in which “activist and union organiser” Godfrey Moase insists that a “universal income” would unleash the enormously talented artists hidden inside us all, and whose supporters announce, triumphantly, that getting money for simply being would “make employment optional.”
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Heather Mac Donald on the myths of Black Lives Matter
Paywall.
Paywall.
For readers without a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, just type “Heather Mac Donald Myths of Black Lives Matter” into Google and the resulting link will take you to the full article.
Thanks.
The thing that worries me about the universal basic income thing, is the potential for massive inflation. If everybody gets €800, then by the law of supply and demand doesn’t €800 pretty quickly become virtually worthless?
Universal income is a modern nirvana for those unwilling to be productive enough to even just get the essential basics in life. However I can’t for the life of me see how this will actually work in reducing spending, as you mentioned, or who is going to pay for it.
Apparently automation means that most people don’t need to work, we are just forced to by the system as a way of keeping the wealthy wealthy and the poor poor or something similarly inane. Why someone would go to work creating the next widget, or engineer the next generation of manufacturing and industry etc only to have all that work appropriated to unleash the typical ‘creativity’ of some individuals as seen here and elsewhere is beyond me.
the potential for massive inflation
That was one of the (many) issues discussed in the long, quite lively thread following this.
my kids… were very excited to, sort of, join the movement themselves.
These people are twisted. I just don’t believe that *six year olds* came up with the idea.
I just don’t believe that *six year olds* came up with the idea.
No, it does seem a tad improbable and more like an excuse for using minors to further a pre-existing agenda, one with which Ms Bernal-Martinez is somewhat preoccupied, even if that entails thwarting parents’ preferences and taking their children to a politically and racially charged rally where violence may ensue. Regarding one parent’s complaint that he and other parents weren’t able to opt their children out of the political activity, Ms Bernal-Martinez says, rather airily, “It wasn’t the formal consent process. It was about, do the kids want to do this, or not? It’s about the children’s agency.” And of course not every primary school teacher has short-notice access to a supply of Black Lives Matter t-shirts in infants’ sizes.
Again, as so often, you have to marvel at the presumption, the vanity, the casual arrogance.
[ Edited. ]
And of course not every primary school teacher has short-notice access to a supply of Black Lives Matter t-shirts in infants’ sizes.
Parents really need to start doing some research on who’s teaching their kids.
Parents really need to start doing some research on who’s teaching their kids.
Absolutely.
I will be very interested in seeing how the basic income works out. The doomsaying reminds me a bit of the economics quip aimed at various targets, that [so-and-so] predicted eight of the last five recessions. It’s a serious candidate for playing merry hell with the economy, but it’s not altogether unreasonable that there might be some way to implement it successfully.
It’s a serious candidate for playing merry hell with the economy, but it’s not altogether unreasonable
I think Tim Worstall has suggested it would be more plausible if set at a very basic level, much lower than is generally advocated. A detailed economic analysis is beyond my powers, but it seems to me we’re still left with the basic sociological problems regarding incentives, work ethic, freeloading, etc. And the question of what happens when the existing welfare system is disassembled in favour of a “universal income,” and idiots, of which there are many, piss away that income and find themselves, and any children, in dire situations. What happens then?
Sweden’s ‘little Mogadishu’.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/20/watch-journalists-punched-kicked-and-rammed-with-car-in-swedens-little-mogadishu-no-go-zone/
#MulticulturalEnrichment
For readers without a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, just type “Heather Mac Donald Myths of Black Lives Matter”
The myth of the so-called “War on Cops”.
It’s infuriating that people’s wanting to turn this into a racial issue is obscuring the fact that American cops really are getting more and more thuggish and above the law.
When Chicago-area police officer Charles Gliniewicz was shot last September, there was much bigger manhunt than there would be for any non-cop who was shot.
It turns out the little fucker shot himself, carefully planning it to look like a murder. Of course, all the usual suspects screamed “WAR ON COPS!!!” at the time.
she spends her time “envisioning a world without physical or intangible borders.”
That would be an interesting approach to take to, say, designing the rooftop of a skyscraper or the sides of a bridge.
Police officers —of all races— are disproportionately endangered by black assailants. Over the past decade, according to FBI data, 40% of cop killers have been black
Note though that this statistic, nor the following ‘violent crimes are disproportionately committed by black people’ means much on its own.
Imagine a town of one thousand people. one hundred are black, nine hundred are white. In a given year, one white person commits a violent crime, and nine black persons do.
Now, we have a town where 90% of violent crime is committed by blacks, which sounds terrible. But we also have a town where 91% of black people do not commit violent crimes.
Both of those are true, but they don’t exactly seem to tell the same story, and presenting one statistic without the other is misleading.
(And that’s before we even get into the Yule–Simpson effect).
The idea of citizens basic income (CBI) is supported by both Libertarians and socialists.
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The former support it for three reasons
1. Incentives – currently welfare is withdrawn from low income earners as they start to work more. The combination of low personal allowances combined with benefit withdrawal means that low income earners suffer what amounts to a very high tax rate as they attempt to work their way up the scale. This disincentive would disappear with CBI because it would be untaxed.
2. The problem of welfare is twofold. First the effect on the recipients. Second the creation of a class of bureaucrats whose task is to dole out the different benefits. A simple CBI would eliminate all the means tests and more importantly eliminate a vast army of state dependent clerks.
3. Politicians are keen to be seen to be doing something. Hence increasing benefits or creation of new ones suits them. Take one example: fuel poverty. Logic would dictate that you can’t be poor in one necessity only. But the campaign to highlight fuel poverty is never challenged one this basic logic. Hence the politician who cares about fuel poverty is seen to be effective. The logic of CBI is that “there are no other benefits – full stop”. No housing benefit, no jobseekers allowance. Some go as far as no education, no health etc. The state shrinks to Defence and Justice. It remains to be seen how pure this ideal would remain over time.
Incentives: the core assumption is that CBI is set low. It has to be low so that sufficient people are motivated to work. They have to work enough to generate the income to pay the CBI before anything else like defence was paid for. I’d be concerned about how an electorate would avoid the temptation to vote for an increase in CBI.
Another way to think about a Libertarian CBI is that it is inconceivable that welfare would ever be abolished. This is the compromise that all politics requires to get closer to the ideal.
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Socialists like CBI for a completely different reason. Since they believe that private property is fundamentally immoral, then the CBI is not designed to prevent starvation of the poorest. Rather it is a basic right. People don’t work for income, they work because they want to. In such a paradise, I will be the person clearing up unicorn shit with pixie dust.
Here’s Owen Jones talking CBI with the Adam Smith institute. I could bear very little.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qslx0cBu_Z4
According to Bernal-Martinez, the idea to march came from the students.
*bitter laugh*
Anon, if it’s FBI data it’s very likely national data. For which the next paragraph gives us that 13% of the population are black.
So a citation would have been helpful, but it’s not likely to be the sort of cherry picking you suggest.
If you want to show statistical abuse, you have to do a but more work than that.
*bitter laugh*
Quite. But Ms Bernal-Martinez is certainly bold. I think we have to give her that.
Or brazen, if you prefer.
So a citation would have been helpful,
Some relevant FBI data can be found here. Note that the demographic ratios are quite stable and change very little from one year to another. And the last item here seems apposite too.
I risk opprobrium with this post but here goes.
I think the key highlights of Heather MacDonald’s excellent article is that blacks kill more cops than cops kill blacks and that blacks kill blacks at 30 times the rate that cops kill blacks.
So why BLM? I think there’s a simple and a complex answer. The simple answer is that blacks were motivated to vote for Barack Obama; Hillary nowhere near as much. So an issue needed to be manufactured to motivate them. After all Hillary needs every vote (assuming she is not in jail where she belongs)
The complex answer is is much more important – as the racial animus that has been unleashed won’t simply dissipate post election. Why is it that the left will not hold blacks accountable for their actions and choices and instead make excuses for them. The glib answer from the right is that the left doesn’t want functional black communities as they then might not automatically vote Democrat, but can it be this simple?
Another issue with BLM is whats happening on campus. The sheer volume of blunt anti-white racism is worrying. After all, where does it end.
White people are always being asked to check your privilege – as supposedly they’re pre-judged differently to black people. But every time I hear “check your privilege” I hear “I’m ashamed”
I have supported the introduction of a universal Citizen’s Basic Income all my life.
Please note that it:
(1) applies only to Citizens, i.e. legally resident adults
(2) is Basic, i.e. only sufficient for basic sustenance
(3) is universal
We already have a Welfare System that prevents people starving on the streets, as befits a civilised society. Why not also have a Welfare System that doesn’t have the current disincentives to enterprise and tacit encouragement of indolence and “playing the system”?
All the studies that have taken place have shown it to be a success. Alaska has a Citizen’s Dividend from their oil revenue that is an annual version. Finland is seriously examining changing to a Citizen’s Basic Income.
It is the least worst Welfare System.
Incidentally, it would not be any more inflationary than our current Welfare System which also doles out “free money” to recipients both deserving and undeserving.
And the computer revolution has only just started. (I am a computer programmer, so this is an informed opinion). There really is going to be technological unemployment, and what better way is there of ensuring that money keeps circulating through the economy?
“Why is it that the left will not hold blacks accountable for their actions and choices and instead make excuses for them.”
It’s identity politics. Pure and simple. The identity group, blacks, are victims of oppression and the dysfunction seen is a result of that oppression. Remove that oppression and the dysfunction will disappear.
If the right has a principle stock answer it isn’t the cynical one you select. Rather I would suggest that it blames the collapse of marriage, welfare dependency, etc.
Yes. On the other hand, many of those already exist in the form of generous welfare systems. Basic income – if implemented with a clue, of which I am not at all confident – can improve the incentive structure by getting rid of the near-total income tax that results from means-tested welfare. (That’s near-total from both sides of 100%.)
I don’t know. Some variant of slavery seems to me the obvious resolution, though I gather I’m an outlier on this score.
All the studies that have taken place have shown it to be a success. Alaska has a Citizen’s Dividend from their oil revenue that is an annual version.
Alaskan citizens got a whole $2000 and change last year, and the key difference between Alaskan Citizen’s Dividend is that the money comes from actually selling something of value, not from somebody else’s pocket which is why a CBI won’t work.
Might a negative income tax, only payable to those below a certain threshold, be a better alternative to CBI ?
Speaking of academia, where joy goes to die:
You see, a game in which disabled and able-bodied students can share the fun, maybe bond, and compete on a fair footing, as it were, is something to denounce. I wonder what these dreary, po-faced scolds would make of the sentiment seen here.
@David
What’s the latest on the FBI statistics? I recall the guardian making big noises about how they were deficient in totalling all of the police related fatalities.
What’s the latest on the FBI statistics?
I don’t follow these things religiously. I suppose you could always email Heather Mac Donald, who pays more attention.
In happier news:
Does that count as “social justice”? Asking for a friend.
Why not a CBI?
Well as Insty would say “insufficient opportunities for graft”. But there’s also the whole political thing of fiddling with the welfare system to please one’s allies and piss off one’s enemies. Without welfare to play with, politicians might be reduced to policing the borders and ensuring the citizens’ property rights.
Also, a massively comples, (and inefficient), welfare system requires a huge bureaucracy to manage it, as well as another to steal the money to pay for it.
Imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if the current bureaucrats were forced to actually live on the CBI.
The Central Park School for Children describes itself as “A Child-Centered, Progressive Charter School in Durham, North Carolina.” Its admissions page says: “We encourage families to tour our school and learn about our educational approach before applying.” Parents who choose to send their children there have only themselves to blame.
Does that count as “social justice”?
Only if it’s a head shot. Otherwise taxpayers are still forking out for this scumbag.
“…as befits a civilised society.”
Why do some people believe that “a civilised society” requires stealing money from people who earned it and giving it to people who did not?
Why do some people believe that “a civilised society” requires stealing money from people who earned it and giving it to people who did not?
Because the alternative is gated communities and random violence from those desperate to feed themselves. People who in times past found the laws rigged against them via the Enclosure Acts which were used to steal the land they used to feed themselves, and thereby forced them into the factories as desperate supplicants. Eventually leading to the world we now live in.
And of course it is ongoing. Local Authorities raised the cash from loans and local ratepayers to provide clean water and sewerage for all, something necessary for public health – diseases like cholera not being particularly interested in how much money you had (or have). Then Labour nationalised the water companies with no recompense, leaving the Local Authorities to repay the original debts. Then the Tories sold the water companies off cheap to their friends, but kept the proceeds, stiffing the Local Authorities again.
Now if you want to argue for the abolition of all Welfare then feel free to make that demand. You could probably start with the concept that you never signed the Social Contract and so shouldn’t be held to its terms.
But if not, then why are you arguing against the desire to fix the existing (broken) Welfare System? Because that is what the universal Citizen’s Basic Income does.
Possibly, as in the case of Bismark, because the alternative looks like it might involve a large mass of volunteers for the Revolution. It’s all very well to denounce such volunteers and make moral arguments for why people shouldn’t do that, but this is often about as effective as denouncing entropy for the “uncivilized” things it does to your elderly parents.
Or possibly, because they don’t believe it’s stealing. Do you begrudge a cardroom its rake, or an auction house its cut? Taxes can be argued as a similar sort of rent or fee you pay to the superior landowner for permission to conduct business there.
…because the alternative…
…is even worse. The gist of the replies my comment evoked seems to be that “a civilised society” requires a willingness to pay Danegeld.
“my kids… were very excited to, sort of, join the movement themselves.”
No, dear, they were excited by having a day out of the classroom and the opportunity to avoid listening to a lefty spout rubbish all the time.
TDK gets it on UBI (and maybe BLM).
The Groan, the Indignant, Twitter etc. would be all keen on the income actually being paid out. But any suggestion that disability benefits, winter fuel allowances and so on would be abolished would be met with screeching outrage. Jonathan Portes and Nick Cohen would write pompous articles. Polly Toynbee would write sanctimonious articles. John Harris would do a bit of poverty tourism. Laurie Penny would write about herself. Steve Bell would draw an unfunny cartoon.
Bernal: your standard-issue La Raza racist commie douchebag, dime a dozen in Cali.
your standard-issue La Raza racist commie douchebag
Pretty much. It’s radicalism as imagined by a fairly common type of narcissistic mediocrity.
But no, we mustn’t mock her pretensions. She is fierce and exotic, as she tells us many times. Not only is her preferred classification (because hey, you’ve got to have one) “Queer Xicana,” she’s also a “Radical Queer Progressive Educator,” one who struggles heroically in a “White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.” (And no, I’m not sure why almost everything has to be capitalised. Perhaps it’s to let us know that Everything She Says Is Incredibly Radical And Important.) And when asked if there’s a “Latin@ leader” she looks up to, our fearless race warrior says, matter-of-factly, “I am the Latinx/Xicana leader that I look up to.”
So there’s that.
In another lovely cop story, one that doesn’t involve any of those black people who commit all the crime:
Jury acquits West Viginia woman who stepped between dog and cop who wanted to kill it
She had video showing the cop’s claims were BS, although the cops tried to confiscate it because “if you’ve done nothing wrong you should have nothing to hide” doesn’t apply to the cops apparently. Yet the case still went to trial, and as fair as I know, the cop hasn’t been disciplined.
Read the whole story for the really enraging details, like the cop’s implication that it’s standard policy to shoot even dogs that are chained.
A survivor of *what* exactly? Her hairdresser, maybe?
Meanwhile, in cloud cuckoo land:
CA: Condoms in Porn on Ballot
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/03/20/ca-condoms-in-porn-on-november-ballot/
Short-arm inspections will commence after chow.
Related, well sort of:
Farage:
We have sunk so low as a nation that we cannot control the tax rates on every day items. And we beg foreign bureaucrats politicians and courts help us.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/20/is-cameron-really-going-to-get-a-victory-on-the-tampon-tax/
Oh, from the staff directory:
Stef Bernal-Martinez was born in Southern California, grew up in the West Texas borderlands and is a new member of the Durham community. She is a young and new teacher who received her undergraduate degree in Political Science at The University of Texas at El Paso and her master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Sarah Lawrence College. Outside of the classroom, Stef is a self-described community photographer. She comes from a legacy of women who have worked to teach her that she is worth it and she hopes to inspire the same message to the children she teaches — that they deserve a meaningful education and have a right to a myriad of beautiful learning experiences.
Heh:
http://takimag.com/article/i_have_met_the_enemy_and_he_is_easily_terrified_jim_goad/print
Spring has sprung, let the celebrations commence . . . .
