Do Mainstream Conservatives Support Police Brutality?

One of the principal talking points that is enduringly trotted out by the mainstream conservative movement is that police brutality is not the primary cause of black problems in America. We hear this talking point dutifully repeated by right-wing mouthpieces whenever a story of police brutality against a black male hits the news cycle. However, this talking point is an utterly meaningless straw man that solely exists for conservatives to avoid holding disreputable police officers accountable for their wanton displays of violence against black American citizens. The notion that a negative action has to be the primary cause of trouble in a community in order for it to be a serious issue worthy of being addressed is perfectly illogical.

Mainstream conservatives know that if they are forced to address police brutality as an issue, they are going to have to concede some points on stop-on-frisk, which artificially and dangerously elevates the number of encounters between black men and police officers—and undoubtedly heightens the likelihood of police brutality occurring. Curiously, mainstream conservatives who loquaciously preach about their devotion to small government also enthusiastically protect the big-government fraud that is stop-and-frisk—a policy that is as unconstitutional as it is inefficacious.

It is almost a vocation for many mainstream conservatives to pretend as though every instance of racism-induced violence is a figment of the hyper-stimulated imaginations of black Americans. This is especially true whenever it is a police officer accused of violent wrongdoing. When one believes that racism does not exist (except when one can conveniently accuse liberals of it), it becomes a chore to ensure that every race-related case is proven to be another “Tawana Brawley” playing out on the national stage. It is this kind of mindset that leads mainstream conservatives to respond with the inappropriately crass rejoinder, “Police brutality isn’t the primary problem blacks face!” when people are discussing the very real issue of police brutality and extrajudicial killing of black men in the streets of American cities.

It is remarkable that conservatives who tell black Americans not to focus on police brutality because it is not the primary problem for blacks in America are the same conservatives who defenestrate that logic while squeezing all of the political juice they can out of tragedies like the Benghazi attacks. No logical argument can be made for suggesting that Benghazi is the primary issue affecting Americans, but conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives are still taking votes on the topic, and mainstream conservatives on social media still have Benghazi ribbons and hashtags reminding fellow conservatives to “Never Forget!” More Americans are killed every year at the hands of militarized officers who engage in police brutality than were killed in that one tragic event at the Benghazi consulate in Libya. However, it is supposedly acceptable to have never-ending commentary about Benghazi, but black Americans should not speak about police brutality because it is not a “primary” concern. Where is the intellectual consistency?

One example of this glaring right-wing hypocrisy is found in the commentary of none other than Ben Stein. In his recent remarks on blacks in America, Stein said, “You would think, if you read the liberal mainstream media, that the main problem with race in America was poor innocent black people being set upon and mistreated by the police.” What Ben Stein is trying to say is that he does not think police brutality that results in the death of young, black, and unarmed males is an issue worth reporting. However, where Benghazi is concerned, Stein considers it a “frank, outright malfeasance” by the Obama administration. In the world according to Stein, governmental negligence resulting in the death of American citizens matters when those citizens are white. However, when blacks are killed by the direct actions of government actors on American soil, Stein considers the reporting of such events as evidence of left-wing media propaganda. This is unconscionable hypocrisy that explains why mainstream conservatives are incapable of conversing with self-respecting black Americans.

The “primary cause of problems” argument is just an attempt to silence black Americans who dare to point out the reprehensible injustice of police brutality, which operates as an appallingly toxic mixture of state violence and anti-blackness. The idea that problems given consideration in politics must always be the primary problems affecting citizens is nonsensical. It is not a standard to which mainstream conservatives themselves adhere. Rather, it is just an invented rule specifically for black Americans in order to frustrate black social criticism and deny the existence and seriousness of oppressive policing.

Mainstream conservatives have a unique opportunity to demonstrate their allegiance to true constitutional conservatism and stand up for black men whose constitutional rights are routinely ignored by morally bankrupt police officers. Mainstream conservatives sanctimoniously declare their allegiance to constitutional conservatism while sitting amongst themselves and sipping mimosas in plush conference halls. However, when it is time to put constitutional conservatism into practice vis-à-vis standing up for the constitutional rights of black males, many mainstream conservatives are unapologetically comfortable about being on the side of government tyranny.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chidike Okeem is a writer. Born in Nigeria, raised in London, England, and now living in California, he writes about race, culture, religion, and politics. You can follow him on Twitter @VOICEOFCHID and read the rest of his writings on his website at www.voiceofchid.com.