Take A Careful Look at Demands of 'BLM'

This letter is written in response to the recent events that have occurred as a result of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minn. It is important that one separate a desire, as others have called for in this newspaper, to “do what’s right” and profess that “peace is the way” from support of Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) and associated organizations and individuals. It is equally important to distinguish one’s reaction from watching the video of Floyd’s death from what the statistics say about racial differences in the lethal use of force by police.

BLM believes that the United States was and is irredeemably racist. BLM believes that blacks are “systematically targeted for demise” and that the United States engages in “state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism.” BLM calls for a “national defunding of the police” and demands reparations for slavery. The demand for a redistribution of wealth, however, goes far beyond reparations. The following demands on white people are among a list released by the co-founder of BLM Louisville: (1) will your property to a black family; (2) give inherited property to blacks; (3) downsize to a smaller residence and donate the larger one to a black family; (4) redo your monthly budget so that you can donate money to blacks. The following demand goes to real estate developers, apparently even non-white ones: build a sustainable complex in a black neighborhood and let black people live in it for free.

The original publication of the list can be found here: https://www.leoweekly.com/2017/08/white-people/. Take these actions immediately or you are racist. Other chapters of BLM have released different lists that are just as radical. A quick search of the internet will find them.

Not all the same

One cannot blame all violent protests, tearing down of statues, vandalizing of buildings (including churches) and the other carnage of the recent weeks on BLM. At times, BLM has even denounced the violence as detracting from its efforts of police “reform.” But BLM and its prominent supporters have on many occasions endorsed such actions. Shaun King, a vocal supporter of BLM and current writer-in-residence at Harvard University, has demanded “[a]ll murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form of white supremacy.”

King’s exhortation has been seconded by many in BLM. Growing up, I attended St. John’s United Church of Christ in Martinsburg. Above the altar is a stained-glass window of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane and on the left side of the sanctuary is a stained glass window of Jesus knocking on a door with the words “Open unto me” underneath. In both windows he is depicted as white. I thought I had spent all those Sunday mornings in the pews worshipping God, but in fact I was engaged in acts of white supremacy. And if your church has a depiction of Christ as white, so were you.

Statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, Francis Scott Key, Christopher Columbus and even Abraham Lincoln have been torn down with the express and implicit approval of BLM. Word War II memorials and statues of Mahatma Gandhi have been defaced. If Lincoln and Ghandi cannot stand, who can? Who can BLM not cancel? What distinguishes the destruction of monuments by the Taliban and ISIS offensive to their religious beliefs from the destruction sanctioned by BLM?

Greater New York BLM president Hawk Newsome stated on a national news show on June 24, “I just want black liberation and black sovereignty, by any means necessary.” Any means necessary. And he has no fear of openly stating so on national television.

What the data shows

Roland G. Fryer Jr., who describes himself in a June 23, 2020, Wall Street Journal opinion essay as a “Southern black boy who grew up without a mother,” earned his doctorate from Penn State University and has served as a tenured professor of economics at Harvard since 2007. In 2017, Dr. Fryer authored a study titled, “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Difference in Police Use of Force”. Dr. Fryer and his research team examined police encounters in California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, New York City and Washington state to develop their data set. And what does that data set show? It shows that police are more likely to use nonlethal force on a black than a white and that compliance with a police officer’s directions reduce the likelihood of police aggression for both blacks and whites but the reduction is greater for whites.

But it also shows that blacks are no more likely to be shot than whites by police officers. Dr. Fryer’s findings are supported by a 2016 study by Dr. Philip Atiba Goth (also a black man who holds a Ph.D) of the Center for Policing Equity titled, “The Science of Justice: Race, Arrests and Police Use of Force.”

Dr. Goth’s research looked at “12 law enforcement departments from geographically and demographically diverse locations” and found that the use of nonlethal force by police was more common against blacks but that whites were more likely than blacks to be fatally shot by police. Dr. Goth’s research also demonstrated police used force against whites and blacks more often than against Hispanics, Asians and other races.

Dr. Fryer’s study is available for free here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/empirical_analysis_tables_figures.pdf.

Dr. Goth’s study is available for free here: https://policingequity.org/images/pdfs-doc/CPE_SoJ_Race-Arrests-UoF_2016-07-08-1130.pdf.

You may disagree

Readers of this letter may disagree with my belief that the positions espoused by BLM are detrimental to our nation. However, my statements regarding BLM’s policy positions are taken from their website, social media posts and interviews of BLM leaders and have been presented fairly. Further, research performed by leading academics show that, while use of nonlethal force against blacks is higher than whites, blacks are no more likely than whites to be shot by the police.

Lastly, the narrative of white supremacy within law enforcement pushed by BLM is dispelled by the fact that police use force more often against whites than against Hispanics, Asians and other races.

If you are a reader who disagrees, ask yourself how much of our national heritage you are willing to abandon. At what point do the demands of the mob become too much? Are you going to rewrite your will? Downsize your house? Does the Washington Monument need to be torn down because it honors a slave owner? Do we need to demolish Mount Rushmore because it depicts slave owners? Do you have to smash the windows out of your church?

These are not hypotheticals. These are demands of BLM.

Michael Berkheimer is a Central High School Class of 2001 graduate and lives in Potomac, Md.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the Herald’s owners, employees or advertisers. The Herald believes strongly in permitting all those in the Cove community to exercise our First Amendment right to speak up on matters important to the community. Responsible responses are invited. Send to news@mcheraldonline.com or 113 N. Market St. Martinsburg 16662.