You Say You Want A Revolution

It's been over a month since George Floyd died while being subdued by four police officers, one of them kneeling on Floyd's back, apparently suffocating him. Since then there have been daily protests, sometimes erupting into full-scale riots with burnings and looting. Statues have been defaced or pulled down. Demand have been issues.

This goes way beyond George Floyd. The police involved were fired and charged with murder almost immediately. It is reminiscent of the Arab Spring where one person burned himself to death in protest and that led to massive regional protests. Some governments fell during the Arab Spring. This is what many of the protestors are hoping for - a revolution.

The strange thing is that this is a fight between the establishment left and the far-left. Conservatives are off on the sidelines.

The establishment left is represented by big-city mayors and city council members. This also includes Democrats in Congress and the last two Democratic presidents.

The far-left demonstrators wants to "defund the police" which, depending on who you ask, either means slightly reducing the police department budget to completely replacing them. Demonstrators in several cities have also called for the resignation of the mayor, the police chief, and other officials.

This dove-tails with other demand from the AOC left. That includes abolishing ICE, ending detention of illegal immigrants and eliminating bail (already done in California and New York). AOC herself has also voiced support for defunding the police.

The protests have caught the establishment left completely by surprise. Many of the policies they supported are now considered the problem. For decades, Democratic mayors have promised to put more police on the street to improve public safety. That and crack-downs on drug trade are at the top of the protestors' lists.

The last two Democratic presidencies have also featured strong police support. One of Clinton's signature achievements was to put 100,000 cops on the street (actually this was funding for 33,000 for three years and the money didn't have to go for beat cops but he billed it as 100,000). Drug laws were strengthened under Clinton, too.

Obama presided over militarizing the police. Under his administration, police were given surplus military equipment. This is expensive to maintain and gives the police departments an incentive to use it in order to justify the maintenance costs. Police were also given para-military training under Obama. This led to a drastic increase of no-knock raids.

There's also the support for qualified immunity and review boards that tend to take a police officer's side in a shooting investigation. The establishment left has a close relationship with public service unions including the police unions.

When the protests first began the big-city mayors were marching in the street alongside the protestors. That didn't last long.

The problem for conservatives is that the mayors are still trying to convince the mob that they are on the same side. That means that they are acceding to demands for things like tearing down statues. This has added fuel to the already-nasty Cancel Culture where anything not considered to represent the values of the mob is judged to be racist. Our history is being rewritten by the establishment left in the conviction that if they just give the mob one more thing, they will be satisfied. That's not how mobs work.