The Post-Partisan Emporium

Never let a mass shooting go to waste when it can serve the cause of identity politics By Bernard Carpenter FOR those who choose to see the world entirely through the lens of race – a rapidly growing demographic in this third decade of the twenty-first century – January 2023 has been a perplexing and disconcerting month when it comes to the racial configurations of violent crime. First, there were the 11 people murdered in an attack at a dance studio in Monterey Park near Los Angeles on January 21. Those killed were all Asian-Americans, as was the gunman who later took his own life in a shopping centre car park. The victims ranged in age from 57 to 76, and the perpetrator, Huu Can Tran, an immigrant from China, whose motivations remain unclear, was 72, a ripe old age for one who engages in mass slaughter of this kind. Four days later another mass shooting took place in Half Moon Bay, a picturesque coastal city about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Again, the perpetrator was Asian-Amer

Black and Blue Judd Garrett On Friday, Memphis officials released  video footage from the traffic stop that resulted in the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols  earlier this month. It is a horrific video to watch. Police officers beating, kicking, tasing, and billy-clubbing a defenseless young man on the ground who posed no threat to them to death. There is no excuse nor defense for what the police officers did to that man. All five officers have been charged with second degree murder among other charges, and will most likely, and rightfully be convicted. But the reaction to the video represents much of what is harming the black community where everything is framed through the lens of race, even when it is obvious that there is no racial component. Democrat Congressman Mondaire Jones tried to blame Republicans and racism for black police officers beating a black man to death when he tweeted,  “If you think the Memphis police officers had to be white in order to exhibit anti-Blackness, yo