When Jacob Blake was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the recognizable pattern of racially-motivated politicization began. Because Jacob Blake is a black man, and was shot by a police officer — specifically, a white police officer — the Democrats immediately declared that this was the result of systemic racism for which they are the only cure. Speaking soon after Blake’s shooting, Joe Biden stated that “What I saw in that video makes me sick,” and “Once again, a Black man — Blake – has been shot by the police in broad daylight with the whole world watching.”
Later that week, Blake’s father spoke about an hour long conversation he had with Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, describing the experience “like I was speaking to my uncle and one of my sisters.” When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he wanted to speak with President Trump, Blake said, “It is too late. He should have called four days ago. It is too late now.”
This same “lack of communication” has been condemned by Democrats and the mainstream media, with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirming that there has been no contact between the White House and Blake’s family.
Still no WH contacts with family of Jacob Blake, says @PressSec, so Pres will use Kenosha visit tomorrow for meetings with law enforcement, business owners and to survey the damage from violent protests. "The president roundly condemns violence in all of its forms," she says. pic.twitter.com/qYLoflUTjA
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 31, 2020
Jacob Blake’s father’s emotional anguish is completely understandable. It is difficult to imagine the horror of witnessing your child experience such levels of physical harm. However, Blake’s father is wrong to claim that Trump should have called, and the disingenuous expectation placed upon Trump by the opportunistic and cynical Democratic Party is both despicable and logically absurd.
Like every human being, Blake’s life has inalienable value. Additionally, Blake’s criminal history — including an open arrest warrant for felony sexual assault — is not justification for the use of violence against him. Much in the same way as the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year, any real or imagined prior behavior is irrelevant to the incident in question. What is relevant, however, is the entire event itself.
Such details which have been ignored include the reason why police were present — current evidence suggests that officers were responding to a call from Blake’s ex-girlfriend who reported that Blake had stolen her keys — and why Blake was shot — current evidence suggests that Blake violently resisted arrest, failed to be subdued by taser fire, and attempted to access the driver-side door, where a knife was later found.
Instead of waiting for the inevitable investigation to uncover the objective facts of the case which would allow us to determine whether this was a justified use of deadly force or not, we now live in a society where all context and evidence is dismissed in favor of an impatient and presumptive pursuit of conclusions based on skin color. Unless further evidence surfaces, Blake’s shooting was likely justified, and Donald Trump should vocally reject the Democrats’ claim that his refusal to contact Blake’s family is proof of their baseless accusations of his support of racist violence.
There is a bizarre notion that the primary role of politicians is as some form of paternalistic source of compassion. Blake’s father described speaking with Biden and Harris as akin to speaking with a family member. While Blake’s family’s anguish and pain in the aftermath of his shooting is completely understandable, it must be noted that the Democrats are experts at leveraging emotional grief to bypass the need for the truth. In the same way as with Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Rayshard Brooks, they see Blake as a political opportunity, regardless of the available evidence which disproves their fundamental assumption of systemic racism.
Such political opportunism is further demonstrated by the Democrats’ selective expression of compassion. While it is, arguably, commendable that Biden and Harris took time from their undeniably busy schedules to contact any American family during unimaginably challenging times, we should ask why Blake’s family was chosen while so many others receive no such call. According to The Chicago Tribune, 497 people have been killed in Chicago this year alone, 145 more than the entire year of 2019. 315 of these 497 victims were black. How many of these grieving families received a phone call from Biden and Harris? Weren’t their lives equally valuable?
Finally, there is an inherent bigotry unique to the Democratic Party which ties their dishonesty and hypocrisy together. The sole justification for their sporadic condemnation of violence is race. The goal is not to end violence, but to profit politically from the opportunities some instances of violence present. This is why Biden can look at Blake’s shooting — where Blake had an open arrest warrant for felony sexual assault, allegedly violently resisted arrest, and attempted to access his car where a knife was hidden — and dilute the incident down to a black man shot in broad daylight because of his race. This is also why, days later, Biden can provide us with his own “good people on both sides” moment by twisting his vague condemnation of the fatal shooting of a white male potentially because of his political affiliation as an attack against his rival.
The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable. Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable.
I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same. https://t.co/JRuI7ya2Wv
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 30, 2020
Trump must be the voice of reason in the face of the Left’s attempted Catch-22, in which Trump is condemned for not contacting the family of Blake while also being blamed for his shooting. Trump is not guilty of causing Blake’s shooting. Indeed, according to currently available evidence, it seems that Blake is likely responsible. We simply cannot allow the Democrats to further destroy our basic sense of reality by assigning guilt and innocence by race.
Rather than allowing them to congratulate themselves for their exhibition of compassion as Biden and Harris happily stand on the hospital bed of Jacob Blake in their quest for power, Trump must point out that they stepped over thousands of unnamed victims of violence on their way to Blake.
For Biden and Harris to contact Blake’s family despite the circumstances of his shooting shows that they only care about narrative. Trump must approach this situation with the frank honesty which is required of a true leader, demand that we base our outrage on evidence and not skin color, and reject the racism at the heart of the Democrats’ careful selection of political martyrs.
More from Ian Haworth: The Media’s Racist Nationalization of News
This article has been revised for clarity.