Now Is the Time to Speak of Many Things: Cabbages and Kings

I.) Police Union President Actions Leap Over All  Reasonable Bounds

The president of the Chicago police union is trying to raise a defense fund for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot to death 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, even though video shows that the teen represented no threat to him. The union president has asked Chicago police to contribute money for Van Dyke. Even though it is a standard prerogative of a union president to defend union members who are in trouble, there are lines that should not be crossed. The fatal shooting by Van Dyke was so over-the-top and an utterly inexcusable use of deadly force that it represents a case in which the president should have taken a pass. The gravity of the offense is indicated by the rarity in which a prosecutor charges a police officer with first degree murder, as in the Van Dyke case.

In recent years, police union presidents have displayed an unusual affinity to say and do the wrong things. The president of the St Louis police union expressed his anger at the five St. Louis Rams football players who threw thier arms in the air upon entering the playing field, in imitation of Michael Brown's surrender position. He demanded an apology from the St. Louis Rams organization and wanted a series of meetings. Although the Rams leadership insisted that they did not apologize, a statement was released that read much like an apology and the Rams leadership indicated  a reluctance to vigorously defend the free speech expression rights of their players.

When an obviously deranged man shot to death two New York City police officers sitting in their police vehicle, the police union president blamed those protesting against excessive use of police force for inciting the shooter. He also assailed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for campaigning against stop-and-frisk and counseling his son about how to act in any confrontation with the police. Subsequently, a number of police officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he appeared in their presence.

The Cleveland police president also blasted critics of police excessive use of force when officers in his union exhibited excessive use of force.

II. Sustained Attacks on Planned Parenthood May Have Led  to Tragedy
Ever since an organization masquerading as a health research group released videos purportedly showing Planned Parenthood employees jocularly discussing the sale of fetal tissue, anti-abortion zealots have been waging an unrelenting assault on Planned Parenthood. Republican presidential candidates and the Republican lawmakers in Congress have kept up a rhetorical campaign attack.. Now the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has announced a special committee, like the one on Benghazi, to investigate Planned Parenthood.

Within the last couple of days, a man named Robert Louis Dear invaded a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado with a bag full of firearms and ammunition. He began shooting at clinic employees and arriving police, which developed into a standoff, punctured by bursts of gunfire, until Dear was persuaded to surrender. A police officer and two persons in the clinic were killed, while nine others, both police officers and civilians, were injured.

Dear has been reputed to have said that his actions were designed to stop the sale of fetal tissue. This comment and the attack itself has led to some commentators making a direct connection between the effort to defund Planned Parenthood and to totally discredit it with the public. Terri O'Neill, president of the women's organization, NOW, had called the shootings an act of  "domestic terrorism" triggered by harsh rhetoric and defunding efforts. Radio talk show host, Bill Press, made a similar link on this morning's show.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has welcomed the endorsement of Troy Newman, head of Operation Rescue, who in a book he authored praised the killer of Dr. George Tiller. In that same book, Newman sanctioned the killing of abortion providers, because they would kill many more unborn fetuses if left to practice their trade. Dr. Tiller was frequently called "Killer Tiller" by his most extreme opponents. Tiller was killed in church on a Sunday morning while serving as an usher.

The mention of the killing of Tiller brings to mind the killing of two other abortion doctors: one shot to death through his residence window and the second shot to death in his arriving vehicle, along with the death of his assistant sitting next to him. -- in Florida, I believe. The larger point to be made here is that unstable minds can be induced to take tragic actions through strong societal influence; also, some may come to believe that killing abortion providers leads to the saving of many more lives and that is an overall societal good.

III.) More Firearms Leads to Fewer Deaths and Injuries
A book published some years ago was premised on a statistical claim that more firearms in a community equate to fewer deaths and injuries. The premise is that a potential shooting will be deterred by the knowledge or fear of the intended shooter that he/she would be the one shot. The premise that more firearms equate to fewer deaths and injuries has been largely debunked by exposure of the statistical shoddiness of the original study.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is one who believed in the proposition that more firearms are associated with fewer deaths and injuries. Recently, however, he said that Syrian refugees should not be allowed to settle in Texas, because it is too easy to obtain firearms in that state. How quickly can base beliefs be abandoned if abandonment better suits a new political reality.