Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / July 26, 2000

So’.as Alice would say, it just gets curiouser and curiouser. Right before your very eyes a great society is beginning to crumble.

Someone once said (and I don’t think it was Alice) that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Rome, for example, woke onefine day to find barbarians at their gates, and a once-shining civilization was plunged backwards, out of existence. They let the barbarians in a bitat a time until it was too late to stop them from taking over and it cost them everything.

We here in America are beginning to do the same thing with one major difference. They’re already here. The barbarians aren’t at our gates,they’re at the wheel. And slowly, bit by bit, they’re driving our culture andour society into the ground.

This will probably go down in history as the only culture that allowed itself to be destroyed from within because it gave so much protection to the criminal classes. The criminal in our society, white, black, orindifferent has become a power unto himself. They take what they want,do as they please, victimize the weak and unprotected, and sneer in the face of convention and authority. These predators are slow to do anythingat all to participate in this society. The only thing they’re quick to do is tojump behind the Constitution if they feel offended or if they think they were treated badly when they were arrested. Which is pretty amazingwhen you think about it because they sneer at that same document when it comes to the rights of others.

Right now, in Philadelphia, a 30-year-old man named Thomas Jones is in police custody with dreams of large amounts of cash dancing in his head.

Jones, a carjacking suspect, led Philadelphia police on a wild chase in which he totally disregarded the safety of others, and sometime during the course of which he shot an officer. When he was finally stopped he gotthumped good by the officers, both black and white, who stopped him. Andyou can bet your farm if you have one that he has eager beaver lawyers lined up to take his case. Why? Because he has become the victim, that’swhy. And he’ll probably be rewarded with cash.I’m not endorsing police brutality by any means. If excessive force wasused then the department needs to deal with that. What I’m saying is this:This is another classic example of a barbarian running amok in our society.

According to a Fox News report Jones has in the last 10 years pleaded guilty to or plea bargained down everything from robbery to burglary to aggravated assault and even another high-speed chase that lasted 40 blocks. Oh, and we can add purse snatching, slamming an elderly woman’shand in a car door during a carjacking, and just for good measure, snatching a 12-year-old’s bicycle. And just think of what he wasn’t caughtfor.

Now community leaders such as Philadelphia’s the Rev. Vernal Simms arecalling for the community to “mobilize” to protest the handling Jones received after he shot that cop and led the police on another reckless high-speed chase. Not one word, not one squeak from them concerning thepoliceman who was shot by Jones. That very same policeman who wouldput his life on the line to protect the Rev. Simms and his family frompeople just like Jones. Why is that? The Right Rev. Simms and so-called leaders like him are the very oneswho, along with other Clintonesque raving liberals, are putting the barbarians behind the driver’s wheel of this society.

Where are the calls to “mobilize” to rid the community of this type of predator? Where is the outrage that an animal like Jones is even on the street after a long and distinguished criminal career? Where is the outrage that this thug has been preying on the very community that is being rallied to protect him? Well, the opportunity to make a national name for yourself is rare, so I’m sure the Rev. Simms is eager to take advantage now that it’s come hisway. Small things like logic and rational thought shouldn’t get in the waywhen you are in the process of creating a victim. And a name for yourself.Just ask Al Sharpton.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Fox news also did an internet survey in which they asked if viewers thought that proper force was used. Interestinglyenough 72.4 percent of the responders said that the right force was used.21.1 percent said excessive force was used, and the rest were undecided. Ifind that interesting because it seems that a lot of people don’t really mind if something like Jones gets thumped.

I have a brief message for the liberal lunatics who loudly and blindly protect barbarians like Jones. Try this: The next time Jones or his pals arein your house in the middle of the night call the ACLU instead of a cop. I’msure they’ll help you.

Yeah. Right.

LEE DRESSELHAUS writes this column every Wednesday for L’Observateur.

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