Coddling Criminals Is a New Front in the War on the Middle Class

The willful distortion of incidents involving police and black Americans serves an extremist agenda.  

By Christopher Roach April 25, 2021

The middle class is the traditional bedrock of American society. They are the rule followers, the volunteers, the middle managers, and small business owners. Being rule-oriented, they support the police and stability, as they have a stake in maintaining the status quo. Their values are defined by their economic and social position: self-sufficient, conscientious, and, lately, anxious.

The middle class is under pressure from numerous directions. Wages have been flat for 50 years, while prices have gone up, particularly for the traditional perquisites of middle-class existence: homes, healthcare, and education. Globalization and mass immigration increase the labor pool against which Americans must compete. Inflation and debt eat away at the ability of families to accrue wealth. And diversity and crime have made it so many families need to spend a small fortune (and a lot of time commuting) to recreate the lifestyle they enjoyed growing up.

Lately, riots and racial tension create additional anxieties for the middle class. The nihilism of these displays is alien to the middle class’s quest for security.

The Media Machine Foments Racial Tension

Last summer’s riots did not happen in a vacuum.  While a few years ago media infrastructure was geared around salacious “true crime” stories like the JonBenét Ramsey and Casey Anthony episodes, today there is a whole media apparatus deployed to amplify every negative police interaction involving white cops and black people.

These stories supposedly show the racist underbelly of America. As I have written before, the Left’s entire worldview is built upon a narrative of the illegitimacy of American society, because of its supposed corruption by systemic racism...............The willful distortion of these incidents serves an extremist agenda.......................

Service to the High-Low Coalition

The most obvious part of the agenda is to placate the demands for less exacting law enforcement among segments of the lower classes. While there is likely some debate within these communities about policing, their community leaders are fighting for less law and order. This is the foundation of recent anti-bail reform and related decriminalization efforts. Not only marijuana, but theft, trespassing, and prostitution are all now being decriminalized.

Permitting higher crime through lower levels of policing lets the urban poor avoid the laws and expectations of the middle class, whose restrictions and enforcers they perceive as oppressive. It’s just a knife fight, after all!..............

Recognizing that the worst atrocities are inflicted intramurally within poor black communities is now treated as bad manners. For the race-obsessed Left, what matters is “who” is doing something, not “what” is being done. That’s why a minor shove against a black man who allegedly sexually assaulted teens in a South Carolina subdivision is national news, while the black-on-black murders of children are not..............Rather, this violence and the official tolerance for it will just as likely lead to moral, political, and organizational paralysis among the middle class..............

The Fruits of a Poisonous System

Consider recent events. Kate Steinle’s killer walked, while Derek Chauvin was found guilty, not just of manslaughter, but of murder. American-owned businesses were shut down under mask mandates, but meanwhile, scores of refugees are being let into the country without being tested for COVID-19. These disparities make it clear: the system does not work for you if you are middle class or white or otherwise lumped in a disfavored group. Every source of power and influence—media, universities, corporations, and the government—is becoming explicitly hostile to heritage America..............To Read More....