And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that a situation in Minneapolis recently seems to be a perfect example of what can go wrong when leadership decides to make diversity a goal rather than a naturally occurring event.

I had heard and read about the incident in which a rookie cop in the passenger seat of a police car shot across in front of the officer who was driving, and hit and killed an Australian woman who had approached the squad car in her pajamas. She came to greet the officers because she was the one who had called in a neighborhood disturbance.

I did not give it much thought until a TV show I was watching cut to a news conference being conducted by the female mayor of Minneapolis. She barely got started before being interrupted by the audience.

When the TV cameras turned toward the crowd, my immediate impression was that it was a cast of movie extras provided by central casting. As if the director had ordered a mixed crowd of misfits. There were males and females. They were white, black and tan. Some wore doo rags and some sported drug-user shades. There were T-shirts with various slogans. And a cheerleader type had a megaphone.

They stopped the news conference eventually. They wanted the mayor, who had fired the police chief, to resign.

They did not want the new chief she was going to name.

The officer who did the shooting had been recruited because he was a Somali, and the city has a large contingent of Somali refugees. He was fast-tracked in a seven-month, non-traditional training course, and had been on the force only a few months. His partner had been on the force for just a year. Both therefore very inexperienced.

The officer the mayor wanted to appoint as chief is a 28-year veteran, a black man whose family has lived in Minneapolis for five generations, and who has risen through the ranks. He would seem to be an ideal choice, but the mob didn’t want him either, because he was “establishment.”
I would not have chosen to watch that sordid ordeal, but once it started, I was captivated.

Same thing happened when all networks decided to cover the O.J. Simpson parole hearing from start to finish. There was little doubt but that he would be granted parole. But then, except for the jury, there was little doubt years earlier that he had killed his wife.
Most disturbing to me was that his hearing called to mind the characters involved in his murder trial.

Worst reminder was of Robert Kardashian, Simpson friend and one of the defense attorneys.

His notoriety spawned that whole smarmy “reality” show on TV featuring his spawn and friends and lovers.

We are all worse off because of it.