Remembering the Good Old Days When Teens Could While Away the Afternoon Hours with Harmless Knife Fighting
[guest post by JVW]
Charles C. W. Cooke, one of the sharpest wits in conservative journalism these days, counters the reactionary tendencies of our host by leaping to the defense of Valerie Jarrett, Bree Newsome, Sherrod Brown, and all the other stellar intellects who have argued that attacking another teenage girl with a knife was no reason for a cop to get all antsy and shoot Ma’Khia Bryant. With due respect to the memory of the late Miss Bryant, the estimable Mr. Cooke deploys a Swiftian sense of satire that is worth reading in its entirety. But to whet your appetite, here are some great paragraphs:
Just when I thought that America couldn’t possibly get any softer, people start suggesting that there’s a role for the police in preventing knife murders. The snowflake generation strikes once again.
Is there any tradition that the radicals won’t ruin? As the brilliant Bree Newsome pointed out on Twitter, “Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons.” And now people are calling the cops on them? I ask: Is this a self-governing country or not? When Newsome says, “We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon,” she may be expressing a view that is unfashionable these days. But she’s right.
[. . .]
In all honesty, I worry that this sort of helicopter policing is making us weak. Back in my day, the people who survived a good stabbing came out stronger for it. I learned a lot of lessons from my time in the ring: self-reliance, how to overcome fear, the importance of agility, the basics of military field dressing. And, given the turnover, I also learned how to make new friends.
When the world has become so frustratingly obtuse, about the only way to cope is through relentless mockery of the lunatic voices who are unfortunately given prominence. One last exhortation: go read the entire piece: Charlie Cooke and NRO deserve the pageview.
– JVW
