By Steve Hunley
The Knoxville News-Sentinel has apparently transformed itself into the Antifa Daily. Well late last week, the Antifa Daily published an opinion column by the City Council Movement. I doubt it was written by a committee, but apparently rather than identify a particular individual, the Antifa Daily allowed the writer to wear a mask and not for the purpose of preventing the spread of the China virus.
Ostensibly, the City Council Movement opinion piece was about participation, perhaps the one thing we can agree upon. Still, since very few readers of the Focus are fluent in socialist, much less communist, I went out and bought a Socialist to English primer and am prepared to translate the interesting parts of the column for you.
The CCM is still marveling a whole 30 persons spoke out about the need to reprioritize the spending of Knoxville taxpayers as proposed in Mayor Indya Kincannons budget. Now 30 people might constitute a big crowd for the City Council Movement, but in a city with a population exceeding 187,000, it doesnt amount to much. Still, the opinion piece calls for an equitable and moral budge; translation: we want to spend more of your money. The City Council Movement and its candidates dont like the American form of government and thinks the United States of America is a terrible place and needs to be deconstructed. The CCM criticized Indyas budget for failing to address climate change and poverty. City taxpayers are already paying a boatload of upkeep for a fleet of electric buses (which also cost a great deal more than conventional buses) and there are poverty programs galore sponsored by state and federal governments. The CCM complains Indya Kincannons budget prioritized developers and police rather than residents and social services. Translation: we want to defund and probably deconstruct the Knoxville Police Department and give more tax money away. Now, residents of Knoxville, think about what comes after that. Imagine for a moment, if you will, there is no city police department and forget that the General Assembly would likely authorize the Knox County Sheriffs Department to assume the role of policing inside the city limits. The translation of that is it would leave Knoxville residents at the mercy of predators of every variety. Sexual predators, thieves, murderers, and every kind of psychopath imaginable. Yet the City Council Movement wants to whine about societys most vulnerable members the most vulnerable members of our society would be those at the mercy of societal predators unafraid because there are no law enforcement officers to stop and catch them.
The City Council Movement talks about investing in affordable housing, social services, and social workers, making Knoxville sound like one gigantic utopian welfare state. But then again, socialism never thrives when people can lift themselves out of the mire of poverty; socialism can never thrive if people can do better and the economy is booming. Socialism absolutely requires a permanent underclass like a leech requires a host.
Indya Kincannon, nor eight out of nine City Council members werent dismissive of the community. The mayor and great majority of the city council were absolutely mindful of the overall community and simply didnt let a handful of socialists determine how to spend other peoples money. In the same literary breath, the City Council Movement complains that if constructive public comments are not taken seriously by our elected officials and yet the opinion column does recognize eight out of nine council members voted to approve the budget. I wonder what form of representative government heeds 30 people and ignores everybody else? Still, the CCM recognizes they dont constitute a majority on the council, nor do they constitute a majority of the electorate.
The column ends with a clarion call to win the five seats on the city council up for election in 2021. They refer to a progressive majority on the Council; translation: they mean a SOCIALIST majority on the council. That means Tommy Smith, Andrew Roberto, Lauren Rider, and Gwen McKenzie will likely be loaded up with opposition. David Hayes is already off and running against Tommy Smith. Seema Singh is a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist but she may not be radical enough to suit the CCM and have an opponent. We shall see just how smart some of these council members are; if they try and appease the CCM they will still face an opponent sponsored by the City Council Movement.
There are other cities in America presently run by socialists where the homeless run unfettered, relieving themselves in peoples neighborhoods and emptying their bowels in peoples yards, used needles littering parks and other public thoroughfares. The wealthy are sheltered behind gated communities. Everybody else has to contend with the paradise wrought by the socialists who have largely managed to turn once great cities into the devils playgrounds. None resemble the utopia promised by a collection of people who have never run anything.
While the City Council Movement claims they want to build a better Knoxville, a Knoxville for all, what they mean is they intend to double your taxes to build their socialist utopia, a utopia that has never been built successfully anywhere on the face of Gods earth at any time.
David Hayes, once and future candidate for the Knoxville City Council, has been posting up a storm, giving everybody the benefit of his wisdom. When a poor Black person kills another poor Black person, the blame is on our economic and political systems that trap us in poverty. The blame is on the mayor for making the choice to prioritize policing over housing and good jobs. The blame is on the greedy bosses and business owners who steal wealth from those who create it and pay poverty wages. The blame is on jails and prisons for multiplying violence instead of stopping [sic] it.
Where to begin with that one? So the individual who has murdered someone else is not at all to blame. Notice throughout all of the ultra-leftist cow-puckey spewed by people like David Hayes, there is never, ever any notion of personal responsibility. Any failure is someone elses fault. Its not hard to tell Davids understanding of economics is nil. Well pause for anybody to point to a socialist paradise here on earth. I came back after a couple of hours, a snack and a nap. I see nobody can point to any socialist paradise on earth because there isnt one and never has been.
David could end his own cycle by getting a job.
Evidently Derek Chauvin was never a good cop. Let me say I understand anyone can complain about anything at any time and that doesnt make it true. Still, there appears to have been at least 18 complaints lodged against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd. There appears to be a pattern and how could a bad cop keep a badge, gun and some authority over others? One good friend of mine likes to say, There are people in this world who should never have power over others and Derek Chauvin appears to be precisely that kind of person.
It goes without saying, there are bad sorts in every profession; there are bad doctors, bad nurses, bad lawyers, bad social workers, bad teachers and yes, bad cops. There are, sad to say, just some plain bad people. One thing that protects some incompetents or worse in their respective professions are the one-size-fits-all protection provided by their unions. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey laid the problem right at the doorstep of unions. We do not have the ability to get rid of many of these officers that we know have done wrong in the past due to issues with both the contracts and arbitration associated with the union, Frey said.
That has also been a problem in the past with teachers, although the union hasnt been as strong in Tennessee as many other states where it is almost impossible to dismiss a terrible teacher. Unions have provided a good living to a lot of American workers throughout the years and served a purpose in stopping abuse by some businesses of exploiting workers. Yet, one-size-fits-all never works very well and there are those who never should be in a particular profession in the first place. Derek Chauvin evidently was a bad cop and his reckless disregard for the life of George Floyd confirms the worst. States ought to consider exemptions to union contracts to be able to get rid of those employees who shouldnt be protected from their own misdeeds.
The overwhelming number of men and women in blue are fine public servants and characterizing one and all as racist murderers is an example of hypocritical discrimination. Unions shouldnt stand in the way of disciplining or terminating employees who have committed genuinely wrongful acts against the people they are supposed to serve, most especially when they do exercise power over other people. Complaints should be thoroughly investigated to determine if there is any merit to them, or if they are spurious.
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Odds & Ends of This & That, VII - The knoxville focus