11 July 2016

Black Lives Matter protests will help Trump

Black Lives Matter wants to provoke a conversation on race. That’s why it’s employing confrontational tactics. But it’s making terrible organizing mistakes:

• In Dallas, the BLM protesters included men wearing camouflage and carrying long guns, an image reminiscent of the Black Panthers in 1968. Whether the armed protesters were invited to bring their weapons to the protest is one question. Whether the organizers asked the armed men to leave the protest is another. When Mica Johnson began killing police officers, all of the armed protesters became potential suspects (and insofar as I can determine, not one shot back at Johnson).


• In Inglewood, CA, Sunday night, hundreds of BLM protesters shut down the 405 freeway, at a minimum inconveniencing law abiding citizens. This is ongoing as I write, but I suspect BLM wants to provoke arrests.  Updated at 1830 MDT.  No arrests were made because the police stayed several blocks away (LA Times).


• In Baton Rouge, LA, BLM protesters were arrested by the dozen for walking along a highway without a sidewalk. I strongly suspect the protest was designed to goad the police into making arrests. In Louisiana, not much goading is required for the gendarmes to break out the handcuffs and billy clubs, and to start breaking heads.

BLM is not responsible for Mica Johnson, a nut case whose military service made him more dangerous. A lot of problems are prevented when men like him are killed in foreign wars, but in Afghanistan, he was a bricklayer and nail pounder, not a ground-pounder. He survived the Taliban only to die when the Dallas police used a robot and C4 to blow him to kingdom come.

But BLM is responsible for employing in-your-face confrontation that’s intended unsettle white people. The ostensible rationale for this tactic is that shock is necessary to get people to listen and engage, but I think the real rational is to use confrontation and rage to intimidate and punish. BLM wants to anger and frighten white people. It’s succeeding.

This will help Donald Trump, assuming he’s the nominee, at the ballot box, just as it helped Richard Nixon at the ballot box in 1968. Trump doesn't need to rant and rave. He needs only to express his support for preserving the rights of all, and for ensuring domestic tranquility. The message will be clear, and voters on the fence will feel safest in his back yard.