Black Lives Matter figure takes anti-police rhetoric to a whole new level…
A Professor at California State University-Los Angeles, Melina Abdullah, recently gave a talk at a conference about discrimination at which she said that police are descended from slave-catchers. Described as a key organizer for the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, Abdullah insisted that policing was founded solely to hunt and return slaves. As such, she suggests that this is the reason why black citizens are “targeted” in the United States. She also believes in the abolition of police departments.
The fact that this woman not only considers herself an activist, but also has influence over young minds is disturbing. Of course, it isn’t very surprising that this took place in California, or on a university campus.
Spreading anti-police sentiment is dangerous on a number of different levels. While the nation deals with hatred that seems almost unbelievable in modern times, those who are of a position to inspire tolerance and cooperation with one another should not be making ludicrous claims like this. To say that police today have deep roots in slave-catching is completely ridiculous. It makes a mockery out of not only those police who are descended from a variety of ethnicities, but also of the education system. When did it become okay to indoctrinate college students and lead them down a path of distrust and conspiracy theories?
I understand a good healthy debate and even a heated exchange of ideas, but to stand on a podium and try to pass these ideas off as fact at an institution of higher learning is scary and reckless. Going as far as to advocate for the abolition of police departments is outrageous in itself, but this particular professor isn’t a stranger to insanity: last year, Abdullah blasted a Jewish conservative commentator by calling him a “neo-KKK member.” It’s hard to take anyone seriously when they accuse others of being white supremacists for having an opposing view.
Though this uneducated mindset is in vogue, the likely result of such childish behavior is that individuals will disregard any further statements that come from the source. Personally, I would rather listen to a debate in which name-calling and hateful rhetoric are left out. I don’t agree with propaganda being spread throughout colleges and universities around the United States.
This also begs the question – where are the protestors and outrage? This is a pretty radical idea to float out into the world. California is a highly liberal state, and many have showed up and destroyed their own territory in order to protest other invited speakers with whom they did not agree. This has become the new double-standard in regards to free speech– the mantra that “you’re free to speak as long as I agree.” It shouldn’t be this way in the United States. While I fully agree with Melina Abdullah’s right to refer to members of our beloved police force as slave-catchers, I also agree with any backlash she receives in doing so.
Angelina Newsom is an OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army Veteran. She has ten years experience in the military, including a deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She studies Criminal Justice and is still active within the military community.
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