On July 10, columnist Alan Caron said: “We can also see that while racism has always existed in America, it now expresses itself in new ways. Gone are the days of slavery, lynchings and open segregation. In their place are white flight to the suburbs, the politics of walls and deportations and the hair-triggered application of sanctioned violence against people of color.”
I ask: Moving to the suburbs is racism?
Moreover, Caron makes an extremely serious accusation: that an unnamed organization or group of people at some undisclosed location in this country has conspired to officially approve violence against people of the black race, thereby depriving them of their basic human and constitutional rights, an offense we usually associate with totalitarian countries.
It is clear from the context of Caron’s column, and from another statement he made on July 17, the broad identity of those to whom he was referring: “For decades, the black community has sought the country’s support in the face of institutionalized racism in police forces.”
Caron has issued a blanket indictment, without a shred of evidence, against the entire edifice of law enforcement in this country, hundreds of thousands of police officers and guardians of public safety who daily risk their lives to protect us.
That incendiary condemnation of the police demands a specific answer: Who are the police and where are the police who have sanctioned violence against people of color?
Caron’s statement implies that he knows who they are and where we can find them – individuals, not anonymous entities, approve sanctions. If they exist, it is in the public’s interest to root them out and prosecute those bogus officers of the law before they do further harm.
Every person or group of people, especially the police in this time of imminent personal danger, have the right to defend themselves against accusations of wrongdoing, particularly accusations of such gravity and magnitude.
Caron has an obligation to provide the FBI and the public with factual evidence to back up his statement, or to issue a retraction for bearing false witness.
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