Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson is one of those black commentators whose tribal identification makes it impossible for him to be objective.  His latest column begins like this:

WASHINGTON -- It is absurd to have to say this, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, activist Al Sharpton and President Obama are in no way responsible for the coldblooded assassination of two police officers in Brooklyn on Saturday. Nor do the tens of thousands of Americans who have demonstrated against police brutality in recent weeks bear any measure of blame.

At this point I stopped reading.  Why?  Because what Robinson is saying here is just obviously wrong.  It is as wrong as saying that de Blasio has blood on his hands.  De Blasio didn't pull the trigger, nor did Sharpton or Obama.  The black Muslim did.

 

But to say that de Blasio, Sharpton, Obama, and the demonstrators "are in no way responsible"  or do not "bear any measure of blame" is plainly false, and Robinson must know that it is.  I conjecture that it is his tribal identification -- his identification as a black man -- in tandem with his identification with the 'tribe' of leftists that makes it impossible for him to see the obvious.  The editors at NRO get it right:

 

This Saturday, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were assassinated on on the streets of New York for wearing the uniform that keeps those streets safe. Only one man, a felon who may have been mentally ill, bears responsibility for robbing two young families of their fathers and husbands.

But his heinous act has served to focus attention on the rancid element of the recent anti-police protests that — even when they haven’t included arson and assaults on cops – have been lawless and replete with other hateful sentiments. Just last weekend, some protesters in New York were infamously chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now.”

President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and New York mayor Bill de Blasio have all played their own irresponsible parts; they have all lent moral support to occasionally violent protests.

That is the truth.  Obama, Holder, and de Blasio are in dereliction of duty.  Their duty is to uphold the rule of law and civil order, not undermine them by sowing the seeds of disrespect for the law and the agents of its enforcement.