Kenosha’s Top Law Enforcement is the Problem
Attitude Starts at the Top
So many people keep talking about reform but you can’t reform anything when the racism and bigotry starts at the top. There are a lot of good sheriffs and police chiefs but Kenosha can’t lay claim to having a good person in either of those positions.
After the murder of two protesters and the injury to a third, the police chief, Daniel G. Miskinis, made a statement to the media that implied the victims were at fault for being there. He later came back and tried to correct statement, saying it was taken out of context but what he meant was clear. When it was pointed out how friendly officers were being with white supremacist groups, both the sheriff and the police chief said they didn’t see a problem with that.
Stop Them From Having Children
Though they both have issues, I want to focus on Sheriff David Beth in this post. Two years ago in Kenosha County, five Black men stole some clothes and fled from the police, but were caught after a minor crash. This event led Sheriff Beth to give a press conference in which he said some things that would make Hitler proud. According to Sheriff Beth in regards to the Black men, he wanted to lock them up to “…some of these males going out and getting 10 other women pregnant and having small children.”
This is astounding. We already went through a period in our history when we thought it was all right to sterilize women, without their consent, to keep them from producing more of an “undesirable” race. What Sheriff Beth is saying is even worse. He wants people to lose their freedom until they are no longer able to produce children. Sterilization by incarceration. The oldest man to father a child was 101 years old. So what Sheriff Beth is saying, is that Black men should be locked away until they die.
Warehouse Them
You think I’m being over the top by saying he wants them locked away until they die? Well, let’s look at his own words. According to Beth, these people should be “warehoused” and “no recreational time” should be given to them. He wants big warehouses built to lock these people away in and he doesn’t even want them to be allowed out of their little cells. He wants them left there until they die. “…after this generation is gone, they’ve perished in these buildings…”
But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say, “At some point we have to get rid of this group of people.” I wasn’t over the top with anything I said. He literally wants Black people to perish, to die. This is the sick man who is the top law enforcement officer over the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department.
No Confidence in Kenosha Law Enforcement
I guess the only people who can feel safe in Kenosha County are White people with European ancestry. All other Americans seem to be viewed as some type of plague or infestation by Sheriff Beth, with Black people bearing the brunt of his disgust and hatred. How can people have confidence in a law enforcement agency that is run by a man who embraces racism and makes the above statements? How can they trust someone who thinks it’s fine for his officers to pal around with white supremacists? How can any investigation done by the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department be trusted to be fair and unbiased when the agency is riddled with racisim from the top down?
As John Oliver demonstrates in the video below, this was not a random thing. Sheriff Beth had devised a plan on what he felt should be done. It’s truly horrifying and disgusting to think this man is in a position of authority.
I thought that not having an audience would make all the late night shows worse, but John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" has only gotten better.
This video of Kenosha sheriff David Beth has made the rounds, but Oliver really puts them into context here.pic.twitter.com/xnjH5XOGKN
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 31, 2020