It's a Data Driven Day to Know Things

Dear America,

"...we know enough to say 
that this was an act of terror 
and an act of hate."

President Obama

Day After the Orlando Mass Shooting 

Obama was almost without expression. A president sans passion, he was avoiding all connection to what really happened...cue the 911 calls made by the shooter, himself, declaring just that in real time.

The president didn't say much; although, he went on to say this:

"We are still learning all the facts. This is an open investigation. We’ve reached no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer. The FBI is appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism. And I’ve directed that we must spare no effort to determine what—if any—inspiration or association this killer may have had with terrorist groups. What is clear is that he was a person filled with hatred. Over the coming days, we’ll uncover why and how this happened, and we will go wherever the facts lead us."

...carefully maneuvering around the grenades with political correctness.

Surprisingly, he did make an astounding shout out to the police and first responders...you know, given how much this administration has lambasted the policing efforts to keep the peace amidst accusations of racism and misconduct within the ranks (more on that maybe later).  Anyway, he added:

"We also express our profound gratitude to all the police and first responders who rushed into harm’s way. Their courage and professionalism saved lives, and kept the carnage from being even worse. It’s the kind of sacrifice that our law enforcement professionals make every single day for all of us, and we can never thank them enough."

But dare I say again, the president was flat, almost lifeless.  His expression dull and yet wrought with the task of restoring order and calm to a nation in shock.

In the face of overwhelming evidence, with priors -- from FBI probes to associations with radicals to creepy and dangerous signs of flaws with-in and with-out character and virtue -- Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was evil, radicalized, and a danger to society long before Saturday night.

Read This.

Shocking is every little thing we now come to find out about this man, Mateen; and more important, the reckless, lawless, free-for-all happening within an administration gone terribly rogue.

But next on the president's speech agenda list, this is what followed:

"This is an especially heartbreaking day for all our friends—our fellow Americans—who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub—it is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights."

And lo and behold -- coming out just this morning, location location location seems paramount to the paramour in Mateen, as he was a regular patron at the Pulse nightclub for years. This news rather confuses things a wee bit, now doesn't it?

And so, as we continue to pick apart the president's speech limb by limb, he proceeded -- 

and he did so rather un-apologetically even, almost showing signs of life and new found liberty in the pursuit of happiness to remake the second amendment, but I digress ...

--  he proceeded to stun the nation even further by pivoting to gun control, by saying:

"Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well."

Just maybe, perhaps all troubled homosexuals, those in conflict with their sexual identity meeting up with their Islamic faith, if not Allah himself, need to be on the top of the list of people not allowed to get guns.  No wait, he had a security clearance.  Oh what to do, what to do...

Indeed, "to actively do nothing is a decision as well," isn't it, Mr. President -- as this administration continues to force Americans to wear the nation's vulnerabilities in national security on our sleeve, allowing for all roads to lead to failure under the guise of "the kind of country we want to be" premise.  Perhaps if the president spent more time considering how a guy like Mateen could work for a Department of Homeland Security  contractor -- and one that moves illegals in and around the nation, to boot -- could get this kind of job, let alone guns, might be the wiser place to start.  See also Trump and the Trojan Horse phenomenon.

Here's the president's big finish:

"As we go together, we will draw inspiration from heroic and selfless acts—friends who helped friends, took care of each other and saved lives. In the face of hate and violence, we will love one another. We will not give in to fear or turn against each other. Instead, we will stand united, as Americans, to protect our people, and defend our nation, and to take action against those who threaten us. 

May God bless the Americans we lost this morning. May He comfort their families. May God continue to watch over this country that we love. Thank you."

He said all of that last part only because he had to.  (No, little g isn't bitter much.)

I mean, honestly, what did he really mean by "take action against those who threaten us?"  What did he really mean by that if he can't even call it by name?  Will he dare say that we are at war with ISIS, and every other free radical operating from fundamental Islamic rule set out to extinguish the infidels of the world...for they are clearly unafraid to say that they are at war against us?

But how many times do we need to go over this --

It's not about the gun!

It's about the person shooting the gun; no amount of gun control will stop a person with evil intent, and hatred in their heart, from committing murder -- whether we are talking one, thirteen, fifty or 3000.  And given homicidal thoughts translated into action cover a plethora of material -- from knives, bombs, guns, cars, buses, trains, airplanes, the pick of the poison is not the problem.   It is about creating a stable, law-abiding, virtuous community of human beings living in harmony with one another.

And finally -- we are at the thing I most wanted you to read today.

It comes from Hillsdale, Imprimis and it dates back a few months to April, but don't let that trouble you.  It's an adaptation of a speech delivered at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies in Washington, D.C.; the speaker being Heather Mac Donald, and author of The War on Cops.   

Basically, she begins with this:

"The need is urgent, therefore, to examine the Black Lives Matter movement’s central thesis—that police pose the greatest threat to young black men. I propose two counter hypotheses: first, that there is no government agency more dedicated to the idea that black lives matter than the police; and second, that we have been talking obsessively about alleged police racism over the last 20 years in order to avoid talking about a far larger problem—black-on-black crime."

Now I offer you this read, at this time, to look at a particular point she makes within settling the science on the Black Lives Matter movement.  Of course, I'm counting upon you to actually read every word of this short response made by Mac Donald, but let me assure you, she elevates what is deemed to be a jaw-dropping policy change that began in the nineties in New York City, and became widely known as Compstat -- regular accountability sessions, analyzing crime patterns on a daily, hourly basis, by neighborhood, by race, by boots on the ground, day in and day out.   And as she says:

"In terms of economic stimulus alone, no other government program has come close to the success of data-driven policing. In New York City, businesses that had shunned previously drug-infested areas now set up shop there, offering residents a choice in shopping and creating a demand for workers. Senior citizens felt safe to go to the store or to the post office to pick up their Social Security checks. Children could ride their bikes on city sidewalks without their mothers worrying that they would be shot. But the crime victories of the last two decades, and the moral support on which law and order depends, are now in jeopardy thanks to the falsehoods of the Black Lives Matter movement."

Stop.

Take a look at what she calls "data-driven policing" and stop.

The data does not lie.

Moreover, the data almost holds a gun to our head to effect change. Data driven policing has worked for not only NYC, but a multitude of police departments across the nation, where real, accountable, tangible progress has been made.  Crime went down.

Never mind the fact that....

Every year, approximately 6,000 blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though blacks are only 13 percent of the national population. Blacks are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined. In Los Angeles, blacks between the ages of 20 and 24 die at a rate 20 to 30 times the national mean. Who is killing them? Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. The astronomical black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined. Blacks of all ages commit homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined, and at eleven times the rate of whites alone.

The police could end all lethal uses of force tomorrow and it would have at most a trivial effect on the black death-by-homicide rate. The nation’s police killed 987 civilians in 2015, according to a database compiled by The Washington Post. Whites were 50 percent—or 493—of those victims, and blacks were 26 percent—or 258. Most of those victims of police shootings, white and black, were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force...

Moreover, 40 percent of all cop killers have been black over the last decade. And a larger proportion of white and Hispanic homicide deaths are a result of police killings than black homicide deaths—but don’t expect to hear that from the media or from the political enablers of the Black Lives Matter movement. Twelve percent of all white and Hispanic homicide victims are killed by police officers, compared to four percent of all black homicide victims. If we’re going to have a “Lives Matter” anti-police movement, it would be more appropriately named “White and Hispanic Lives Matter.”

We live in a time where data flows freely, nearly to the extent that we cannot keep up with it (that coming from one lowly little person to another); or is it more correct, politically or otherwise, to pick and choose the data we wish to pay attention to, and redistribute, just to prove a point, to drive an agenda wee wee, wee wee, all the way home?

The data does not lie when it comes to Black Lives, White Lives, Hispanic Lives...cops lives....all of which, dare I add, matter, equally.

The data does not lie when it comes to radicalization and infiltration in America:  see Fort Hood, Chatanooga, San Bernardino, Orlando...And it is there, all there.  We just have to have our eyes open wide enough to see it.  

As we began the day, the president said, "...we know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate."

In my humble opinion, we know a whole lot more than that, Mr. President.  

It is time to stop all immigration, full stop.  

It's time to close our borders and stop all incoming, grenades and all -- whether it be illegal migration, refugee resettlement, legal migration, it all matters and becomes a tangible, non-negotiable, non-discriminating, DATA DRIVEN composite of a security breach equally and across the board.  Until we count the heads we have here and now, on this day, and go deep, investigating discovery, as if we are all preparing for trial without error, then we have no idea who is here, or who wishes to do harm, or any other statistic under the sun deemed vitally important.  

Data driven policing meet data driven policy.  End of discussion.

There are known knowns. 

These are things we know that we know. 

There are known unknowns. 

That is to say, there are things 

that we know we don't know. 

But there are also unknown unknowns. 

There are things we don't know we don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld

It's a day to Know Things Through and Through.

And in closing,

my heart lies with the families who awoke Sunday morning experiencing the greatest of loss... having a loved one taken away from them in the most brutal of ways...so unexpectedly, so without warrant, and in such unimaginable horror.  God be with you all.

Make it a Good Day, G