To the Editor:
Racism and police brutality are on our minds a lot these days. In a recent radio interview, the 7th District Congressional Representative, Tim Walberg, indicated that the death of George Floyd was caused by a “rogue officer” and the failure of bystanders to physically stop the officer who was killing him.
His response exemplifies how racism is perpetrated. Walberg is a white male.
He is able to easily ignore the many, many other examples of dead Black men and women at the hands of the police because they do not impact him directly. As a result, he seems to insinuate that George Floyd’s murder was an isolated incident, rather than another example of a crisis in America.
In the interview, he further goes on to say, “I would not have stood there and allowed a police officer to do that type of atrocity without acting myself, at the very least jumping on and pushing him off, and then laying on the ground myself, hands outspread, and saying, ‘I give up.’ But you’re not gonna kill a person who’s handcuffed and laying on the ground.”
He blames the Black bystanders for not physically attacking the group of four armed police officers. If you have compassion or any understanding of the racism crisis in America, it doesn’t take much to understand why any citizen—particularly a Black citizen–would not attack a group of armed police officers. It’s not rocket science.
There would be no chance for a Black citizen to lay on the ground with his hands out. He would be dead. Others would be dead. And the death of George Floyd would be blamed on him too.
We need to dismantle racism in America. Tim Walberg’s message is that law enforcement does not play an important role in racism, and that it is the responsibility of Black individuals to stop racism when they see it. He could not be more wrong about this. His ignorance will continue to perpetrate structural racism and put our communities at risk.
Tim Walberg is a relic and we need big changes in Congress. It’s time for us to vote Tim Walberg out of office.
Shelly Vrsek, LMSW
Webster Township, 7th District
Excellent letter. I couldn’t agree more. It’s time to vote out Tim Walberg!
I’ve attended Wahlberg’s town halls. He is incredibly rude and disrespectful to those who he is supposed to represent. There is no way he would jump in and defend a black man being held on the ground by police. Blaming others is a common tactic in this administration. He needs to GO.
Excellent piece. It’s time to stop blaming victims and put the blame where it belongs. There are many wonderful police officers who “use their words” before resorting to measures that can prove fatal. We can still support them while demanding that training in non-fatal measures be mandatory and holding those unable to appropriately direct their own anger accountable – just as we all are in our own jobs.
As for Walberg, well, couldn’t agree more.
I’m not sure if this is the same interview you listened to, but I did not hear racism in Congressman Walberg’s words.
https://16573.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_DELANEYINTHEMORNING_P/media-session/b61b0340-306b-4ef6-a9e5-b696bb4bc1a1/d/clips/717172f9-c910-463a-ac64-a8f00106f265/de355527-3be0-45fb-8260-aa290109c899/fa1e7454-4e4a-4699-a793-abd100d8ff3d/audio/direct/t1591362619/Congressman_Tim_Walberg.mp3?t=1591362619
Please correct me if I listened to the wrong interview that you referred to in your opinion letter.
While this interview continues to reinforce the structural racism that led to Floyd’s death, it is not this one that I quoted. The quotes in my letter were taken from a recent interview with Steve Gruber.
I agree — Walberg’s comments are more of the problem, not the solution. He is far, far off base.
And fixing racism is by changing the names of every product that YOU think is offensive, tearing down history Because YOU can’t learn from it and make changes, desecration of monuments, burning down neighborhoods, this is suppose to bring us together and solve problems? Nit picking every word you read?
Amen! I am so ready to vote out this lemming! Thank you!
I tried to agree with Shelly Vaseline and others! Vote for Driskell!
Walberg is an anachronism. They know their time is coming to an end, but many in power refuse to recognize and join the swell to overcome white privilege and work toward justice. Take it from an old white guy: we don’t all think as he does, and many of us are still young enough to vote! Get your absentee ballot request in to the city clerk now.
Umm, just want to point out that more whites are killed by the police than blacks are killed by the police. That’s according to FBI statistics. Chicago loses more blacks to blacks every weekend. Maybe trying to stop the violence in Chicago might be a harder path but that’s where the killing happens. Thanks for listening.
Tom, the percentage of black people killed by police is MUCH higher than the percentage of white people. Counts are very a misleading statistic. Heres an article that speaks to this. https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793
If it’s true that more whites are killed by police than blacks, that doesn’t mean there isn’t racism. There just are more whites than blacks. What is the percentage of blacks that are killed according to their population?
Thank you for writing this. I agree that Tim Walberg’s comments about bystanders need to intervene lack insight into the dynamic between police and black American’s. The response would have inevitably been violence, potentially fatal against anyone who tried to intervene. The blame needs to lie squarely on the 4 officers involved.
For progress toward justice, police need to be held legally accountable for unjustified use of force. We need to end qualified immunity. And, vote out Tim Walberg.
If you truly want to end racism than you should not vote for anyone who supports or takes money from a Planned Parenthood. The founder of that organization was a racist eugenicist. Please take the time to read this site or watch the documentary. http://blackgenocide.org/
If all black lives matter, the systemic racism of Planned Parenthood needs to stop too. Please don’t vote for anyone who takes donations from that corrupt and very wealthy organization.
Kelly,
Shhhh, you’re not supposed to talk of such things. We’re also not allowed to mention black on black violence. Unfortunately, both take a terrible toll on the black population, far worse than anything else.
And here is some interesting points of view from a black person. Does her black life matter if she doesn’t jump on the protest bandwagon?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fij8TP0FE00&feature=youtu.be