This Isn’t the America I Signed Up For
 

Great Opinion from the Bulwark

This is not the America I signed up for, and I literally signed up for America.

I arrived in God’s heaven on earth six years ago, with two suitcases, no money, and a letter of acceptance to Arizona State University. I had a handful of distant relatives far away from Arizona, but I didn’t come here for them.

I didn’t come here because I wanted to “succeed” in life, either, or make an impact on the world.

I came to America because I wanted to breathe. Because I had never lived a life of liberty and equality of rights. I came here because the hopelessness of life in the country I grew up in had led me to attempt suicide, twice. I came here, literally, because of the words of Abraham Lincoln, who convinced me that America was the last, best hope of earth—and the only hope for me. Because America is a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. I came here because I was done being inferior to my rulers, just as I was done being superior for being an ethnic majority in Iran.

Ever since that day, I have known that Lincoln was right.

Upon arriving at ASU, I joined the College Republicans. I was not a conservative. I was Mr. Conservative. I adored conservatism. I had grown up in an Islamist country and been raised by loving Marxist-Leninist parents. I rebelled against both strains of illiberalism and fell deep down the rabbit hole not of Republican politics, but conservative thought. I poured over the Weekly Standard, Commentary, National Affairs, National Review. I was one of those weird college kids who thought that embarking a pilgrimage to the hallowed halls of the American Enterprise Institute would be way more fun than Cancun on spring break. While other freshmen were joining fraternities, I founded chapters for AEI and the Alexander Hamilton Society at ASU.

Yeah, I know.

The draw of the conservative movement for me was George W. Bush.

My parents are former political prisoners from Iran’s Islamist regime. Literally the only thing they ever agreed with the mullahs about was that Bush was Satan.

But, as a kid, when I listened to President Bush speak, he didn’t sound anything like the Great Satan. I was a teenager in Iran following 9/11, and George W. Bush declared that I was as much the child of God as anybody else. He didn’t tell the world—rather, he told me, personally, from his heart to mine—that the brown Middle Eastern teenager deserved as much liberty and equality as any white kid in America.

Unless you are a refugee from an oppressive regime, you cannot understand how powerful this message, from that man, was.

I fell in love with America then, and this love increases every day that I’m blessed to live in this greatest nation.

And, in return, I feel like it’s my duty to help make America more American. It breaks my heart to see the treatment of young black men, who are murdered for no reason. It disgusts me to see peaceful protesters treated the same way that the Iranian regime treated me, when I marched on the streets in 2009.

I was struck this week when President Trump had the peaceful protesters forcibly removed from Lafayette Park so that he could stage a photo op, in which he used the Christian religion as a political weapon the way the mullahs have exploited Islam for four decades.

Contrast this moment with President Bush, who, after 9/11, took off his shoes and walked into a mosque to remind us that Americans of all religions were the victims of that great tragedy and not perpetrators or sympathizers.

One of these men was trying to make America more American. And one of them is trying to turn it into something different.

Something that I recognize. Remember: I grew up in Iran.

The violation of Americans’ Constitutional right to assembly disgusts me like nothing in my life. Sure, I have seen worse in Iran—much, much worse. But I expected that. In fact, I expected nothing but police brutality, discrimination, and oppression in Iran. Because that’s the natural state of an illiberal regime.

To see anything similar in America, even if a fraction of it? It’s not natural; it’s disgusting. And it is disgusting not because America has suddenly become evil, but because the government of the United States is betraying Americanism—its ideals, its beauty, its generosity, its kindness.

Republicans, conservatives, those of you who spent the 2000s parroting President Bush’s sincere call for liberty, equality, and compassion, where are you? This betrayal of America’s Founding principles is not patriotism. Tax cuts, deregulation, and judges may be nice things, but they aren’t what makes America, America.

America was never about any of those things. It was about liberty and equality of rights.

Like all human projects, America has always been—and always will be—imperfect. Our Constitution opens with:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

A more perfect Union! Just because our ideals haven’t been fully met, it doesn’t mean we stop seeking them. The Framers knew we would never reach perfection. All they asked was that each generation endeavor to inch closer toward it, always uncovering the flaws, and always trying to fix them.

We owe it to the Founding Fathers, to those who came before us and made it better for us. We owe it to Lincoln and Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman, to Teddy Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony, to Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, to Bill Buckley and Ronald Reagan. And we owe it to those who will come after us, too.

President Trump’s apologists and enablers are not inching us closer to perfection. They are encouraging a fast and accelerating retreat in the opposite direction.

Lincoln is my first love, but let me close with the words of George Washington, in his beautiful Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport:

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Amen.

Shay Khatiri
Shay Khatiri is a graduate student of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He grew up in Iran and left the country in 2011. He is currently seeking political asylum in the United States. Follow him @ShayKhatiri.

Wow

Well, if you think that moving protesters a block further away from where they were is taking away their constitutional rights, how do you justify killing and maiming hundreds of thousands in order to take away half a nations constitutional desire to not associate with you?

Now you are claiming that this is somehow analogous to the Civil War?

Open your eyes, you are being lied to again, just like this incident.

Watch the video below and then look at this press statement from the Buffalo Police Department about the incident:

"A 5th person was arrested during a skirmish with other protestors and also charged with disorderly conduct. During that skirmish involving protestors, one person was injured when he tripped & fell."

What we have here is a perfect distillation of the three levels of corruption that exist in law enforcement.

The first is the violence of the police themselves. In this incident they are in total control of the situation. I can count 28 law enforcement officers, all of them wearing armor of some sort and carrying weapons.

They are approached by an unarmed 75-year-old man. It is unreasonable for any of the officers in this situation to have felt as though they were in clear and present danger. But if they had felt threatened, they could have restrained him.

Instead, they assault him, shoving him backward violently. Go back and watch the video again. Listen to the sound the man's head makes at the 0:06 mark when it hits the ground. Look at the blood coming out of his ear. Watch how motionless his body is.

At best, this is a terrible accident by law enforcement officers who are not competent at their jobs. At worst, it is criminal assault.

The second level of corruption comes in the reaction of the officers who did not shove the old man. None of them rush to his side. None of them confront the perpetrators of the assault.

Instead, the first two actions we see from the other police are these:

(a) One of the officers who pushed the man seems surprised that he fell and makes a move to check on him. The officer behind him directs him to keep moving and leave the man alone.

(b) Other officers immediately move to clear witnesses out of the area. There appear to be two civilian witnesses who try to tell the police that the man on the ground is bleeding. One of the other officers says, "Grab these two guys right now."

These two witnesses put their hands in the air and offer no resistance. We see one of them handcuffed.

Another officer goes after the credentialed media present and orders them to leave the scene.

What you're seeing here is, in the immediate aftermath of police misconduct, a large number of officers working in a coordinated manner to cover it up and witnesses to the misconduct being detained for no discernible reason.

Which brings us to the third level of corruption: The press release.

With the benefit of time to react, the Buffalo police department portrayed this assault as a mere accident resulting from a "skirmish" in which a civilian "tripped & fell."

This is a two-part outright lie being fed to the public the police department is supposed to serve.

This may sound strange, but I view the actual assault on the old man as the least worrisome of those three corruptions.

Police are human. They will make bad decisions sometimes even if they are good cops. You can understand how a bad decision gets made in snap-encounters.

Do I think these police should be prosecuted? Yes.

Do I think that, regardless of the outcome of criminal prosecution, they should ever be allowed to put on the uniform again? Absolutely not.

However, I am open to the possibility that these are good men who made a terrible mistake and simply lack the faculties and temperament to be professional law enforcement officers.

But what about the police around them who see what has happened and do nothing?

These officers are witness to an assault that they were not a part of. They have no "heat of the moment" excuse. And their first move is not to help the citizen they have sworn an oath to protect, but to cover up for colleagues who have just committed what may be a criminal offense.

It is hard to view these officers as anything but fully corrupt. Every one of them should lose their badge.

The deepest corruption, though, is the press release.

Because this is not the act of a single person operating under constraints of time and space. It's the product of an organization.

That means multiple sets of eyes and multiple lies. It means people had the luxury of time to deliberate before acting and their choice was to deceive the public.

When you find a bad cop, it means that he can't be trusted.

When you see a gaggle of cops covering for a bad cop, it means the culture is corrupt.

When you read a press release issued by the department claiming that a man who was assaulted by cops "tripped & fell" as a result of a "skirmish," it tells you that the entire institution is rotten.

Thank God the local NPR station caught this assault on tape. Had they not, then the police department's lie would have been the official truth.

That is the problem that has people in the streets, because they know that their eyes are not lying.

But maybe you can use your weasel words to explain how institutional corruption is great and we all should accept it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlmAfv-mrXA

If it wasn't for the cell phone video George Floyd would have "tripped & fell"

The video from Buffalo is horrific.

I wasn't thinking in that way--but why not? There are claims that we are having a civil war.

But I was pointing out the absurdity of believing that moving protesters the distance of a block away where they were free to carry on with their assembly was taking away their right to assemble.

And yet, ironically, Khatiri's professed first love was Lincoln who actually not only used force, but catastrophic, deadly force to totally squelch half a nation's claim to their Constitutional right to secede.

And on top of which, he falsely blamed Trump for deliberately doing it so he could have his Bible photo op--which, as Barr pointed out, was not the reason for moving the protesters.

But why do you choose that minor bone to pick on? His article and his idyllic view of "Americanism" seems to be based, as above, on some false notions and misinformation which severely and erroneously colors his opinion of which direction America is heading under Trump. And blinds him to the direction it has been heading before Trump.

But it really sounded wonderful. Which is how the left tries to direct us. With good words. Always speak nicely, politically correctly. Who can argue against nice, compassionate words?

And because Trump uses bad words, he is a bad person. And the country will go bad because of his bad words.

I saw that. my issue wasnt the 1 arm push . I dont think the officer thought the guy would loose his blance and go down that hard. And i understand why the 1st line went by him thats taught to keep the line.. its the follow on officers except 1 who seemed un concerned . Of his conditions bother me
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

You’re repeating propaganda
The lies of this administration
They moved protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets and brute force.
They did it so Tweety could appear strong because his self image was hurt by someone saying he hid in the bunker.

Weak, incompetent and incapable of leadership this administration is failing, ask almost any General.



Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

If they’re using tear gas, why aren’t the security forces wearing gas masks?

https://thehill.com/sites/default/fi...?itok=sxAqEwy_
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Generals' expertise is not in the domain of civilian leadership. And I don't know if "any" general would agree with you. There well may be those who disagree with you. And are wise enough not not to start rumors or make statements that weaken the government.

There are plenty of other "experts" who don't agree with the generals you speak of.

So you think they’d be using it where they were standing? :rotfl:
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Let just say there was no teargas ,,, used. Not sure how that changes the forcible removal of a protest so the POTUS can do a photo op and look like a tough guy


Not sure how flashbangs and batons and rubber bullets aren't bad enough

I love protests. We should just let people stand on freeways when they feel it is helpful. What could go wrong.?

if he was following social distancing rules I think he'd be ok right now...

I could only find "reports" that rubber bullets were used. No evidence that they were. I tried, but couldn't find a link that told how many of the protesters at the Lafayette park incidence were injured and what the cause of injury was. The only injuries that were reported, over and over, were injuries to police or security forces.

once again...

At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.

To curtail the violence that was underway, the USPP, following established policy, issued three warnings over a loudspeaker to alert demonstrators on H Street to evacuate the area. Horse mounted patrol, Civil Disturbance Units and additional personnel were used to clear the area. As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers’ weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park. Subsequently, the fence was installed.