A high school in Denver, Colorado, is under fire for showing students a video strongly advising them not to contact the police if they witness a “violently racist or homophobic” incident. While “gender-nonconforming folks” were mentioned, the video is primarily focused on “racist attacks” by “white supremacists.”
The video, titled, Don’t be a Bystander: 6 Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks, was originally posted to YouTube in 2017 by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, which promotes itself as “a nexus of feminist thought, activism, and collaboration for scholars and activists. Since its founding in 1971, BCRW says it has “promoted women’s and social justice issues to its local communities at Barnard College and within New York City.” Maybe so, but it didn’t work out well for Denver South High.
At one point in the controversial video, the black female narrator declares:
Because police have been trained to see people of color, gender-nonconforming folks, and Muslims as criminals, they often treat victims as perpetrators of violence. So, if the victim hasn’t asked you to call the police, do not — I repeat, do not — call the police.
OK, I’m already confused. So because “white supremacist violence” is on the increase (false), presumably against people of color, why would these woke, out-of-touch, left-wingers encourage bystanders not to report such attacks to the police? What— they’re afraid white police zombies are going to side with the alleged “white supremacists” and throw down against people-of-color victims?
The narrative-driven video provides six tips on how a “bystander” should react if he or she witnesses a violent racist attack. One tip advises the bystander to talk to the victim, document the incident, and support the victim by staying with him or her. The fourth tip is the one in question, here, which advises the bystander to “not call the police,” warns that notifying law enforcement “escalates, rather than reduces” violence.
So, if you witness a violent crime and there are victims? The first thing you do is don’t call the police. Sounds totally legit.
This is “almost” as insane as defunding police departments. Incidentally, check in with the residents of Minneapolis who’ve been forced to personally fund private security in their crime-ridden neighborhoods, and see how that whole Defund Movement thingy worked out for them.
As the Post further reported, a recent letter signed by five law enforcement associations in Colorado blasted the video, warning it would increase “negative perceptions of law enforcement and [hurt] our efforts to build trusting relationships within the communities we serve, including schools and student populations.”
Discouraging students from calling the police in situations that have a high probability of violence and telling them to handle it themselves is irresponsible. Suggesting that police officers are trained to treat people of color and members of the disabled and LGBTQ communities as perpetrators is false and offensive.
Every bit of the above is true. Also true: This is precisely what the Defund and Black Lives Matter movements have been trying to make a reality from the beginning. Why? It doesn’t take a proverbial rocket scientist to figure out the radical left believes it provides them greater cover and more power over the psyche of their low-information base.
When the long-overdue firestorm finally erupted, Denver Public School officials did what public school officials always do when they get caught with their radical-leftist ideology pants down; they lied and said the video was “not fully vetted” prior to being shown to students, and the district does “not subscribe” to some suggestions in the video.
As noted by the Post, a district spokesperson told Fox News Digital the video was chosen because of its title and theme, but that no one viewed it before it was shown to students. Wait — so “6 tips for responding to racist attacks” didn’t raise an eyebrow, or two? Nonsense.
Rachel Goss, principal of Denver South, where the video has been shown, said it was meant “to provide empowerment for people who may witness these types of attacks, not to have any sort of negative impact on the longstanding relationship between the Denver Public Schools and the Denver Police Department.”
“Empowerment for people”? How, by potentially putting them in even more danger during violent attacks, because law enforcement has not been notified? Again, this is insanity.
Goss’s comments had zero to do with reality or the narrative of the video. And again, if school officials didn’t even bother to watch it, why would they assume it conveys the message Goss pretended the school wanted to send?
I’ll go out on a limb and guess they didn’t — and Goss was “forgetting to tell the truth.”