The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Nika Holbert and the BLM Myth

Posted on | March 19, 2021 | Comments Off on Nika Holbert and the BLM Myth

Nika Holbert shot a Nashville police officer last week and was shot to death when the officer returned fire. Ordinarily, this would not be a very newsworthy incident — “Criminal Dies in Shootout” — but we are not living in ordinary times. The Black Lives Matter movement has created what can only be described as a myth of racial innocence. At the core of this myth is the belief that every problem experienced by any black person in American can be explained as a result of racism; therefore, when a black person engages in wrongdoing, they are never really guilty — it’s all whitey’s fault — and should never suffer consequences.

The BLM Myth of Racial Innocence is now embedded in nearly all media coverage of crime involving the black community. No matter what the circumstances may be, the black person who commits a crime is never really guilty of anything, it is implied, and we are expected to believe that every black inmate serving time is a political prisoner, a victim of “systemic racism.” So when a police officer goes to arrest a black suspect who resists arrest, we are expected to sympathize with the criminal, rather than sympathizing with the officer who is, after all, putting his own life at risk to enforce the law and maintain public safety.

This is a dangerous belief system, and it is irresponsible for the media to promote it, because it tends to encourage resistance to law enforcement and thereby increase the number of violent encounters that end up with black suspects getting shot. WKRN-TV in Nashville interviewed a civil rights attorney about the Nika Holbert case:

“She made some very, very bad decisions, prior to shooting at the officer. But unfortunately, you just don’t understand her state of mind,” said Ashley Upkins, managing partner at The Cochran Firm.
Upkins has worked on several civil rights cases, including police conduct. She said despite the fact that this was a case of a white police officer pulling over a black driver, she does not believe the shootout was racially motivated. Instead, Upkins suggests the situation escalated due to systemic racial fears.
“I don’t think anyone can watch that video and not believe that she looked terrified and petrified,” Upkins explained.

Hold that thought for a minute while I explain a little about the background of this case, because contrary to what the lawyer says, I think I do understand Nika Holbert’s “state of mind,” and the reason she “looked terrified and petrified” had nothing to do with “systemic racism.”

Go back up to the top of this post and look at that picture of Nika Holbert, taken from the police officer’s bodycam. Notice anything?

Yeah — the car. That’s a 2015 Camaro.

You can buy one used for $15,000-$20,000.

Have you got $20,000 to spare? Because I’d really like to drive around in a late-model Camaro, instead of an old Nissan. So, let us ask, how was it that Nika Holbert was driving around in this fine vehicle?

Say hello to Demond Maurice Buchanan, who is well-known to law enforcement in Nashville, his lengthy criminal record dating back to 1996 — not coincidentally, the year he turned 18 — and including numerous drug offenses, weapons offenses, attempted murder and, less than five years ago, vehicular homicide:

A convicted felon has been arrested for vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, gun and marijuana charges.
SWAT officers arrested 37-year-old Demond M. Buchanan following an indictment on the charges filed after a crash last May that killed a passenger in his car.
On May 2nd, Buchanan was driving a Camaro possibly in excess of 100 mph when he struck an SUV. His passenger -Marlon Burnett died at the scene and Buchanan was hospitalized. A weapon, cash and marijuana were found inside the car.
Buchanan was found at a motel on Atrium Way. Inside, police found baggies of crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and a loaded pistol.

That was in 2016. You might think that a criminal with such a lengthy rap sheet, charged with such serious crimes, would go to prison for a long time. But for some reason, the state of Tennessee can’t keep Demond Buchanan behind bars, so he was out on the streets, committing further felonies. Buchanan was wanted on six felony warrants when Officer Josh Baker spotted his 2015 Camaro. Baker called for backup when he pulled over the Camaro and began questioning the driver, Nika Holbert, who said she was “really confused” about why she was being stopped:

 

Was it “systemic racial fears” that led this traffic stop to escalate into a shootout? Or was it the fact that (a) Nika Holbert knew she had drugs in her purse, and also (b) was in possession of a firearm, so that (c) a search of the car would result in her going back to jail?

According to online records from both Metro and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Nika Holbert’s criminal background includes several repeat misdemeanors, including driving with a revoked license and theft under $500.
Holbert also had a felony drug charge from 2010.
Her last listed interaction with law enforcement was a public indecency charge in 2017.

So she was a habitual violator driving around in a car belonging to a locally notorious criminal. That is why the situation “escalated.”

One reason you’re seeing more situations “escalate” in this manner is simply that technology has shifted the balance toward law enforcement. More and more police vehicles are equipped with scanners that automatically read tags of passing cars, so that if you’re driving a stolen vehicle or, as in Nika Holbert’s case, driving a car whose owner is wanted on arrest warrants, the cops are gonna get you. Five or 10 years ago, you could be driving around with a car full of felonies and cops wouldn’t know it, unless you did something to attract their attention. Nowadays, it’s a lot harder for criminals to get away with crimes, which is why we keep seeing videos like this. Race has nothing to do with it.

But the BLM Myth of Innocence is everywhere:

A Nashville-based organization is calling for change nearly a week after two separate shootings — one of them deadly — involved Metro Police officers.
Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH) held a press conference on Thursday.
“Talk, talk, talk, we’re tired of talking, we’re tired of waiting,” said NOAH task force member Jane Boram. “Nashville cannot continue to kill innocent women. This has got to stop.”

Ma’am, Nika Holbert was not an innocent woman. She shot first.

You pull a gun on a cop, expect to die. I don’t know how to explain that more clearly. Cops aren’t trained to lose gunfights.




 

Category: Crime, Tennessee

Comments

Comments are closed.