It’s not just the season of coronavirus, it’s also the season of apologies, which often are rejected.
Starting at home, the high-end Di Bruno Bros. grocery outlets apologized for having made an offer to provide a free lunch for on-duty police officers. Most people thought it to be a kind offer to the cops, who have been working 12-hour shifts since the protests of George Floyd’s death began.
Most people — but not some of Di Bruno Bros staff. You will find this hard to believe, but a group of them threatened to strike if the owners didn’t rescind the offer.
You will find this even harder to believe: The weakling owners proved to be craven [forbidden term alert] Indian Givers and revoked the offer. In a letter to customers and others, Di Bruno said the offer was “insensitive.”
Insensitive?
To whom exactly?
Only to cop haters.
The letter confessed that super woke Di Bruno recognized “that our ability to rely on the assistance of the police to protect our store in times of unrest is a privilege that many in our city and country have not been afforded.”
Actually, during the “times of unrest” in Philly, practically no one was protected. The carnival of looting proved that.
Does Di Bruno think when you dial 9-1-1 they ask for your race or religion or income level?
The letter was a sickening manifestation of white guilt.
Virtue signaling like crazy, the letter said, “We stand in solidarity with the peaceful protesters against racism, injustice, and the senseless violence against people of color.
“We believe Black Lives Matter and are unequivocally against police brutality.”
As opposed to you, who applauds it?
It then pledged to make donations to Black Lives Matter, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Had Di Bruno done that in addition to the lunch for cops, it would have been all good.
Instead, because it seemed to be pissing on police, Di Bruno bought itself a boycott. It’s overpriced, anyway.
On the national scene, Everyone’s Girl Next Door, Ellen DeGeneres went on Twitter to say this:
Really hateful, right?
Guess what? She gets torn apart on Twitter — a/k/a the moral supremacist sewer — for not screaming outrage like a banshee, and for using the phrase “people of color.” Huh? I thought it was the latest linguistic gymnastic for “nonwhite.“
Ellen then stupidly posted a tearful video, apologizing for knowing she would not say the right thing.
Then shut up. Why give the vipers ammunition? You only compound things by caving in to Political Correctness and someone else’s idea of moral purity.
Apologies should come only when you violate a commonly agreed to community standard, not because three dung beetles with a keyboard have invented a new way to claim insult.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized for the NFL not being active enough in combating racism, but was keelhauled for not mentioning Colin Kaepernick.
New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees said he felt strongly taking a knee during the National Anthem was disrespectful to the flag, but did a quick about face when criticized by teammate and former Eagle Malcolm Jenkins, and others.
The New York Times ran an online op-ed by Arkansas U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton that said the military should be called in to quell riots by “nihilist criminals” and attempts by the “radical chic” to justify the violence “are built on a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters.”
Red meat for the right wing, yes.
Many leftist Times staffers — which is most of them — objected to the op-ed and the Times then apologized for publishing it, and banned it from its print edition. It is almost Orwellian, except the iron curtain is being dropped by a newspaper, not the government.
Media critic Jeff Greenfield waved the idea that an op-ed is not my-ed, and was promptly attacked by the Left as a fascist, its second most-favorite word. Racist is No. 1.
The very people entrusted with stocking our democracy with a stream of ideas is busy building dams.
I am damn glad to be out of it.
Hi Stu. It’s a shame we can’t talk about the editor of the Inquirer being sacked after he apologized profusely — but apparently not profusely enough — for a dumb headline.
You also under legal Constraint? (I will email you)
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Stu & readers,
What is basic is that “political correctness” is the formative ideology of the contempoary upper-middle class, which functions keeps them in line, as they watch the super-rich and await “the next big thing.”
By means of “PC,” the “riff-raff” of the lower-middle class is kept off balance and distracted from their declining economic interests to attend to the great spectacles of “identity politics.” Do we have to straighten out all racial problems, before attending to economic problems?
Its not that there was some grand conspiracy to produce growing inequalities over decades, its more a matter of concentration and confluence of interests. The politicians, being chiefly insiders, do not often see a problem in growing inequalities.
If you put a group of rowers in a boat and set them off rowing, they will eventually coordinate their strokes, without need of discussing the matter.
H.G. Callaway
I think we should apologize to the Japanese for reacting so violently to the Pearl Harbor ‘incident.’
I suspect Trump won’t do that. 😃
Barry did that as part of his world apology tour.
HAPPY SUNDAY !!!
Stu,
With much sarcasm, I am sorry for being a white male, youngest of 5, who had loving parents who taught us the values needed to make this a better world.
I am disappointed that the heirs to the DiBruno Bros. stores are disrespecting their blood founders.
I am not surprised that the Inquirer has folded once again after their latest P.C. blunder.
I am not the least bit surprised to see politicians and others march, kneel and cave to the rioting protesters (
oxymoron?).
But I am truly sorry that we have lost more police through this violence. Those that protect, became the victims.
I am sorry that it took this much violence and death to make America wake up ! Hopefully, we can actually right the wrongs – on both sides of the argument.
Sometimes, us Americans are slow learners. When we rid ourselves of statues and murals, we’re just kidding ourselves in thinking that the problem went away. The problem didn’t go away. It went under our skin and infected us. Will we change ? Can we change ? If only for our future generations, we better change.
Tony
You are forgiven for your race and gender.
Father Stu,
What time are you hearing confessions?😄
I’m feeling a rush of ‘white guilt.’😉
The same people who claim the President is infringing on their first amendment rights are doing the same goddamn thing even worse.
This widespread capitulation to mob rule is very disconcerting. Any ideas on who’s going to support your overpriced stores after the woke crowd can’t pay their bills when all this is pandemic shutdown is over and those of us who supported you in the past will no longer? And who will pay city taxes after we all leave a bankrupted city that is rapidly being destroyed? Will the mass protests then be about the inevitable cuts to city services? This is a very sad moment in the history of Philadelphia. We put our home up for sale this past week. Sorry we didn’t earlier. This is a lousy time to sell, but I’ll take a bath on it to get out of here.
DI BRUNO’S should be banned by the cops. I have many friends black and white. Some of them are cops. These cops for the most part do their best to protect us. I can’t imagine what our country would be without the.There is good and bad on every profession. Mistakes are made by all of us on a daily basis. I have one friend who is a retired professor who drives a Mercedes. He lives in Jersey and gets stopped by the police for no apparent reason. He tells me that he has a friend same color same car. He never gets stopped. That person wears a chauffeur’s cap when he drives. I often talk with him about hatred. I said to him the only difference between us is that people don’t know I’m Jewish . . Most of my fathers family was murdered during the war.
Chauffeur’s cap — that is so funny.
With Trump and conservatives taking near-total power after the Left had assumed they would never lose again, their reaction has been to transform. They are stepping away from the normal activities and mindset of cultural Marxism and evolving into full blown communists. Instead of admitting that their ideology is a failure in every respect, they are doubling down.
When this evolution is complete, the Left WILL resort to direct violent action on a larger scale, and they will do so with a clear conscience because, in their minds, they are fighting fascism. Ironically, it will be this behavior by leftists that may actually push conservatives towards a fascist model. Conservatives might decide to fight crazy with more crazy.
You understand. Fully. And you’re exactly right.
I’m not sure that all that Marxist, communist rhetoric is useful or even relevant. I guarantee that the latte drinking crowd is not about to subjugate themselves to what the communist Russians or Chinese have if it comes to that. It is about the tyranny of the woke and their herd like PC mentality. We are going to come to a crossroads where the more that people think about wholesale capitulation to that tyranny, where we are taxed and see no benefit for our tax dollars, where they can’t send their kids to safe schools and so on, they will move further and further right toward a strong “man” model as you say. I’ve always thought that you can only push people so far before they start to go backwards.
It’s extremely relevent..the tyranny of the woke is the natural terrible fruit rooted in Marxist/Communist priniciples and the entire Frankfurt School of thought that has been infecting our society from it’s vile inception.
What I see primarily is a bunch of ignorant children posing for Instagram photos and pretending they are activists. And if as the evidence suggests, there is a provocateur element infiltrating these protests to stir up violence, then isn’t it possible that their goal is to get us to back martial law policies?
If the infiltrators are extremist communist organizations like Antifa or Black Lives Matter that receive funding from elites like George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, then we should consider the possibility that the intention is not just to influence the protests, but to also influence conservatives to react by supporting violent government power. If they can trick conservatives into suddenly supporting the lockdowns, curfews, and a national guard/military presence to stop the protests, then they will have defeated us without firing a shot. We will have defeated ourselves and our own constitutional principles.
The bottom line? More government power is NEVER the solution to any problem. Totalitarianism is never the answer. There will now be endless excuses to declare martial law. When the George Floyd riots fizzle out, there will be some other trigger event. In fact, these riots are probably just a precursor to the riots that will rage when the public realizes the US economy is not coming back from the pandemic, and that more lockdowns are coming
You are suggesting civil war. I hope not.
Stu,…..Progressives who insisted Americans continue to stay home even after the COVID-19 curve flattened now believe mass protests are fine. Livelihoods and businesses are destroyed. Gather to riot and get a pass, but gather for church and go to jail. Ironically, these same people who think health care insurance is awful think property and casualty insurance will be just fine to make small businesses whole after the riots.
The writing is on the wall. I don’t need a German Shepard, a stripey pole nor a cup of pencils.
Bryant, I am trying to avoid making this political. To me it is common sense and doing what is right.
Stu, brilliant words. You will get the apology I give you, not the apology you write for me. You may not even get an apology if I don’t believe I owe you one. And if that’s a problem, that’s your problem, not mine. Keep racing against the dying of the light,
more sarcasm by tour’s truly !
Philly has the dubious honor of ranking among the worst cities in the worst categories ! All polls list the city near the bottom of every query except higher education in regards to artificial intelligence. Philly also has a high number of immigrants, and we all know that many are illegal.
In my 70 plus years, the Philadelphia area has taken a nose dive ! Where we were solvent and productive, we are now staring at poverty. Where we were know for higher education, we now have high VIOLENT crime.
Welcome to the democratic world !
Tony
Stu,
I am sure not all were cop haters. The tone of your post is the problem in the world today. Are you, really sorry?
Yeah, the ones who found the offer “insensitive” are cop haters.
My tone offended you? Di Bruno’s ACTION offended me.
be nice if all dial back a bit
I remember a worker who was not performing well. I pushed her to do better and she came to me one day and said, “I can’t work under these conditions.” I said, “I accept your resignation.” I am surprised the owners of Di Bruno’s did not do the same with the recalcitrant workers.
Dear Stu,
I’m disgusted with all the protesting. Will this last until the election? I will never shop at DI Bruno’s again, I told them to take me off their mailing list. As an older, middle class, white, tax payer where are my rights.I was trying to go food shopping yesterday..all strests blocked for protesting. Our small shopping center all boarded up because of a threat last week. I want to leave the city I love but under mayor Kenney it was destroyed.
Wake up whitey! There has been a race war going on for years now, fueled by the white Left, but you’ve been asleep until now.
Annette I am awake and alert. Apparently you’re not awake. Any city run by Democrats is corrupt and crime ridden. Even during the pandemic our city had one of the highest crime rates due to a liberal DA and incompetent Mayor. Racism is the Democrats platform because they have nothing else to go on. They want to destroy wonderful country that so many want to get into so why don’t you and other who hate it go to those oppressed country and live there. Socialism has never worked!!!!!
t
once again: if you like repugs, welcome to Mis’sipi. You won’t like being in last place
“Whitey”? Nice racial invective. Turn it around and see how you would feel.
All I can say to DiBruno Brothers is:
Please do not let the officer who murdered George Floyd define what you think of law enforcement. There are so many phenomenal officers out there who put their life on the line for us everyday and THEY do not deserve the hate.
Don’t let one bad apple ruin the whole crop!
DiBruno Brothers is expanding, right now they are involved in building a new store next to the Wayne farmers market.
I am going to make sure that they receive a very unfriendly welcome to the neighborhood.
Stu
Thanks for this column. I will stop supporting the DiBruno’s in the Italian market.
Keep up the good writing.
Leftists are in firm control at The New York Times: Goodwin: https://nypost.com/2020/06/06/leftists-are-in-firm-control-at-the-new-york-times-goodwin/
Wow, Tom, that was a great article link. I already knew which way the NYT was headed for a long time. This article really laid it bare.
Randy,
You should download the New York Post app. They have ample conservative op pieces, or just google Michael Goodwin.
And Bob Woodson, black conservative, a wealth of knowledge, he’s, I believe in Philly.
Tom
no Stu or any other thoughtful commentator in today’s paper- but they did give Malcolm Jenkins and other predictable purveyors of groupthink space.After subscribing for over 30 years I shall be cancelling.
Steve
I’ve bought 1 Philly newpaper since I retired in Sep 99.
The great Ted Silary did an article on a friend of mine who won a Penn Relays race. She mentioned me.So i bought the PDN.Still have the paper.
Stu retired from Inly last July, so stay here to read him. 😀
Even if you are not a believer, Jesus Christ has shown the answer. We are to love and forgive one another as God has loved us and forgiven us. There can only be true peace if all people
take this to heart and live their lives this way. The Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. All our difficulties will melt if we see the humanity in each other, and sit down together and share a meal to experience life together. I have traveled the world, and find this to be the best way for all to live. Love and forgive.
Sandra,
You are 100% right. But the fruits of love and forgiveness I’m afraid will require God’s direct intervention. A Divine Enlightenment, if you will. I pray for the same!
Tom
I’m reminded of a religious conversation I had with a woman many years ago. She had raged to me about her neighbor, whom she said she ‘hated.’ I asked her, “How can you say you love God, whom you cannot see, when you hate your neighbor, whom you can see?” She said, “Because my neighbor is a son of a bitch.”
Some thoughts
Political Correctness, a powerful leftist tenet has been running rampant for years infecting our world. In our Dodge we’ve been made to commit idolatry by bowing down, literally at times, to a ‘holier-than-thou’ minority. We complain, some write our leaders, but nothing changes. We are weary of being told how to live and what to say. And we are wary of the so called Leaders. We are looking for a change.
So, by using the best method we have, we decide and bring in an ‘Outsider’ to straighten out the shenanigans, pin a silver star on him, then beat him up for the next few years. We laugh at the new sheriff and attack him and call him all kinds of names, even as he tirelessly goes about what he was hired for. The local newspeople continue to lead the way in cahoots with others unwilling to accept his legitimacy…even some of his own deputies! Others are good people who can’t get passed their distaste for his un-sheriff-like style or physical appearance. Some have even made fun of his supporters. Yet, through it all our town has prospered like never before. We continue to plead with the citizens to support him. To no avail!
Then a silent enemy snuck up on our town and we dutifully faced it…together, and are presently ridding the menace out of town…together. Just when we are opening up our town and could use a drink at the local saloon the unthinkable happens, a shocking killing of an innocent black man by a wayward law enforcer!! We acknowledge in unison the crime. But that’s not enough. We riot!! And PC all over again….and stronger!
the new sheriff would do well to note that most voted against him
“….the best method we have” and greatest in the world.
Ingenious visionaries!
Stu,
Thanks for making this clear.
Jerry
I don’t understand how anyone would become a police officer in the current atmosphere of hatred and contempt to these officers. I’m in the winter of my years and have never seen the level of whining by Americans. Maybe if everyone would just shut up and get on with living society would be better off.
WE HAVE BECOME A PUSSILANIUOS SOCIETY.
I wrote this over a year ago and the country has deteriorated since and the George Floyd case and its reaction speaks for itself and is in the hands of the Judicial system.
Only in certain years do we have reliable reports of police and criminal shootings.
Roland Fryer an African American professor at Harvard distressed by the treatment of black men commissioned a study on how the role of race plays in the use of lethal force by police. He examined more than 1000 police shootings from 10 large police departments in California, Florida, and Texas. In 2016 the police shot 233 blacks, the vast majority armed and dangerous and only 16 were unarmed and physically resisted arrest. The results concluded that there was no indication of racial bias associated with incidents in which cops fired their guns. The study also concluded police who had been attacked were more likely to shoot white suspects.
A police officer in 2015, contrary to Black Lives Matter was 18.5% more likely to be killed by a black than an unarmed black was to be killed by a police officer. In fact, there were almost 6,000 blacks killed by other blacks in 2015. In Chicago, alone blacks committed 76% of all homicides despite comprising 35% of the population. While whites who compose 28% of the population committed only 4% of all homicides and only 26% of both were solved.
On average there are 62.9 million people who had contact with the police in 2018.
Citing Department of Justice statistics, African American attorney Peter Kirsanow of the US Commission on Civil Rights provided empirical data to dispel what he called a “false narrative” that white cops are targeting black civilians, while also providing insight into crime rates among black Americans. Over the last two years, the spike in violent crime rates has been accompanied by controversies and violent protests over the shooting deaths of blacks at the hands of white police officers. Kirsanow stated that blacks are killed two and half times more often by police than whites. But he then went on to note that this rate is far less than would be predicted in light of black crime rates. As an example, Kirsanow said that in New York City, blacks are 35 times more likely to commit robberies than whites; 38 times more likely to commit murders than whites; and 51 times more likely to engage in shootings than whites, regardless of whether they resulted in a homicide. Warning against the so-called “Ferguson Effect,” coined by researcher Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute, Kirsanow described how it plays out in many American communities.
The alleged effect of the controversy and protests unleashed by the 2015 shooting death of teenaged Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, said Kirsanow, has been to cause police around the country to withdraw from active and proactive policing. “Sometimes,” Kirsanow said, “city administrations tell them to, as we saw with the mayor of Baltimore.
Kirsanow said that despite decades of declining crime rates, after the Ferguson shooting and protests, the United States “saw a significant spike in violent crimes, most especially in those cities where we’ve witnessed these types of high-profile shootings and protests that resulted in police drawing back.” One notable fact that Kirsanow provided is that black police officers are not holding back. “Black cops are 3.3 times more likely to shoot black suspects than white cops,” said Kirsanow. “When you’ve got this false narrative and this perpetuation of protests that cause the Ferguson effect, here’s what the consequences are: take a look at the data. Despite the dramatic drop in the crime rates, in 2015, 900 more blacks than in the year before were killed and in 2016, 900 more. We had 7,881 blacks killed in 2016; the vast majority, more than 90 percent by other blacks not cops. That’s near twice as many as the number of soldiers killed in the entire Iraq War. And it is at least partially the consequence of this false narrative feeding this outrage, which feeds the protests, which then results in a Ferguson effect, and then the spike in the crime rates.”
”Peter Kirsaninow is a lawyer with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.”
One final statistic in 2018 there were 40,000 reported injuries to police with 48 killed in the line of duty.
What members of the false narrative are willing to sit down and discuss an understanding and a factual recognition of the nation’s police to find just what we can do jointly to address crime and killing in black society. And in addition, assist in any changes warranted to reduce police abuse in the black community the door is open.
I hope people will wade through this, Tom
Bob Woodson of ‘The Woodson Center’ read off similar stats on Mark Levin and Tucker Carlson this week. “There is no systemic racism” Woodson said, just like you said, Stu.
Hate to get political, but that’s what it’s about.
Is your nickname really whitey? asking for a friend.
Is your friend named Lefty? Send me his email and I will straighten him out.
Stu, great article! Keep up the great work.
Stu,
I agree with 99% of your article. I’m 100% Liberal, and believe that I honor liberal values by the way I live my life. I’m quick to speak out about racism, but do not believe an act of kindness towards Police support racism. I don’t think anyone of us is that pure that we should belittle or humiliate another human being, in this case Ellen, who has expressed heartfelt feelings of KINDNESS and support for the Black community. Truly these reactions are as baffling to me as to those on the right. Where I would differ from your article is the part about the NFL and Roger Goodall. His statement was, to me, stunning in the omission. Colin sacrificed his career for something more important. He was made into a pariah by the NFL. Now, that the cause which he so passionately addressed has become a world-wide cause, Goodall should have the decency to say his name out loud. He needs to apologize, not to liberals, but to Colin K.
I’ll take 99% anytime.
Love this Stu! Point on with DiBruno Bro’s. There’s no reason why you can’t support both Black Lives Matters and the police.
Correct. I support the IDEA of Black Lives Matter, but NOT the organization which is anti-cop. They would say they have their reasons. And I have mine.
Stu, I’m sorry I don’t read more of this type of thing. But then, I live in Wyoming now. What a sorry state of affairs this is. Hang in there. And if you’re ever in these parts, do look me up. I’m not hard to find.
Thank you. I drove across Wyoming, east to west, some years ago on my way to Yellowstone. A beautiful state in an empty, wild way. 1/3 as many people as PhilLy.
and they still have 2 senators
That damn Constitution again! There was a time each state’s U.S. Senators were named by the party in power. That ended in the 1930s (I believe it was in the 1930s), when the Constitution was amended to allow the direct election of senators. Power taken from the states and given to the federales.
Thank you, Stu, for pointing out what has become so oppressive, this insane requirement to be PC and to keep our opinions to ourselves and our mouths shut for fear of being condemned for being racist or insensitive.
We live in the city and run two small businesses. The majority of our contractors are black business entrepreneurs. What is going on in the name of “righting the wrongs” of the downtrodden black community is killing their businesses as well as our own.
We depend on the police in the city to keep us safe; their lives are hell and most still greet us with a smile despite such a thankless and low paying job. How can we publicly show our support of them? Sad that DiBruno Bro’s tried and then caved to the radical (hopefully) minority. They have lost our business, as well, because of it.
I especially liked the commend posted by Tom Garveyctcan. The media should be sharing information like that he shared in his article; by showing only one side with no facts to back them up, they are fomenting a revolution. They should be held accountable.
Thank you for your articles. I wish that I were half as articulate as you and your other readers are, but I do want you to know that your opinions are refreshing and lend validation to my own.
Thank you. All the cops want is…. a smile. Honest to God. If you are wearing a mask, one of these will do. 👍
I give every police officer I see a smile and a very sincere thank you!
Hey Stu! You and I have corresponded in the past and I’ve always felt of the same mind. You never gave the paper what was expected. You speak truth and not the narrative. Good for you! #noapologies
Thank you. I am glad you are here.