By Bill O'Reilly
Whether it's Obamacare, the food stamp explosion, the punishment of convicts or a myriad of other social issues, the big chasm among Americans is between those like me who believe in personal responsibility and self- reliance and those who will not make judgments on behavior and want the federal government to provide support and solace to those who cannot or will not compete in the American marketplace or obey the law.
Let's look at one very brutal and stark example of what you're talking about; 14-year-old Shaaliver Douse was a troubled teen living in the poor section of the Bronx in New York City. The kid is being raised by a single mother, no father around. He had several arrests on his sheet including attempted murder and possession of a gun. Shaaliver was allegedly part of a gang called "The Nine" -- the nickname of the gun and of his block.
At 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, August 4th. Police confronted the teenager who was shooting at a man in the street. According to the NYPD, Shaaliver turned his gun towards the officers and was then shot dead. After the incident the boy's aunt said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUWANA BARCENE, SHAALIVER DOUSE'S AUNT: What if did he have a gun? Does that give you right to shoot him in the head -- a kid? Police can shoot our kid? It's not fair. It's not fair for the police to be able to kill our kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now grief can cause people to say foolish things so that woman should get some slack for her comments. But police officers are human beings. They have a right to protect themselves when someone is shooting a gun which the teenager did three times that night. Sadly this terrible incident goes back to what "Talking Points" has been reporting.
Shaaliver Douse was a victim of circumstances that are not being confronted by American leadership or by the civil rights industry. No one forced Shaaliver's mother to birth him out of wedlock. No one forced his cowardly father to ignore the boy. No outside entity allowed a 14-year-old to roam the streets at 3:00 in the morning. No one forced him to shoot a gun in the street or to fail to heed the police warning.
Those were all personal decisions and society is not responsible for them. The boy was doomed by his parents who would not control him.
No amount of tax money given to people will make them responsible. No amount of hand-wringing by the left will solve the problem. It must be solved one person at a time. Until that message begins to get out, violence and hopelessness will continue to consume poor precincts and devastate families.
As I have said, many media and politicians don't care enough about the issue to be honest about it. The grievance industry is in it for the money and power. And the far left simply refuses to confront the basic problem because it does not fit their ideology. Thus, nothing gets done and racial divisions grow wider.
Last month in Gulfport, Florida three black kids, all 15 years old, attacked a 13-year-old white boy on a school bus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUS DRIVER: They about to beat this boy to death over here. Please get somebody over here. And they're still doing it. There's nothing I can do.
Leave that boy alone. Leave him alone. Leave him alone.
You know you are all going to jail. You are all going to jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: The victim had a broken arm, multiple other injuries. A 15-year-old is charged with aggravated battery and will likely face an adult court. Few national media even covered the story because it was blacks attacking a white.
In the wake of Trayvon Martin, if it had been three white boys attacking a black, it would have been massive media coverage. So why the double standard? A politically correct and cowardly media is the answer to that question.
And by the way no fair-minded person, no fair-minded person, should believe that most black Americans want to hurt whites. They don't. That bus attack was about three thugs beating up a kid who objected to their behavior.
There is no evidence the crime is any more than that. But there is plenty of evidence that the power structure in America doesn't want to help solve the dissolution of the traditional family which is the root, the root from which violence and personal failure grows. Shaaliver Douse is yet another vivid example of that truth.
And that's "The Memo."
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