#Democrats don’t want police reform and other commentary

Calls to “defund the police” will make black neighborhoods even less safe.
Matthew McDermott

Despite what Democratic politicians claim, most “appear to have almost zero interest in advancing the welfare of African-Americans,” rails Liz Peek at Fox News — as long as they can keep raking in “huge amounts of cash from white liberals guilt-ridden over their ‘white privilege.’” When Senate Democrats blocked Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s police reform bill, they proved they don’t want any reform if Republicans are offering it and would rather just virtue-signal. Meanwhile, they ignore problems in black communities and are now calling to “defund the police, which will make black neighborhoods even less safe.” If “black support for the Democratic Party is waning,” as some polls suggest, snaps Peek, it’s “about time.”

Social-media watch: Why Twitter Will Ban Trump

“Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is going to ban President Trump,” predicts The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson. “It’s just a matter of when.” The social-media platform has already added warning labels to Trump tweets, including flagging one in which “the president promised to enforce the law” as “abusive.” Its policy is “nothing more than subjective gibberish” that Twitter uses to “provide a pretext for censoring” what “Jack Dorsey doesn’t like.” Twitter has allowed everything from “misleading or inaccurate claims” from Democrats to “clearly abusive and threatening behavior” to remain up without labels. So rest assured: Before the November election, Twitter will “drop any pretense about being a neutral platform” and use a similar pretext, “however absurd or cynical,” to “ban Trump outright.”

From the left: Street ‘Justice’ in Atlanta

“Street justice administered by people who don’t want anyone to know who they are is not a substitute for policing,” declares The Intercept’s George Chidi. But that’s just what Chidi found in Atlanta, where police killed Rayshard Brooks this month. What he experienced “illustrates the potential dangers faced by Black Lives Matter activists seeking reform”: “Armed people standing watch” had “smashed a car window and punched a white guy” driving through the area before they turned on Chidi, a black journalist. Worried that he’d taken their pictures, they demanded his cellphone. When he refused, “one armed man said he would kill me”; Chidi escaped with a black eye. “We must demand people with guns who are exercising authority to hold themselves to high standards; this is as true of street vigilantes as it is of police.”

From the right: Obama — a New Al Capone

President Barack Obama’s enduring influence reminds Julie Kelly at American Greatness of the flick “The Untouchables,” about the feds’ pursuit of Al Capone, who “controlled every power base” in Chicago, Obama’s political home — except in the Obama era, the term “The Untouchables” applies to Obama and his “mob.” In 2008, Obama actually stole a line from the film: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” No wonder he and “consigliere” Joe Biden get away with so many scandals, including — most notably — their role in “the operation to infiltrate, spy on and sabotage” President’s Trump’s 2016 campaign. Journalists won’t question Obama about it, because . . . he’s “feared, “untouchable” — no one dares cross him. That, to borrow again from the film, is “the Chicago Way.”

Libertarian: California’s Foolish War on Tech

California’s anti-business Democratic leaders are now “singling out the innovative tech sector for torment,” fumes The Orange County Register’s Steven Greenhut, “as if they’re purposely trying to drive these companies” — which have helped make the Golden State “the world’s fifth-largest economy” — to Texas or Arizona. Recently passed Assembly Bill 5, for example, prevents app-based services such as Uber and Lyft from considering drivers independent contractors, which undermines their business model. Meanwhile, state and city attorneys have filed a “controversial lawsuit” against the companies, and the state has launched an “attack on small businesses” that “sell products to Californians on online platforms.” Officials’ “anti-corporate ideology” is so extreme, sighs Greenhut, that they’re pursuing it even if it hurts their own citizens.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board