By Sherman Frederick/Properly Subversive

Pushback has finally come for the dumb things we as a society said and did against cops after the murder of George Floyd.

First, we’ve rejected the “defund the police” movement. Virtually no community entertains that nutty notion anymore, not even Chicagoans who recently gave their mayor the boot for, among other things, her lousy performance on crime and safety.

Sherman Frederick

Secondly, we’re starting to challenge the corollary notion that cops are bad for schools. The idea that cops are bad for students and should therefore be removed because they somehow scare minority kids out of learning was insane from the get-go.

Consider the parents at East high School in Denver. Armed police were removed from East High School and other schools in Denver following a George Floyd overreaction there.

That didn’t mean students were safer. Just the opposite.

The school had one kid, Austin Lyle, 17, who was such a threat, instead of  expelling him, he was required to be frisked every morning for weapons before attending class. Let’s underline that. The school continued to teach a kid they deemed so dangerous that he was required to be searched every single morning for weapons. One morning a couple of weeks ago he showed up with a handgun and shot two faculty members. Lyle fled the school and killed himself. This was the 18th shooting at an elementary or secondary school in the U.S. this year.

The Denver school board then reinstated police on all the city’s high schools.

Just a little too damn late, I think we can all agree.

Meanwhile, in Nevada, the new governor, Joe Lombardo, went to the Legislative building in Carson City to personally testify on behalf of AB330.

AB330 seeks to fix a dumb 2019 law dubbed the “restorative justice law.”

The Nevada Independent reports that the Legislature enacted that earlier law (AB168) that “removed requirements for students to be automatically expelled for certain violent acts.” Teacher unions and others wanted the law because the white people who run Nevada schools allegedly suspended violent students of color disproportionately. Well, since AB168 was passed, guess what? Yep, violence in Nevada’s public schools increased.

Now Gov. Joe wants that law changed so that teachers and schools are not limited in their ability to deal with violent students. It’s the right thing to do and nothing supports that more than the Denver shooting.

If a student has done something so bad that he has to be patted down before school each morning, then a good case can be made that we got a big problem that puts the whole school at risk.

I’m sorry this is so. Forget skin pigment and focus on safety, which means we must come to the realization that some people – like that 17-year-old in Denver – must be treated separately and, I would argue, more intensely.

Look, George Floyd’s murder was awful and reforming how that stunning act could happen within the culture of any police force needs immediate local and national attention. I’m all in on that. 100%.

But let’s stop with the unrelated crazy talk. Fewer police makes no sense as does the idea of exposing school children to good cops stunts a child’s ability to develop into a productive citizen.

That’s just stupid.

STAY ‘HOME’

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that former Nevada Assemblymember Alexander Assefa was sentenced to probation for misusing campaign funds and lying about his residency when he ran for office. 

Assefa told voters he lived in Spring Valley, but actually lived in North Las Vegas.

Probation seems mundane to me. House arrest? Now that would be poetic justice.

ONE MORE THING

– Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to six inches of topsoil and the fact it rains.

– The bishop visited our church last Sunday. But I don’t think he’s a real bishop. I never once saw him move diagonally.

– I got my wife to help me put some posts in the ground for our new fence. I got her a new hammer and said “When I nod my head, hit it.” Don’t remember much after that.

Thanks for reading again this week. Avoid soreheads, laugh a little, and always question authority.

“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. com.