Mayor Quinton Lucas Parsing

When being Quintonian is too Clintonian: KC Mayor Quinton Lucas, please stop parsing

During his appearance on MSNBC Tuesday night, the chyron under Quinton Lucas said, “Kansas City, MO mayor says staffer gave green light for Operation Legend without his knowledge.”

That is what he says — sort of. Though as always with Lucas, it’s more complicated than that, because there are levels of knowing, and shades of green lights.

So he did know, but only fuzzily. He did say yes, but only in passing, without knowing what he was approving. And cannot really be seen as having thrown his staff to the hyenas when he said they got out ahead of him, because there’s a sense in which that’s true, too. Got it?

I don’t, because he can’t both have learned about Operation LeGend on Twitter, along with the rest of the world, and also have gotten a heads-up the day before.

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My Response to Quinton Lucas Parsing

Mayor Lucas seeing things in shades is not a problem unless trying to deceive. The fact that Quinton Lucas can say, Black Lives Matter, also I support police, is an act of political courage, not parsing. That is not to say that everything done in the name of BLM is supportable and that every police action is fair and non-biased.

It should be evident that Black Lives Matter means more than just ending police violence against African Americans. It should be that in all areas of society, Black Lives Matter to “US” and that as the only black student in most classes, in a privileged private school, that a young African American student does not feel they have to hold it close the vest. They can be authentic and express who “THEY” are not what someone expects. The same should be valid for everyone, and sadly, it is not true.

It should also be evident that police do many great things, and the actions of a few do not define people who risk their lives every day for us as a whole. It is true, a rotten apple will spoil the whole bunch, but that does not mean that the bunch has gone bad, it means you need to find the rotten apples. Police need to work towards a fairer, less violent, and safer world, where police action is based, not the color of one’s skin or identity, but what is appropriate for the situation.

That said, police have a difficult job, and mistakes will inevitably happen. Every effort to have appropriate training and drills to have a good result and minimize errors is required. When a situation is tense, and a mistake in judgment does happen, hopefully, that mistake is not fatal to either the citizen or the police.

So in both cases, with BLM and Policing, there are shades of grey, not black and white. So recognizing this is not parsing but a rational view of reality.