The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

WHILE the meteorological hurricane season has already begun for 2021, there is increasing evidence that a new political and social hurricane season is just starting to get underway in the United States.

Reports are rolling in from cities like Savannah, Chicago and Cleveland that murder and violent crime rates are climbing alarmingly. Gun violence and even vehicular mayhem are on the rise.

So, inevitably, are the air temperatures, particularly in the northeast and upper Midwest.

Some observers point to the August 2017 race riot at a “Unite the Right” rally that shocked tiny university town Charlottesville, Virginia and most of the rest of the US as the trigger event for residual resentment and violence across America. Others feel the police murder of George Floyd 13 months ago in Minneapolis really ignited the national racial dry tinder.

It is both easy and difficult to blame former President Donald Trump for all the distrust and mayhem. It’s easy because he often revealed himself to be an almost nonchalant racist. His response to the Charlottesville riot, in which an innocent bystander was killed and several others injured, was callous, careless and casual.

“There are plenty of good people on both sides,” Trump famously said after the riot. This judgement was shared by very few others and may have started to alienate most independents from Trump.

But it’s difficult to blame Trump because virtually every serious observer has pointed out the US has long had a fraught history of race relations which has often been highlighted because it is in such contrast to the high ideals and lofty principles on which the nation was founded.

Trump was much less the cause for the current troubles than an effect of the nation’s history and present.

Meantime, gun control legislation is going nowhere in the US Congress, so it is still appallingly easy for people who should not possess firearms to nonetheless acquire them. And in the wake of the Floyd murder, serious people across the US are arguing for imposing more stringent curbs on police forces and sheriffs’ departments.

Some leftist politicians in the Democratic Party are running on a platform of either defunding local law enforcement or at least modifying or eliminating qualified immunity, which protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits resulting from their performance of their duties.

President Joe Biden and his advisors are well aware of the potency of law-and-order polemicists in the Republican Party. Many commentators have ascribed the down-ballot failures of the Democrats in last year’s elections to their inability to uncouple their candidates from the anti-police rhetoric of leftist extremists in their own party.

There has been a rash of retirements recently from the ranks of big city American police chiefs, and there is plenty of evidence that a perceived lack of popular and local government support for their efforts is a major factor.

Few would argue that recruitment for local police forces has not already suffered from the broad popular discord about the proper role of law enforcement. Exposing officers to civil and criminal liability for their actions would gut recruitment efforts everywhere. Police forces would need to lower their standards to fill ranks that may already be dangerously depleted in some areas.

Lower standards would likely lead to more police misconduct and resistance to training. Prosecutors are already uncovering the depressing reality that active-duty police and military officers were among the mob that assaulted the American capitol building on January 6.

Those who argue for police reform are likely to face severe consequences on election day, particularly outside major metropolitan areas.

Florida senator and former governor Rick Scott told reporters recently that “If you’re law enforcement, you’re going to be very cautious about doing your job when you see that the Democrats are never going to back you up.”

“Nothing happens overnight, but I think over time when people see that crime is way up, Democrats are going to lose,” Scott said.

Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary election may be a sign of things to come. In the Democratic Party primary Tuesday - whose winner will become the odds-on favourite to prevail in November’s general election - the strong early leader is a black 60-year-old retired police captain and Brooklyn borough president named Eric Adams.

In a vote that featured ranked-choice voting, Adams led several others whose positions on law enforcement were considerably to the left of Adams’.

Trouble and unrest lie ahead for the US this summer. New York voters seem to be preparing to choose a city government that would prioritize protecting them and their property.

Chasing the mighty dollar has its price

LeBron James warned us it would be like this.

The transcendent Los Angeles Lakers superstar told all who would listen – and many did – that in its insistence on as much seasonal and playoff normalcy (and TV revenue) as possible for the 2021 season, the NBA would be putting at risk the health and well-being of many of its most bankable star players.

James is now 36-years-old. He won the NBA title last year with the Lakers and Anthony Davis. He previously hoisted the league’s championship trophy twice with the Miami Heat, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

He’s also in his 17th season as a professional basketball player, and may be the most able and accomplished spokesman on contemporary social issues in pro sports today. James is also following Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson in amassing such a fortune from salaries and endorsement deals that he can talk credibly about becoming a pro sports owner after he retires as a player, as both Jordan and Johnson have done.

James was publicly concerned about players’ health because he and the Lakers won last year’s title on October 11, 2020 due to COVID-19 related disruptions to the league’s schedule. That was three months later than usual and meant that players would have much less recuperation time before the current season began around Christmas.

The NBA playoffs have now reached the conference championship stage, and as James predicted, injuries to key players have indeed played a role. In fact, injuries to his own running mate Davis doomed the Lakers to fall to the Phoenix Suns in the first playoff round.

Those Suns then swept away the Denver Nuggets and have started with two home wins against the LA Clippers in their Western Conference finals matchup. The Suns did this despite losing talismanic guard Chris Paul for the past several games due to the NBA’s COVID protocols.

The Clippers, longtime second fiddle in their home market to the Lakers, showed uncharacteristic grit in coming back to beat Dallas and top-seeded Utah to reach the conference finals. Now the Clips are underdogs to Phoenix, especially since their own great forward Kawhi Leonard is injured.

The perpetual second fiddle in America’s biggest media market also prospered more than their city rivals in these playoffs. The Brooklyn Nets, and their Big Three of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Irving, were seeded second in the Eastern Conference.

While the New York Knicks were upset by Atlanta in the opening playoff round, Brooklyn dispatched the Boston Celtics and may have defeated Milwaukee too if not for injuries to both Harden and Irving. The Bucks, behind two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, squeaked past the higher-seeded Nets to face off against the Atlanta Hawks and dazzling guard Trey Young. The Eastern finals began last night.

The Hawks had knocked off top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the second round and attracted a lot of attention for their smart, balanced play. They will have a tough time taking out the Bucks, who seem to have found their footing after previous playoff disappointments.

It’s certainly not business as usual this NBA season nor in the postseason. The Heat got swept in the first round by Milwaukee. The Lakers, Knicks and Celtics also bowed out in Round One. Denver and Utah were disappointments. Past championship franchises like the Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons were largely afterthoughts from the start of the season.

The Bucks and Suns are heavy betting favourites this morning to meet in the NBA finals. But the way things have gone so far in the postseason, it’s hard to bet with any degree of confidence.