The logic of a lie: Syllogism on the Adams mayoralty in NYC and the police

Syllogism on the Adams mayoralty and the police

1. The police are a tool of violence in the interest of capital.

2. The police kill people.

3. The police especially kill black people.

4. Now the mayor and police chief are black.

What conclusion follows from this?

How about also:

5. Black people are victims of police violence.

6. Victims are not perpetrators.

7. Therefore, since the police are now run by black people (#4), and black people are victims and not perpetrators of police violence (#5-6),

8. The police are the good guys. You need not be afraid that they hate you and might kill you.

But this conclusion is false because it ignores the first premise, #1, which is that the police simply are an institution of violence used against people in the interest of capital.

It also ignores that #6 is plainly false. This is the biggest problem. Indeed, this may be the kind of assumption that is at the heart of political left-liberalism and what is wrong with it. This same thinking gave us black capitalism and Clarence Thomas. The most right-wing supreme court justice, at least until recently, is obsessed with the oppression of black people, which he claims will never change. (You might wonder if he wants it to.).

It also supposes tacitly another pair of premises:

9. It is happier to believe that the government is good and not bad.

10. If you can believe that, you should.
This is false, because it assumes that either (9a) the government is good and not bad, or (9b) it is happy to believe that things are happy even if they are not. And that makes no sense.

Very likely, now that the police can claim to be black, if they kill you, they will add to their lies (used to justify them) that you were a racist. The logic here is that if you are bad, they are good, and since police violence only counts when it is against black people, it doesn’t count if they kill you and you’re not black.

My guess is black people in NY will not benefit that much from the change of the regime’s face all that much either.