This Brilliant Comedy Sketch from 2013 Shows Absurdity of Leftists' Policing Demands
Most days, the term “beyond parody” does not even begin to cut it with the social justice left.
In recent days, however, “equivalent to parody” is apparently the ideological address at which folks who subscribe to leftist orthodoxy have decided to take up residence.
What was once deemed outlandish comedy is now a pathetic reality — and a newly resurfaced 2013 comedy sketch is perfectly painting that picture.
The roughly two-minute bit, which aired during the third season of black comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s breakout Comedy Central television show “Key & Peele,” depicts a farcical “crisis of communication” between a law enforcement officer and a robbery suspect.
It begins as any police apprehension might, with the officer, portrayed by Key, stopping the fleeing suspect at gunpoint and ordering him to put his hands in the air.
The interaction breaks down from there, as the suspect, portrayed by Peele, slowly stops complying with the officer’s commands as he inches toward his getaway car on foot.
From “do not move a muscle” to “do not open that door” to “do not get in that car,” every subsequent police order is met with resistance.
That is, until the punchline: The suspect reaches into the glove compartment and pulls a gun on the officer, forcing him to put his own hands in the air and allow the suspect to successfully flee the scene.
Worth a laugh or two, right? At least, in 2013 it might have been.
WARNING: The video below contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive:
Given recent indications that this is how police reform activists on the social justice left would like law enforcement officers to de-escalate arrests in reality, however, the skit is more concerning than funny.
In July, ABC News cited FBI data to report a 28 percent surge in officer killings over the same period in 2019.
Yet, as the embers of often violent civil unrest continue to burn nationwide in light of the officer-involved deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the shooting of Jacob Blake, it would seem the American left believes the only time an officer should discharge their gun is if a suspect has first discharged a firearm of their own.
The case of Blake is a perfect example.
Wanted for alleged sexual assault at the time, Blake was shot by responding officers after allegedly resisting arrest, failing to respond to two shots from a Taser and reaching into his vehicle, where a knife was later found on the floorboard, Fox News reported.
Blake had allegedly violated a restraining order by even visiting the Wisconsin residence of his alleged victim, which prompted the 911 call that brought police to the scene, according to the New York Post.
For left-wing establishment media figures and political commentators, none of those details mattered.
All that mattered was that a white police officer had discharged his weapon and wounded a black suspect. For some, the fact that the suspect’s children were nearby and the firearm was discharged seven times also happened to be important details — but only because they fit the narrative, making police look worse and the suspect look more helpless.
This is not the only instance of laughable left-wing anger at police use of force, either.
Far from it.
Just this past week, outrage resulted from the officer-involved shooting of Deon Kay, an 18-year-old black man, in Washington, D.C.
Kay, who Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham described as a “validated gang member,” was shot to death by officer Alexander Alvarez during a police chase because Kay was clearly holding a gun, CBS News reported.
Whether Kay was attempting to draw his firearm on responding D.C. Metropolitan police or simply throw it away is unclear.
But uncertainty surrounding the intentions of Blake and Kay with regard to the weapons on hand at the time of their shootings did not stop left-wing agitators from jumping to the conclusion that the incidents were an example of “systemic racism” in the criminal justice system and should have been resolved using non-lethal measures.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Both incidents prompted more of the protests that followers of the ongoing nationwide civil unrest have come to expect — which, of course, raises the following question: If these two incidents do not constitute proper use of force, what does?
Does the left really expect law enforcement officers — or, in their perfect world scenario, social workers — to present themselves to armed, potentially violent criminals as sitting ducks?
Last I checked, taking on the work of a public servant did not mean signing up for a role as piñata to modern society’s criminals.
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