If you care more about "optics" than Jewish lives, you just may be an antisemite

I had missed this insane piece in The Guardian this week:

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to up the police presence in multi-ethnic neighborhoods to combat a rise in antisemitic hate crimes has received pushback from liberal Jewish groups that say the measures will further divide communities.

“This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like,” said Jews for Racial & Economic Justice in a tweet. “Instead of investing in restorative solutions that prioritize the safety of all communities, [De Blasio] is implementing a plan that treats abuse of black and brown communities as the answer to antisemitic violence. It isn’t.”

Jewish Voice for Peace said “the rise of antisemitic violence this past week highlights the urgent need to organize as Jews with our allies who share an expansive idea of equality and freedom” but that “calls for more police and paid security” were not a solution.

The group continued: “We know we have to address rising white nationalist violence – against Jews, Muslims, Black people and all people of color – while not relying on the very forces detaining and locking up and killing our friends, family & neighbors.”

David Klion, an editor of Jewish Currents, said: “Flooding ‘POC’ neighborhoods with cops is going to carry real costs, potentially even fatal ones, for tens of thousands of people who have no complicity in these attacks. I’m also deeply uncomfortable with the optics of cops functioning as security for Jews against POC.”

Black antisemites are only targeting religious Jews - and these groups represent none of those. So these non-religious, leftist Jews are telling religious Jews that their lives are not important because of the "optics" of having police protecting a group of people - the actual job of the police.

Has there ever been an innocent person of color hurt or killed by police protecting Jews? If the answer is "no," and I suspect it is, then these people are saying that protecting Jews is less important than a theoretical and unproven theory. Which means that they really don't give a damn about Jewish lives.

In addition, this is a slander against police altogether. To assume that all or most police are violent, insensitive thugs is disgusting. Let these people who pretend to care about Jewish lives except when protecting Jewish lives is in conflict with their hatred of police campaign to eliminate the police departments in their own communities first, not in religious Jewish communities.

There is a further issue with the reporting itself. These groups are far left fringe groups. As far as I can tell, no one who represents an actual Jewish community signed the JFREJ "pledge"  to forego police protection. The Guardian is mistaking fringe Twitter accounts for actual Jewish opinion. The vast majority of Jews of course support more police protection for Jews, but they aren't tweeting the obvious.

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