Watching the imagery, the public discussion, the official explanation, and the now collapsing narrative from the White House of the pictures of a Haitian immigrant being run down on horseback by a Federal Border Patrol Agent has been difficult, and plucks at raw nerves and memories of generations of Black Americans. A Black man running with what appeared to be boxed lunches in plastic bags (meals being provided for the unmanageable crush of human beings in Del Rio, Texas), brought into precise focus the incompetence, the feckless “leadership,” and the almost total absence of responsible leaders running the Biden administration, from the president on down through the federal executive departments and the Pentagon. My first thoughts were a scene from the movie “Django Unchained,” where they are catching runaway slaves, or worse, a real-life memory of the events on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March of 1965, when the last charge of the Alabama Light Cavalry was undertaken with mounted sheriffs and dogs to run down Black folks peacefully protesting the horrors and injustices of segregation and systemic racism in America. All these historical images of horror, whether captured in the film “Django Unchained,” or the real-life horror of events on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, were reflections of the Democratic Party of America. Joe Biden’s party. Few white people know who Edmond Pettus was. Former Confederate General Edmond Pettus, former Democrat Senator Edmond Pettus, and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Pettus. For all their effort, projection, and political spin, the Democratic Party cannot wash off their rich and racist history. Joe Biden has brought it all back into focus.
When focusing on the unimportant, instead of the important, challenging situations can quickly turn into unmanageable situations. Combined with weak, politically driven leaders at the top, the formula for disaster is firmly in place. In just nine months, the Biden administration is collapsing before our eyes. When there are incompetent political hacks at the top, the promotion process generally looks for and selects supervisors that mirror the leadership’s abilities and political bent. Secretary Mayorkas remains mostly silent on the growing chaos at the border. He snapped at a Republican senator in the recent hearing when asked a question about the border chaos that he supposedly works on 18 hours a day. Really, doing what exactly? Maybe the picture of that unknown Black man being run down on horseback will wake the nation up, and force profound changes and immediate accountability and replacement of so many incompetent people managing the president and supposedly running these federal executive departments and the Pentagon. Political decisions and reckless policies are costing innocent people their lives under Biden. The tragic and preventable deaths in Afghanistan were impossible to conceal, but make no mistake, many people are dying in this border chaos. Dying from dehydration and exhaustion, drowning in the rivers, and at the hands of criminals and monsters mixed in with the hapless people simply trying to come to America for what it used to stand for.
Think back a few weeks about how the truth surfaced in Afghanistan after the bombing of Abby Gate and the tragic loss of our Marines and Soldiers in the blast. The NYTimes investigative report on the drone strike was thorough and well documented. That press piece resulted in the CENTCOM commander being forced to speak out and address the calamity. Although he made some comments, sort of apologizing and verbally taking responsibility for the mistake, nothing happened. No one resigned, and no one was fired. Fast forward to the events of the past few days in Del Rio, Texas. The discussion triggered immediately after the picture of a Black man, from Haiti, being grabbed by a mounted Border Patrol Agent while running provoked a narrative of a whip being used. The image is burned into the minds of Americans now. It doesn’t matter that there was no whip. The image itself stands alone. An event so offensive and symbolic that it may trigger America’s gag reflex. The core issues playing out at the border are simply wrong and immoral on multiple levels. The image brought the chaos into precise focus. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is doing her part providing misinformation and aggressive counternarrative messaging. Her goal is to manage the narrative for damage control and political advantage. Ms. Psaki, for all her legendary skills at spin, cannot put this issue to rest.
With all this noise, what is really happening at the border and why is it happening? There is no policy in place to control our borders. Protection of our southern border has simply been suspended deliberately by President Biden. Horses are patrol tools given to the Border Patrol to cover difficult and hostile terrain faster and safer than on foot. You can see better when mounted in difficult terrain. They are not crowd control tools. Running down a Black man on horseback who is fleeing with two emergency food bags is an image that cannot be explained, managed, or erased. The optics are horrible, and must be addressed head on; with actions, not with political spin. The Biden administration opened the border and created and nurtured the chaos and flood of humans. Now it is quite literally out of control. A stampede of human beings. The Border Patrol is ordered to change the imagery of the chaos and make this go away. Remember the foolish order from the FAA to close the air space to drones so the public couldn’t see the chaos? Change this image! They have no plan, not enough properly equipped people, and no competent leadership. In the end the mission falls to the GS-6 agents on the ground who are desperately trying to do “something”, anything, in order to regain some semblance of order and control. These young Border Patrol agents on the ground, God Bless them, are the federal workers who will be thrown under the bus to protect Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden. Mayorkas and his leadership team should be relieved and fired, immediately.
Armstrong Williams (@ARightSide) is the owner and manager of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the Year. He is the author of “Reawakening Virtues.”