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COLUMBUS, Ga. — “Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.” — Gustave Flaubert, author of Dictionary of Received Ideas, in a letter to Louis Bouilhet, 1850.
During the city council meeting held on Feb. 28, 2023, several speakers grotesquely made illogically-spurious claims of ‘racism’ to excuse the well-documented failures of police chief Freddie Blackmon’s poor leadership, lack of communication, lack of transparency, and strategic ineptitude.
One of those claims was ironically the opposite of what the crowd’s political camp had been advocating for the past several years.
While simultaneously claiming that Blackmon has not failed in his role as police chief, several speakers claimed that the reason for his failure was because his department had been ‘defunded’ by the ‘racist’ city officials who dictate his budget.
That statement is so objectively false and illogical that we’ll have to break it down piece by piece. We’ll start from the broad, low-hanging fruit and converge downward in specificity to the nitty-gritty technical details, ultimately arriving at the department’s actual cited budget during Blackmon’s tenure as chief.
Here we go.
BUT YOU SAID HE HASN’T FAILED?
As we’ve hinted at already, the claim is first debunked by its own illogical wording which contradicts itself. Ask yourself: how can Blackmon’s failure be blamed on anything if — as you have so claimed — he has not failed? If he has not failed, — as you so have claimed — then it cannot, therefore, be blamed on his budget nor anything else.
Do we see the illogical contradiction?
DIDN’T YOU WANT TO DEFUND THE POLICE?
As any non-troglodytic American is painfully aware, the past three years have been filled with cries from far- left-wing activists who believe that ‘defunding the police’ would somehow increase national prosperity. We have all heard these ill-informed and senseless statements that contradict the known academic relationship between police presence and crime. In the face of the well-warned hometown results of these ridiculous philosophies, speakers flipped their own beliefs on their heads and conveniently claimed the opposite premise instead; they now claimed that the absence of funding was the reason for Blackmon’s failure, ignoring the years-long rallying cry of their political camp as their city now suffers a homicide rate akin to Nigeria’s.
Do we see the conveniently-illogical inconsistency?
DID YOU KNOW BLACKMON SETS HIS OWN BUDGET?
In perhaps the most embarrassing part of the speakers’ erroneous claims, it is not possible for Blackmon to have been ‘defunded’ by our city officials, as our city officials do not dictate Blackmon’s budget. As stated in Chapter 17, Sec. 17-14 of the Columbus Georgia Code of Ordinances, the police chief is solely responsible for the fiscal management of the department and — wait for it — preparing his own annual budget himself.
For those who read Sec. 17-4(a) and wrongfully conclude that city council somehow does not have authority over the chief of police’s competence, we would implore you to read Sec. 3-104 and humble yourselves.
We can also hear the fallacious peanut gallery now: “But what if they denied his request? You know they did, because they're racists!” (yawns in logical fallacy)
They didn’t, and we’ve got you covered.
DID YOU KNOW BLACKMON’S BUDGET INCREASED BY 40% IN THE TWO YEARS HE’S BEEN CHIEF?
It’s fairly difficult to assert that Blackmon’s department has been ‘defunded’ when his budget has substantially increased by nearly half throughout the two years and three months he has been chief — which it absolutely and undeniably has. In 2020 when Blackmon took over as chief, the department had a budget of just over $28 million. That number grew to $33.8 million in 2021, and again to $39.4 million in 2022. Even with an insane 40% increase in the department’s budget over two years, Blackmon still has not been able to do his job. He has eroded the department while having 40 cents more for every dollar he started with — but please, do continue to claim how he was ‘defunded’ despite this 40% budgetary increase.
DID YOU KNOW THAT A CONCLUSION IS BASED ON THE VALIDITY OF YOUR PREMISES?
It is unfortunate that the speakers at our city’s recent council meeting were not familiar with the logical requirements of a syllogism, though we are happy to provide a brief explanation herein for their future endeavors. One example of how a logical syllogism works is through the following:
All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
There are two premises that are assumed to be true, and therefore the conclusion is also true. Since all men are in fact mortal, and since Socrates was a man, we can therefore conclude that Socrates was in fact mortal.
Now, understanding the relationship between the premises and conclusion of a syllogism, consider the claims made by speakers at our recent city council meeting:
Chief Blackmon was defunded; Being defunded caused Blackmon’s failure; Therefore, you are a racist.
Premise One: “Chief Blackmon was defunded.” Blackmon’s departmental budget increased by 40% from 2020-2022. Premise one is false.
Premise Two: “Being defunded caused Blackmon’s failure.” Blackmon’s department was not defunded and therefore cannot be the cause of his failure. Premise two is false.
Conclusion: “Therefore, you are a racist.” Premises one and two are both false, therefore the conclusion drawn therefrom is not logically supported. The conclusion is false.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It’s probably a good idea to not go around calling everyone a ‘racist’ when your own claims could be debunked by a tenth-grade debate club.
Yet here we are.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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