As might be expected, leftwing pro-criminal agitators in Jacksonville are taking advantage of the Memphis police shooting to promote their agenda.

A few demonstrated last week demanding a police review board in the city, which is a favorite liberal device to make law enforcement more difficult.

One said there would be an effort to put the issue on the ballot, which would create a lot of publicity but likely fail.

The local “protest” included people holding signs and making statements that sought to incite violence by contending that police shootings were racist, and indeed evidence of the phantom “systemic racism” often alleged by liberals.

That claim falls apart in the case of the Memphis shootings, where everyone involved had black skin.

That incident also weakens the call for a police review board and “justice.” The five officers involved were fired and arrested almost immediately.

In the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office database of police shooting from July 2, 2015, to Jan. 1, 2020, there were 47 fatal police shootings listed.

Of those, 26 were suspects with black skin shot by officers (one or more) with white skin. The others, three Hispanics and 18 people with white skin, were shot by two or more officers of various races.

Only one female, white, was shot and killed. Only five were traffic related.

All those killed were armed with various kinds of weapons and, presumably, resisting arrest although the database does not show that.

The Sheriff’s Office, however, does an annual report of cases of resisting arrest. The most recent is from 2021.

In that year, 451 people resisted arrest by the police, and 388 of them reported an injury as a result, mostly scratches and bruises. Only four were fatally injured (1 percent).

Also during that year, there were investigations into 69 allegations of unnecessary use of force.

None were sustained.

There is a Professional Oversight Unit that conducts investigations of allegations against the police, and the State Attorneys Office also reviews allegations of criminal activity or misconduct by police officers.

There is no need for a group of citizens who are unfamiliar with the law or police procedure to review such cases. In cities where this is done the “review” almost always results in agreement with the police actions or political speeches by people who want to defund or otherwise hamper law enforcement, which favors the criminal element.

The liberal lie is that Americans with black skin are subject to being stopped in traffic for no reason, then shot and killed for no reason. The truth is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the person killed is resisting arrest and refusing to obey lawful orders of the police.

In the rare case where this is not true, the officers involved are arrested and tried like any other person. There is no need, therefore, for burning and looting cities or marching while chanting “justice.”