Mark Twain said a lie is halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.  He might be astonished today at how that is an understatement.  No sooner is a young black person shot by the police than somebody, often Ben Crump of Trayvon false witness fame, seems to have an elaborate media story spread about the utter innocence of the victim and the homicidal mania of the police.  Just this week, we initially were assured by the usual suspects, like Donna Brazile, that Jacob Blake of Kenosha was just an innocent, unarmed young guy, trying to break up a dispute between two women.  He was even a good family man, with 6 kids, just like the Brady Bunch. And some mean cops just shot him, cuz' that's what they do.

A few days later, we learn the truth.  The cops were responding to a call from his ex-girlfriend, the mother of three of his six, to arrest him.  Seems Jacob had previously beaten her up, sexually assaulted her, taken her car and debit cards, and emptied her bank accounts.  There was a felony warrant out for him.  Blake also fought with the cops when they tried to arrest him, shrugged off a taser blast, and pulled a knife.  The Kenosha cops might also have been aware that Blake often carried handguns.  But whatever, BLM would have liked them to just let him run free and wait for some pistol prestidigitation before opening fire.  

Friday, we learned the sainted Breonna Taylor was neck deep in the drug trade of her old boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.  Police in Louisville had jail-house tapes of him bragging of her, about holding all his money, use of her car, and other helpful activity.  How were they to know she had a new boyfriend when they finally served a warrant on her house?  Or that new boyfriend had an itchy trigger finger and started shooting when police tried to enter?  It matters not, because lawyer Crump is on the job and smells a big settlement from all these cities.

In the case of Blake, it may be complicated, as the various baby-mamas will have their own lawyers, who may want the Wisconsin judge to cut them all a bigger slice of that settlement, at the expense of the never-employed Blake, and maybe even from lawyer Crump.

No matter — there are "victims" of police shootings popping up every week.  Every movement, rotten or not, needs it martyrs.  For the Nazis, they famously had Horst Wessel, a young street brawler, killed in the act of various acts of mayhem.  Dr. Goebbels had dishonest films, ceremonies, and even the Nazi Anthem dedicated to him.  BLM gives its "victims" the same whitewash treatment.  There is even a choral work wealthy classical concert-goers will be subjected to for decades to come.  Hand it to the Nazis: they could at least turn out decent music for their evil purposes.  Modern left-wing academic composers, not so much.

No sooner is the "hands-up, don't shoot" narrative of Mike Brown debunked, once the poor hamlet of Ferguson, Mo. is burned down, than it's on to the next police "victim" and the next riot.  After a while, bad guys like Brown can be slipped in again on the list of "victims" because who is keeping score anyway?  No one with a better memory than LeBron James, it seems.

Will this all end and peace return to our Republic anytime soon?  Many moderates will hope just getting rid of Trump will bring peace.  It won't.  The mob has the taste of blood in its mouth; it can bully blue-state governors and mayors.  Why not a Joe Biden, already proven so malleable?

Mr. Trump, too, is hard put to do this job.  His DOJ simply doesn't have enough lawyers smart enough, or tough enough, to go after all the perpetrators.   The Insurrection Act should long ago have been used in Portland.  One suspects that the Pentagon generals have already told the commander-in-chief they won't follow his orders in such circumstances.  We may ultimately need what our French friends call "La Réaction thermidorienne," where the revolutionary passions just finally burn out; they should know.

Presumably this could happen once lawyer Crump has made enough money, or better yet, been disbarred.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, Ky.