Pop Quiz: Who Is Andy Probst?

Hint: You wouldn't have any trouble if I asked, "Who is George Floyd?"

I won’t go over the details of the George Floyd homicide since they’ve been rehashed in the media a thousand times. In brief, Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin, a white policeman in Minneapolis. Chauvin was convicted of murder and sentenced to a very long prison term. Some conservatives believe that Chauvin’s conviction is open to question, given that Floyd had dangerous and illegal drugs in his system that might have been responsible or partly responsible for his death. I suppose that argument can be made, but I don’t buy it. Chauvin was convicted by a jury on essentially undisputed evidence that he put a lethal amount of pressure on a prone Floyd’s neck and kept it there long after Floyd had stopped resisting. It hardly takes a biased or intimidated jury to conclude that that was murder in some degree. Chauvin’s actions knowingly created a risk of unjustified death. He knew or should have known better, and he has himself to blame.

Chauvin’s conviction is one thing. Turning Floyd — a small time drug dealer — into a national hero is something else, still less turning him into the poster boy for the notion that the most risible cause of the deaths of black men is the murderous bent of whites, and white police in particular.

That notion was peddled by the MSM and the culture generally for months after Floyd’s killing, although it was seldom put in those exact words. It was conveyed more-or-less by innuendo and implication. But for however it was conveyed, it was and is false — merely the latest of incessant Leftist attempts to portray the police as soft-core (and sometimes not so soft-core) racist thugs, possibly the foremost menace America presents to the right of black people to live in peace and safety.

That idea is, as noted, false, but more than merely false. It’s poisonous, as it is full well intended to be, and it’s the opposite of the truth. By a huge measure, the main danger to the lives of black men is other black men. Almost all murder is intra-racial. To the small extent it’s inter-racial, blacks kill whites far more often than whites kill blacks (I think about three or four times as often, but the exact statistics are — what a surprise! — hard to track down).

Which brings me to the question in my pop quiz: Who is Andy Probst?

It’s a good guess that the number of people who’ll know the answer is about a hundredth the number who know about George Floyd. Andy Probst’s murder was a one-day story, if that, then promptly buried by the same MSM that continues on and on and on with the Amerika Stinks anthem featuring Floyd.

To answer the quiz: Andy Probst was a 64 year-old white man, a retired policeman, who was riding his bike one day, minding his own business, when he was spotted by two teenagers “of color” and run down from behind and killed for the sport of it. But the “kids,” as they are certain to be called by the press and the defense bar, knew a little something about the system. As the New York Post reports:

The teen driver who allegedly mowed down a retired police chief in a fatal hit-and-run told Las Vegas police he would be back on the streets in under a month, according to a report.

Jesus Ayala is accused of driving a stolen Hyundai Elantra on Aug. 14 along with Jzamir Keys, 16, and deliberately crashing into and killing Andreas “Andy” Probst, 64, who had been riding his bike, a disturbing video showed.

Ayala, who just turned 18, was arrested hours after Probst was killed and told the police while in custody that he wouldn’t be locked up for long.

“You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,” Ayala told the cops, according to KLAS.

“It’s just ah, [expletive] ah, hit-and-run — slap on the wrist.”

This is the first time I had reason to believe that teenagers in Las Vegas knew about George Gascon and Larry Krasner, but I guess I should know by now that the younger generation does keep up.

More broadly, when consequences start to disappear, that is going to be picked up in the culture, and the youth culture too (or perhaps the youth culture especially). And consequences are disappearing at a rapid rate in, for one example, neighboring California, where unpunished (indeed, at this point almost unremarked) vagrancy, drug use and daily, massive retail theft have all but taken over in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The video allegedly recorded by Keys in August captured the moment the stolen car plowed into the back of Probst while the two teens laughed, saying, “Hit his ass.”

I can’t wait for the defense lawyer’s bought-and-paid-for shrink to tell the court how “Hit his ass” is actually “a youthful cry for help” by two “kids” who just need compassion and “a second chance.”

Just don’t be riding your bike when they get it.

Probst was tossed over the hood of the vehicle and left to die.

Mr. Keys’ mother was unimpressed:

“My son’s side of the story will be told, ‘the truth,’ not the inaccuracies the media will try to portray,” Keys’ mother said in a text to the station.

Only it’s all on tape. Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes! Their defense lawyers (whose fees you will provide) will set us straight, honest. And if you don’t believe them, you’re a racist.

The death penalty will not be sought in either case because under Nevada law, they face 20 years to life in prison if they are convicted before they turn 18 years old.

Let me try to edit that: “The death penalty will not be sought in either case because we have lost our minds and our spine.”

George Floyd is a media darling because he could be turned into the icon of American racism and brutality. Andy Probst is a nobody, a piece of human garbage, because he puts the lie to this narrative and — let’s just come out and say it — because he’s a white ex-cop. Remember this the next time (like tomorrow) some liberal wants to lecture you about compassion.