Discuss police violence, the victims of police violence (including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), the Black-led protests against said violence, and related topics.
I just saw this story about Elijah Mclain a 23 year old black man who was stopped by police last year and was killed. The coroner was unable to determine a cause of death. Officers used chokeholds, and their body cameras only partially captured the interaction. It's a sickeningly familiar pattern at this point.
I don't remember hearing anything about this last year. It was horrifying to read. My first thought was that I couldn't fathom why nothing arose out of this young man's death last year - no charges, investigation concluded with no discipline of the officers. Then I thought about it some more and the most logical answer is that to too many people with power have been overtly and covertly valuing black lives as less than. If you're reading this thread that concept is nothing new. It's just one more example of what's been happening and it's abhorrent.
I am not new to evaluating police conduct.
I spent the last five years as a prosecutor. I left that job last year. I learned that I need to gather evidence to properly evaluate it before jumping to a conclusion. And this is one news story, not a full investigation.
But I can't for the life of me figure out what those officers thought was probable cause sufficient to detain him, let alone arrest him or use any force whatsoever.
I heard Larry Wilmore recently say that this "bad apple" bullsh*t excuse needs to end, that the soil is bad. When I read stories like this, and the story from North Carolina above, and dozens of others in this thread and all over the news, I have to agree.
I personally believe that above all else police officers need to have integrity. And while I know and worked with plenty of law enforcement that I think have unimpeachable integrity - I also knew officers I believed were sketchy. I never encountered anything like this in my work, but after so many decades of credible stories about corruption you cannot point to a few good officers and hold them up as standard bearers for the culture.
Dear The Simpsons, Texas realtors and Oregon/Oregon State Athletics:
No-one was asking for that. We'd much prefer the bigger stuff first.
EDIT: Or, to put it better:
Real problem: realtors don't show black people all the properties they qualify for. Fake problem: calling the master bedroom the master bedroom. Fix the real problem, realtors.
In other news, this is all getting very complicated and in some places, frustratingly dumb. It's going to be a very, very long summer.
Also, if anyone wants one black guy's opinion, "White Fragility" is terrible, just read Frederick Douglass and MLK instead.
From the author's Wikipedia page: "her thesis constituted a discourse analysis of whiteness."
What the actual...
I have a general policy of avoiding anything written about black history or culture by a white author, and that extends to anything written about how white people should interact with POC. I don't care how many degrees they have. Actually that policy is generalized to any group disadvantaged by white cis het society, but right now it is especially important to hear the voices of POC describing their own experiences and history.
Doesn't basic human decency apply here? A white person doesn't need a white voice telling them how to think if they can read about the black experience and apply a little empathy. I will never really understand in my bones what it's like to live in this society as a disadvantaged person, but I like to think I can see and help work on the real problems without getting all navel-gazy.
There are so many incredible black writers writing incredible books and other media. For myself, back when I started reading Coates it was a revelation. He is an outstanding writer, and he does not pull punches.
For me, it's that it turns every single interracial interaction into a f*cking HR meeting. It is the worst. I don't ever want to hear the word "microaggression" in real life. Ever.
I just saw this story about Elijah Mclain a 23 year old black man who was stopped by police last year and was killed. The coroner was unable to determine a cause of death. Officers used chokeholds, and their body cameras only partially captured the interaction. It's a sickeningly familiar pattern at this point.
The URL tag for Zwickle's link to the Elijah McClain story was messed up, so I wanted to make sure everyone could get to it here:
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/26/88403...
I actually came here to post a link to a story about this case that I read on another site. I had somehow missed Zwickle's earlier message.
I think it's great that the governor has taken this step, but I also don't remember reading about it until now. Why did it take ten months for a proper investigation to begin? Oh, I know why, it's because a whole lot of people had enough after another incident like this, and they started protesting all over the USA.
And the officers responsible for Elijah's death are still on the job.
Saw this version the other day starring the incomparable Daveed Diggs and updated by modern black writers-
I think those two videos pair well together. I never was really into "the fourth" as a holiday for many years. Always felt weird. I certainly won't "celebrate" it from now on. It's definitely a day to keep quiet and reflect.
I choose to celebrate the 4th of July as the day the South was defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg (and ultimately the war).
I choose to celebrate the 4th of July as the day the South was defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg (and ultimately the war).
That works!
I celebrate the 4th because I recognize the Founding Fathers, while very flawed, started something amazing that day. At their time in history there were few, if any, democracies in the entire world. Nearly every nation had some form of slavery and the majority of countries were ruled by brutal oligarchs. We have a long way to go but the 4th was the spark that spread to France then across Europe and eventually much of the world. Now it’s up to our generation to carry the torch further.
It does seem like a good day to reflect on both the fact that the creation of the US was a huge step forward, and that it's certainly not the final word in how to create a government. The Founders came up with incredible ideas for the time and made many new things possible, but their mistakes were numerous and terrible. We can improve on what they started, and desperately need to.
The US is under attack in a way uniquely dangerous to our system, with a vociferous minority that flat doesn't believe in the values that the country was created to spread. We're teetering on the brink of losing control to fascists, and it's quite possible that historians will mark 2020 as the passing of the American Republic.
Watched Hamilton last night.
I remember as a former history major, our profs (one of whom is the preeminent US scholar on the Holocaust) regularly counseled us to examine historical figures within the context of their time...as well as comparing that against our current knowledge/enlightenment.
Through that lens, the Founding Fathers were extremely radical. The King George character in Hamilton, while played for laughs, really does encapsulate the pre-1776 world where monarchs were to be obeyed because that was "natural."
Our country has many, many challenges to be overcome and injustices to rectify. I believe we can do that by channeling the spirit of those radicals of 250 years ago. They weren't "progressive" by our standards. But they started us on the journey toward a more just world.
Crim J reform/revolution has its roots in the American Revolution and my sense is we should use those same appeals to universal rights/fairness to improve our current situation.
I'm starting to wonder if things might not have been better if we had lost the American Revolution and stayed a British colony.
Brexit?
Yeah the irregularities with the warrant and the post office we knew. Now we know why they lied to get the warrant.
And apparently we now know why the mayor won't fire or arrest anyone.
AZ politics has been like this as long as I can remember. Real estate developers and mining interests run the state government and pretty much every city in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix. It’s revolting.
One example from the 1990s:
in June 1996, [AZ governor] Symington was indicted on 21 federal counts of extortion, making false financial statements, and bank fraud. He was convicted for seven counts of bank fraud on September 4, 1997. He was charged with defrauding his lenders as a commercial real estate developer, extorting a pension fund and perjuring himself in a bankruptcy hearing. As Arizona state law does not allow convicted felons to hold office, Symington resigned his office the next day.
AZ history is full of fine public servants like that weasel.
It would not surprise me in the least to learn that POC have been murdered by cops at the behest of AZ politicians on behalf of real estate developers. Remember, Maricopa county was the domain of sheriff Joe Arpaio for decades, and he famously loved torturing Mexican immigrants.
Are they doing a Longmire spin-off in Arizona?
Woman who accused Central Park birdwatcher of threatening her faces charges, DA says
The woman who was caught on video accusing a Central Park birdwatcher of threatening her will be prosecuted, the Manhattan district attorney said Monday.
Amy Cooper, the White woman who was filmed accusing a Black man of threatening her, faces a charge of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, according to the DA.
It's a Class A misdemeanor in New York so it carries a penalty of up to one year in jail or three years probation and up to a $1,000 fine. Either punishment is dramatically less than her attempt to have the NYPD execute a Black man because he caught her breaking another law.
Some hilljack asshole was just on the news here in NC. Apparently a dozen racist traitors (sons of Confederate veterans) got together and hoisted a 20x30 foot flag on an 80 foot pole down in Western NC, right along I40. And he said "take down our statues and we'll put up more flags along the interstate".
Time for a ban on all Confederate imagery. Should have handled this sh*t like Germany did. Gather it up and burn em all down.
I'm starting to wonder if things might not have been better if we had lost the American Revolution and stayed a British colony.
... it’s ego egocentric to think that way though. The French Revolution happened because of ours, clearly they had some things to work out, but in the end, they did. The Dutch too, while often not even mentioned as participants most of the time, were also instrumental in the war for American independence - they forced the British to disperse their fleet across the globe and even when they lost their colony in the Caribbean to the British Navy (I can’t remember which one) the captains decided to log all the spoils, and left Cornwallis high and dry at Yorktown without a means of escape because they wanted their share of the loot they had taken.
National Guard coming into Atlanta, GA
(CNN)Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday declared a state of emergency and activated as many as 1,000 National Guard members.
Kemp, a Republican, said the executive order follows "weeks of dramatically increased violent crime and property destruction in the City of Atlanta."
The governor's statement says more than 30 Georgians were wounded by gunfire over the extended holiday weekend, including five people who died.
Well that's a relief. The national guard will surely put an end to all the violence perpetrated by the white nationalists.
ಠ_ಠ
(cue rage against the machine)
Even APD's own data shows that, as of June 27th, citywide rapes, robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and auto thefts are down by 20% or more YTD over 2019 and aggravated assaults are flat.
So someone's not telling the truth and my money's on the guy who stole the gubernatorial race and has a vested interest in keeping the white voters of Georgia terrified of the people who live in Atlanta.
Well Phoenix PD shot someone and police statement is that he armed himself and refused to comply. Why don't they just release the body cam footage if this is true? They must know that they have very little good faith left. The longer they hod that info the more it looks like they are hiding it.
They released the footage of after the shooting from a cop who from the looks of it came in after they killed him.
I will link but not embed it. Releasing this on it own just kinda looks bad.
Well that's a relief. The national guard will surely put an end to all the violence perpetrated by the white nationalists.
ಠ_ಠ
(cue rage against the machine)
Now crawl amidst the ruins of this empty dream.
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