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Do [Black Lives Matter]? The answer may surprise you!
negus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Why is no one talking about this? Two black men murdered in two days for little to no reason, one of which resulted in the most graphic livestream to date, and there's barely a peep here? Did I miss something? I hope I did. I searched the forum for the mention of these two killings and didn't find much except for a few passing comments here and there. Have people just grown tired or numb, or both? Is this topic just not worth discussing anymore? What has happened? What is happening? And most importantly, what should be done about it? What is the appropriate level of outrage here?
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I don't know what to even suggest, honestly. Some days it seems like the only realistic 'solution' to police department racism, corruption & militarization in the U.S. is to salt and burn the existing institutes and try a complete do-over.
Black lives matter, but depending on where you're at this shit happens to all minorities at risk of harassment by police.
Today has been difficult to grapple with. It's incredibly heavy and sickening.
Speaks for itself.
I'd honestly rather see a mass dumping-out of the garbage at this point. Take a given precinct, literally fire everyone who isn't just a secretary (but give them their full pension & shit so they're okay), bring in new talent and hire trainers from Denmark or Belgium to teach the new recruits on how to run a real, actual police department that functions as such.
The culture & institutions in the U.S. are just so corrupt / toxic that, as welcome as body cams would be, I am skeptical they would address the problem. The presence of cellphone cameras sure hasn't.
I think police departments want the body cams as much as the public at this point. Not all police are bad, and the good ones I'm sure are tired of catching a bad rap for all of this. The issue seems to be that legislation needs to be passed that states whether the footage is public or private (both have their pros and cons), and then the cost of storage for the data. That cost increases exponentially if the footage is deemed private and departments need to hire people just to sift through the footage and blur our anything private. A number I heard months ago said that a city the size of Minneapolis would have to hire more than 50 people just to do this. If it's deemed public, then there are complaints about all of the sudden the inside of your house being seen by whoever cares to look at the footage after you got something as minor as a noise complaint, or if the police were there doing a welfare check.
I believe MN just passed a bill labeling the information private, but that was only a month or so ago.
Other than not be black.
18 year old kid shot and killed for running from an unlit and unmarked police car that followed him into a cul-de-sac after a street race.
I thought it is because of how front facing cell phone cameras work.
The original video from the phone is flipped. He was the driver.
I believe the video was actually flipped, which is why it looked like he was on the passenger side of the car.
My Backloggery
Well he was white so the cop probably thought he was saying hi.
Gonna have to side with the DJ on this one.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Absolutely this. There may be some other factors in play, but what made Rodney King's beating "a thing" was that somebody happened to have a videocamera handy back in a time when that was rare.
And that's not just for shootings of unarmed black men, but for police abuse in general.
Oh for fucks sake. Dear cops: If you're standing in the road blocking the only way out, what the hell do you think is going to happen?
Hell under stand-your-ground laws the driver could have been justified in ramming and killing the officer- not marked as PD, follows you into a dead end and pulls a gun...
Police are usually exempt from Stand your ground. There were a couple of examples where individuals were convicted of attempted murder against a cop where they claimed stand your ground.
In most cases it requires that the officer has identified themselves, but yes.
Could it be that the Governor was quick to get the DOJ involved? If the sentiment is that an impartial investigation is guaranteed, that might temper backlash.
I'd have to read more about it, but generally fuck street racers. That doesn't mean the kid deserved to die, but fleeing police in a car and then trying to run them over is one of those times I don't blame cops for shooting if everything is done to try to resolve things and fails. The Fast and the Furious has made the street race some sort of romantic cowboy nonsense and it needs to stop.
They've been getting away with it for a long time, the country at large just hasn't been aware of it.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
There is no evidence they were trying to run the cops over; the cops were blocking their only exit, and standing in the street. Without identifying themselves, apparently.
Also, shooting at a car in that situation is useless. It doesn't stop the vehicle.
Because minorities (specifically black people) don't necessarily have fair representation on a local, state or federal level. Often on purpose due to redistricting and voter suppression. Places like Nashville TN where the story goes that they made all of Davidson County a metropolitan area because too many minorities and liberals lived there back in the 60s and they were afraid without all of Davidson county being allowed to vote for city officials (much of which is/was rural white racists) they may end out with a black mayor.
Shit's not going to change until the police themselves admit there's a problem, or politicians push forth laws that force the matters to be dealt with in a way where the police are actually held accountable for their actions.
Neither of those are going to happen any time soon because the vast majority of the country buys into the idea that "well they must have been doing something" that gets trotted out every single fucking time, as though being pulled over for a traffic violation means it's okay for you to be murdered.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Well, yes people are tired and/or numb. Especially if you're a POC/minority where your particular group has been attacked silently and not-so-silently for eons. It's sad that we're getting used to it and trying to come up with ways to comply when we so clearly see in the Castile case that you can do everything right and still be shot. If we even extend this further from Black Lives Movement for just a sec, there is NOTHING we can do as a people to prevent from getting shot. Aggressors constantly argue that we need to "Stay in our place" only for them to turn around and infiltrate those spaces and shoot people dead and find any reason to do so. And it's especially troubling when populations that aren't being targeted then proceed to do mental gymnastics and justify why those things happen. "If he hadn't reached for his wallet", "If you had a gun" "If the teachers had guns" "Oh you were licensed to carry but you shouldn't have moved cause how is a cop supposed to know you won't shoot even when you explicitly tell them what you're reaching for and let them know" "If you had been more polite" "If you hadn't run" "If you just complied" "Maybe you shouldn't have been a criminal in the past" "Maybe you shouldn't be walking around a neighborhood at night with a hoodie on" "Maybe you shouldn't be holding a toy gun in public" etc, etc.
No, fuck it. It's all bullshit.
POC/minorities are tired of being hunted and the privileged turning a blind eye and finding ANY way to blame the victims. And we're tired of stating that what we want is equal treatment. Tired of saying "Black lives matter" only for others to squawk and say "No, all lives matter", completely missing the point. People are tired of hearing it, but guess what? We're tired of living it.
It's plenty worthy of discussion. And we should keep discussing it, no matter how uncomfortable it is.
Well, for starters, contacting your local politicians and hounding them to do something is a start. They're there to represent you. The longer they proceed to sit on their thumbs and do nothing, the more it looks like you and the general population seem to want to do nothing, no matter how many hashtags you post. And vote. Please, please, please vote. It does make a difference. Really investigate your judges and politicians. They basically shape our environment.
If you're White, call out other White people who you see spouting racist ideologies (this obviously changes based upon the minority being attacked and what group you belong to, but for the purpose of this conversation, I'm just using White as a jumping off point). Sure they may be family/friends but they need to hear it from someone and it definitely needs to be another White person. You don't have to be super aggressive about it, but you need to sit down and have a conversation. Even if they don't change their minds, at least you did something. Also, listen to minorities and REALLY listen when they tell you something is up and what you can do to help. Telling them "It's not that racist (or even homophobic or transphobic or anything else)" is demeaning. You don't know. You can't even begin to know. So to state "Well personally I feel" let me stop you right there. It's not about how you feel because you're not the one enduring it.
There are gofundme's out there for victim's families. I won't link them because I don't remember the rules on that, and it's been awhile since I've been here. I'm too caught up in my emotions right now to go looking. I know some people can't take the time out to go protest, and that they have to worry about their jobs or kids or whatever, so go donate to organizations that can take the time to do those things, or can talk into politician's ears. It helps.
If you're a cop? FUCKING SPEAK UP ABOUT COPS FUCKING UP. I get that there is a brotherhood, but sitting there silent when you KNOW someone is fucking up is basically co-signing to the fucking crime. Say they made a mistake. Say the murdered someone. To waffle about that is just plain hurtful and further instills mistrust of cops.
And what is the appropriate level of outrage? I think we're beyond the point of angry and we're going into nuclear territory. If you're a minority, you feel helpless and if that helplessness continues it's going to get to a level where you're going to want to lash out. It's no longer going to be peaceful sit ins, you're going to want to do something drastic.
If you're not a minority, and you deem yourself a progressive person, or a person who isn't racist, or a person who sees us all as equal, then you need to start getting pissed because your politicians aren't doing a good job of representing you, and this is going to require you to take action so you get that accurate representation.
Because, much like false convictions and gun violence in general, it's a thing that most of the population can convince themselves they're at very, very little risk of. And they're right.
That's the flip side to the "this has always been a thing, we just have cameras now" bit. Which is to say this was totally a thing back in the 80's and 90's, and yet there was little moral panic and most Americans were completely unaffected by it. Even among minorities, it was something that influenced behavior (hence "the talk") but which, statistically, didn't actually happen to that many people.
So yes, it's much like gun control.
This, combined with about a century of established law saying cops can get away with just about anything if they can claim it was in the line of duty. That requires a level of political will to reverse that, unfortunately, is very hard to wrangle together. For anything.