Marv, they don't listen. "All Lives Matter" and "Blue Lives Matter" are different ways to tell us to f*** ourselves if we don't like the fact that we're second-class citizens.
You know and so do I. I'm not paying second class taxes, so I'll be damned if I'll be silent when some civil servant who's paid by my sweat is going to abuse me or my family. I worry so much about my nephews [[thank God I don't have kids) who are all good young men but all of whom have had the experience of being stopped for bogus reasons. And that's why voices need to be heard. Last week, I came to the sad realization that I will not see a colorblind America in my life time. That's depressing and it's something that I will see improve before I go.
How do you get the system to change so that cops that murder unarmed citizens are prosecuted? Are "Black Lives Matter" marches going to be enough? [And just to clear up any confusion, if I were living over there, I'd be joining the marches.]
And Jerry, the only reason I suggested "All Lives Matter" as a possible non-violent way forward is that by its neutrality surely it would be a step on the road to achieving the colour blind America you and I would like to see.
I understand, 144man. It's just that the people over here who use that phrase don't seem to care much when the police also kill White people, the disabled, or the elderly. They use it to frame the Black Lives Matter movement as a group of racist malcontents. It has deeply racist connotations [[along with Blue Lives Matter) and exists only to rebuke the calls for change.
In my opinion, the system will only change when BLM alligns with the growing progressive movement and mobilizes the inner cities to register 80% or more voters and they vote in a bloc that puts their candidates in local offices, starting with mayoral offices. The second thing that needs to happen is for affected citizenry and its sympathetic fellow citizens use their money wisely to force large companies [[tentpole local corporations) to go on record as stakeholders in the call for equality. The only things that effect change in the US are money and votes.
Thanks for the explanation, Jerry.
I am happy to be living in a country where the police are rarely armed, and there are sensible gun laws.
One of my nephews is 33 years old. He told me last week that he gets stopped by police every few months. Each time they proceed to tear his car apart, trying to find drugs. He works on second shift and leaves work at 2:00 AM, so he's usually one of the only people on the road and that makes him easy to pick on. To make things worse, he doesn't live or work in high crime areas.
I worry about him and my other nephews [[in particular) because it only takes one moment of frustration to say something that some aggressive cop takes to be disrespect and one of my kids will be beaten and/or arrested for something that he didn't do. Black families in America have what is known as "the talk" with their kids, especially their boys. They tell them how to comport themselves around the cops to avoid unnecessary BS. Sadly, many of the cases of brutality happen to people who have been found to be compliant after body cam footage has been reviewed.
There has always been institutionalized racism in London's Metropolitan Police. This has largely been fought from the top down rather than from the grassroots. Even so, the disproportionate stopping of black drivers remains a familiar scenario.
Twenty years ago brother-in-law was shot when they responded to his apartment for a domestic violence situation. They said he reached for one of their guns. I can't question it because he can't speak from the grave. His girlfriend apparently tried to save him, but from their report, they beat her into a coma, from which she died two weeks later. So it's their word against their own word because they killed the two witnesses. It was the second time that the cop had shot and killed someone in the line of duty in a city where officer involved shootings are rare.
I can't say that their version of events is not correct, only that if we only take the words of one party in a shooting, that side will never be held liable even when they are. Open independent hearings would go a long way to quiet people like me who only believe that they are not above the law and they are not capable of policing or investigating themselves.
Honestly, I can't say that. All that I know is that no inquiry was held into the details. They may have told the absolute truth. But I've read too many stories about people reaching for cops' guns but almost none where they actually got one and did damage [[until the incident in the jail house in Detroit last month). I also hear about people "reaching for their waistband", which is the new version of the sudden move that gets folks killed. Body cameras could help resolve a lot of questions, but now states like North Carolina are passing laws that prevent the public from seeing the footage.
No transparency, no justice. No justice, no peace.
Jerry I believe they killed her so that there would be no witnesses. I know it is mostly a New York thing, but I am sure it happens in other places. This deal about preventing the public from seeing the footage is an effort to revert back to the good old days where cops got away with everything.
I wasn't able to find the Telegraph link but I did see a Guardian link. However, the Guardian's credibility went down a long time ago and certainly before it started asking for donations to keep it afloat!
My personal knowledge of a few London districts [[based on conversations with estate managers in charge of some large social housing estates) makes me think that the bias might have been taken out of context. In inner London, these housing managers have regular meetings with the police and it is clear that there are different priorities for different areas. Brixton, Peckham and New Cross in south London have significantly more car theft than [[say) Clerkenwell, City Of London and Kings Cross in north London. The far significant black population in the south would therefore give a distorted overall view of car stoppages. Conversely white people carry out almost all financial fraud! What is clear is that the police meetings do not indicate that London is on a par with what I am reading about in some of the towns in America.
In fact, the local housing managers here have few problems relating to skin colour....the problems today are more to do with an incoming population that are not prepared to learn English or integrate into a multi-cultural society but instead prefer to push their culture to the forefront and to exclude those of others.
The way you break the bond of brotherhood is for good cops to keep bad cops in check. The the code of silence is a major component of police culture. They have it in their heads that they can only survive if they trust one another, and that means no snitching. It's the street gang mentality where your fellow officers are your momma, your daddy, your teacher, your judge, and maybe your executioner. And, if you dare to break the code, you are ostracized and terrorized until you fall back in line, but, even then, that bond is broken. There are a lot of otherwise good cops that are scared to speak out. Many have kids to feed and bills to pay.
The BLM movement won't do shit! All it will do is cause cops to close ranks man lash out, especially since it's based on race. The good cops who do stick their neck out are deemed the bad ones because they broke the trust. They betrayed the family. Remember that line in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" where the sarge says that your heart belongs to God, but your ass belongs to the Marine Corps? Just switch out Marine Corps with police department, sheriff's department, or border patrol, and it's the same thing.
The world will never be color-blind. Racism is based in the fear extinction. It's that simple.Quote:
And Jerry, the only reason I suggested "All Lives Matter" as a possible non-violent way forward is that by its neutrality surely it would be a step on the road to achieving the colour blind America you and I would like to see.
The cops in Miami shot an unarmed man who was laying on his back with arms raised and his hands clearly empty. Their excuse is that they were shooting at an autistic man who was near him but missed. It makes no sense because of the angles involved and fact that they stopped shooting after hitting the "wrong" guy instead of continuing to neutralize the "threat", who was playing with a toy truck that looked nothing like a gun. These days, they shoot you if you might be armed whether you are a threat or not.
If Mae West was a cop, she wouldn't ask "is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" If the guy was... glad to see her, she'd just shoot him. Can you imagine how many people would be shot if X-rated theaters were still in operation?
San Diego police shooting: 1 officer killed, 1 injured
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/29/us/san...hot/index.html