Jury Acquits Tulsa Officer Betty Shelby in Shooting Death of Terence Crutcher

[marv2]

Amazing!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jury-acquits-tulsa-officer-shooting-death-terence-crutcher-n761206

[splanky]

Sorry I didn't see earlier that somebody here was also watching this,
Marv...Anyway, it doesn't matter that we've had a black man in the
White House. It doesn't matter that there exist laws on the books
to protect people of color from abuse and discrimination. It doesn't
even matter that there many white champions of black cultural
contributions and causes. This is still America. Black and white here, never truly equal. The only magic words needed for any police officer
[[or sometimes private citizen) to say to get away with cold blooded
murder of any black person are "I was in fear for my life." Any other
circumstances become irrelevant. The worst thing is most are coming
to accept it...

[marv2]

Sorry I didn't see earlier that somebody here was also watching this,
Marv...Anyway, it doesn't matter that we've had a black man in the
White House. It doesn't matter that there exist laws on the books
to protect people of color from abuse and discrimination. It doesn't
even matter that there many white champions of black cultural
contributions and causes. This is still America. Black and white here, never truly equal. The only magic words needed for any police officer
[[or sometimes private citizen) to say to get away with cold blooded
murder of any black person are "I was in fear for my life." Any other
circumstances become irrelevant. The worst thing is most are coming
to accept it...

We/I can never accept this!

[Jerry Oz]

Sorry I didn't see earlier that somebody here was also watching this,
Marv...Anyway, it doesn't matter that we've had a black man in the
White House. It doesn't matter that there exist laws on the books
to protect people of color from abuse and discrimination. It doesn't
even matter that there many white champions of black cultural
contributions and causes. This is still America. Black and white here, never truly equal. The only magic words needed for any police officer
[[or sometimes private citizen) to say to get away with cold blooded
murder of any black person are "I was in fear for my life." Any other
circumstances become irrelevant. The worst thing is most are coming
to accept it...
This is 100% right. Let's change the name to AmeriKKKa, because that's what it is. You have a large portion of this country's citizens who voted for a race-baiting, dog whistle-blowing, mad man and another large portion who thinks that it's okay to waste a vote to prove a point. Don't get me wrong, Hillary Clinton was a candidate who was very flawed.

But when you let a dangerous candidate win because you personally don't care for the only one who can stop him, then there's something wrong. And if that sounds like a strong opinion, consider it from the standpoint of the people who are being deported after living here, contributing to society, and obeying laws for the past 20 years.

Consider it from the standpoint of their kids, natural born Americans, who are now living in poverty and fatherless and/or motherless. Consider it from the standpoint of a Muslim student or doctor who is stopped from leaving an airport because of their name, even when they were born and raised here? Or people who are fleeing situations and were vetted for the past 18 months and now told that we don't want them because of their religion.

Think about from the standpoint of the record number of people who have been shot and killed by the police already this year, many of them unarmed. Or people who will be forced into bankruptcy or die when they lose their health care and have medical emergencies that they can no longer afford. Actions have consequences. If you were privileged enough to cheer when Trump won, I hope that you and your family are the first to feel the consequences of his election.

And it's getting worse. The same police department that killed that 15 year old boy who was attempting to leave the scene of a rowdy party is seen in this video tasering a man for literally doing nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmsuhb90uJw

[marv2]

There is this silence from most in America about police brutality. It's like it does not exist to them or they just don't care until it happens to them. Ever notice that many of the victims are vulnerable already? Every notice how the cops don't approach bad-assed gang members. Every notice when it is a clear cut case of murder by police, the response usually has something to do with more training.
I find strange that the police don't need extra training in how not to shoot unarmed white people.

[soulster]

Ain't nothin' gonna change. If anything, we've moved 50 decades backward in our race relations, and haven't moved an inch in curtailing racism. In fact, the goons are coming out like nothing else. They have been empowered by Donald Chump and his neo-klansman Jeff Sessions.

[Jerry Oz]

Ain't nothin' gonna change. If anything, we've moved 50 decades backward in our race relations, and haven't moved an inch in curtailing racism. In fact, the goons are coming out like nothing else. They have been empowered by Donald Chump and his neo-klansman Jeff Sessions.

Welcome back! I've been missing you around here.

[Jerry Oz]

Raw: Cincinnati police shoot man armed with 'very realistic-looking firearm'
NY Daily News

Shaun King
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, February 19, 2016, 2:54 PM

You couldn't make up a clearer double standard between the realities black men and white men often face when confronted by American police.

Cincinnati police on Tuesday were called to a home to investigate an assault. When they arrived in Mount Healthy to investigate they were met by 26-year-old Christopher Laugle, who pulled a gun out and pointed it at police, who have since openly admitted that they "felt threatened" and "did not know the gun was fake."

Police peacefully arrested Laugle after he resisted and in his mug shot, he doesn't appear to have a scratch. Simply charged with "menacing," his bond was set at the low, low price of $2,000.

Christopher Laugle, 26, was arrested by Cincinnati cops after pointing a fake gun at officers on Wednesday.

Laugle is the white man in this story, and his fate was entirely different than that of Paul Gaston.

Gaston, a 37-year-old Cincinnati man, had just been in a serious car accident. Witnesses called 911 on Wednesday after witnessing Gaston "stumble" out of a pickup truck he had been driving before crashing into a telephone pole.

We have no idea if Gaston was injured or concussed from the accident, but when police found him 650 feet from the crash scene and ordered him to the ground, he followed their initial orders, but appeared to be confused.

Video taken by bystanders shows Gaston on his knees, surrounded by police with guns drawn, putting his hands in the air. After lying on the ground for a moment, he comes back to his knees and is immediately killed in a hail of gunfire from three different officers.

Police claim Gaston appeared to reach for a gun in his waistband — but, like the object Laugle pointed at police, it totally fake.

Paul Gaston, a 37-year-old who had just been in car crash, was gunned down by Cincinnati police officers when he allegedly reached for a fake gun in his waistband.

Nonetheless, in the eyes of the law a black man in a car accident who makes a motion toward a gun is apparently far more threatening than the white man being investigated for a felony who points one directly at the police.

Why is this?

What caused police in the same city, on the same day, to determine they must use lethal force with the black man but merely take the white man into custody?

Now, in the endless loops of press conferences being held in Cincinnati, the police chief and others are bringing out the fake gun possessed by Gaston and showing just how real it looked to justify the actions of the officers. The inference is that they had no choice but to gun him down.

Maybe that'd be a little more believable if they didn't teach us the exact opposite lesson with Laugle just a few hours earlier. He also had a gun that officers believed to be real and he pointed it directly at them.

But he was white, and in America that changes everything. Laugle was given a break, the benefit of the doubt and a degree of humanity that Gaston never got.

The two incidents and their differing outcomes highlight the different police attitudes towards black and white men.

This shocks no one, but seeing it unfold this way should be instructive to us all. The racial double standard in America is real.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-cincinnati-cops-reveal-double-standards-black-men-face-article-1.2537271

[soulster]

Welcome back! I've been missing you around here.
Thanks! I explained why I took a break in the Sgt Pepper thread.