Honestly, I’m pleased to see that so few have lost their lives up to this point. (Not counting all the men and women we’re marching for.)
I like the broader discussion about race that is happening and yet I can’t help feeling like we’re losing focus on the immediate problem at hand. That’s largely down to the vacuum of leadership from the top down. I know it’s layers of deep, systemic problems but the immediate solution to frayed nerves should be meaningful policy initiatives on police reform. I like that Justin Amash proposal and I forgive him for that brief presidential campaign nonsense.
I think about how we came out of the Me Too movement with NEW RULES and I hope this will lead to something similar.
Generally, I can’t help but be optimistic and find silver linings in everything. It may sound perverse, but I like what I’m seeing on the news as the logical endpoint of Trump’s flirtation with racism as a means to power. We should have been rioting in the streets three years ago. This racist counter-response to Obama’s presidency does not and can not sustain itself for long in this melting pot democracy.
The ship tilts to the left, lurches to the right, then levels off into fairer weather on calmer seas, preferably with a kickass vaccine.
Oghier
3051
We’re going to have a Kent State incident sometime soon, or at least it seems likely.
Audio of the call with the Governors.
I’m listening to this now. I can’t imagine having to listen to this every day. He has no coherent thoughts, he just talks.
KevinC
3054
I know I shouldn’t be surprised and I’m not, but WHAT THE FUCK.
So no charges for the murderer of James Scurlock. In the video it seems pretty clear that Scurlock is trying to subdue an active shooter.
rowe33
3059
Is there another video besides the one that starts with 'this nxxxx got a gun, bro"? I can’t tell what the heck is going on in that after watching it about 10 times. Was the bar owner actually shooting someone before he got jumped?
There’s footage from the bar. Gardner is backing down the street gets in an altercation and falls or taken to ground then fires off two shots and two people take off running. Scurlock sees Gardner shooting and jumps on him and tries to restrain him in a headlock and just holds him until Gardner manages to shoot behind him, killing Scurlock. It was int he live press conference, I’m not sure if it’s archived anywhere yet.
rowe33
3061
Oh wow, hope that footage is posted as well. They need to be as transparent as they can right now, with such an inevitably unpopular decision on filing charges. If there’s some actual legitimate reason for him not to be charged, they need to spell it out in extreme detail immediately.
They’re going with he was scared for his life so defended himself. AKA the George Zimmerman defense.
I don’t think this from Barack Obama has been shared yet…
I just saw this.
Police and Guard says someone in the crowd shot at them and they fired back. Of interest, however, is that no one is clearly saying the dead man is the one who fired at them, no one has identified a shooter, there is nothing in the story about any gun, and no one has yet released any video of the event.
Edit: Firing into a crowd in response to a perceived attack from someone in that crowd is not really kosher, I would think.
Thank fuck Ellison is taking over as prosecutor on the George Floyd murder. It just so turns out that the autopsy the family had done because they didn’t trust the county does in fact support asphyxiation as the cause of death.
Fucking christ.
Also, the white supremacist in his third term as Minneapolis PD union head is in fact a white supremacist piece of shit.
He also said that officers weren’t allowed to “use gas munitions and less lethal munitions to defend themselves.”
“Given the right numbers, the right equipment, and your ability to use them [we] would have ended this Tuesday night,” Kroll wrote. “I know this because I’ve been in charge of three separate riot situations when the police on the ground had the ability to make the tactical decisions to effectively end the situation.
Yes, the cops not being heavily armed enough is the real injustice here.
Apparently LA’s curfew is 1pm, and designed to throttle lawful protest as well.
Typical order above justice crap.
Menzo
3069
The good news is that I’m sure the white people protesting the tyrannical quarantine orders several weeks ago will join those protesting today.
Right?
Cormac
3070
I thought they were the ones looting and burning down houses?
In general this is correct, but cop racism is a different animal than the rest. That’s why I’m so bummed all the focus seems to be on it.
Cops discriminate against poor people. Even if we root out the legacy racism, that poverty ensures this problem sticks around. You don’t have to look far to find reports of cops killing homeless people of all races.
Poverty can be the root cause for cop racism. The further we get from the embedded racism of our past, the more prevalent this will be. No doubt it’s happening today. Cops working certain neighborhoods will learn to associate poverty with black skin, even if they go into it without prejudice against blacks. Once that relationship is established, it doesn’t matter what economic class the subject actually is in. We’ve seen this pattern worldwide with many poor groups, separated by skin color, religion, lifestyle, whatever.
I believe that if saving black lives from violence is the goal, the popular focus for Black Lives Matters has placed too much emphasis on cop racism and not on the issues that are keeping the cycles of poverty ongoing. These cause most of the violent deaths, not cops. The media is huge culprit here, and it’s driving a whole lot of people. It emphasizes a face of evil that is easier to punch. This provides an outlet for rage, sure, but it misses the critical mark. All that energy expended for little gain.
Just my opinion, and I can see it’s not popular. Hopefully at least I stated it more clearly this time around. It can also change.
You have to define what “government” means, though. Wasn’t this about local vs federal rule and the ability to have a local militia that could potentially oppose a standing army? In that sense, it WAS against the federal government.
