Minneapolis PD Suspect Dies On Video While Handcuffed. FBI Investigating.

[Borderland]

I was there during the 60's. My opinion is that the hippies were a small fraction of the majority. The man in the street, black, white, and brown did not support their world view. The greatest generation's heroes and heroines were in their 40's. National mindset was law and order. Americans who could were fleeing cities and seeking prosperity in suburbs. They deserted the inner city and its problems. These were men and women raised by parents most of whom were born before 1900. Voting age was 21. Minority voting strength was diluted. Now we are seeing the "Establishment" endorsing ideas that had been heresy.

Never would I have dreamed that so many would be blaming police for stupidity of a handful. Many teachers, preachers, and youth directors have stood in line to fuck children. Believe me when I say that minority children have not fared well in this respect. Where is the outcry for this? Why all of a sudden are leaders standing in line to fuck cops? "Florida Man" is setting public policy. The thought processes scare me.

I don't think it's just cops that are the target, I think it's gov't in general and especially the federal gov't. Trump got elected using such terms as "draining the swamp". That to me means tearing down the existing structure in DC and replace it with something else. I'm not exactly sure what that something else is but I think we're starting to see what it's being replaced with, lots of riots and civil unrest. More demonstrations are being planned in DC and it may become the epicenter of protests and riots for awhile. Thank god for people like the ATL mayor who doesn't incite riots when she addresses the situation in her city.

I'll be talking to my gun dealer friend today. I'll ask him about his customer traffic. I would think that with all of the onerous gun laws we've had to deal with in the last 3 years that sales would be down but I suspect he isn't keeping up with the demand.

[blues]

Why, though?


I've never had an asian fight me, period. Yell, cry, roll around, but never fight. I have arrested countless Bhurmese immigrants, mostly for DUI and hit/run offenses, but some domestics and a few violent crimes like stabbings.

So my use of force against Asians is limited to handcuffing during my entire career, about 8 years of which has been street patrol.

Racism?

Different, by far, than community policing...but everyone I arrested over the years got the same treatment, whether it was just a matter of cuffing, fighting or being drawn on. Didn't matter what race or ethnicity.

Was it racism that the majority of folks I arrested over the years were South Americans, (predominantly Colombian followed by Venezuelan and Brazilian), and to a lesser extent Jamaicans and Cubans?

Was it racism or simply the fact that the majority of folks involved in narcotics trafficking and illegal arms matters in South Florida fell into those demographics?

We didn't pick our targets by ethnicity, I can tell you that. We went where the trail led. White, Black, Hispanic, other. Made no difference to us. Nor did I see disparate treatment in court, especially during the mandatory minimum and guidelines years.

[Baldanders]

Sorry, not just your opinion check out Professor Adolph Reed (set aside the connotations of his first name) or Thomas Piketty....

here's an excerpt of Professor Reed's thoughts:

"But, when we step away from focus on racial disproportions, the glaring fact is that whites are roughly half or nearly half of all those killed annually by police. And the demand that we focus on the racial disparity is simultaneously a demand that we disattend from other possibly causal disparities. Zaid Jilani found, for example, that ninety-five percent of police killings occurred in neighborhoods with median family income of less than $100,00 and that the median family income in neighborhoods where police killed was $52,907. And, according to the Washington Post data, the states with the highest rates of police homicide per million of population are among the whitest in the country: New Mexico averages 6.71 police killings per million; Alaska 5.3 per million; South Dakota 4.69; Arizona and Wyoming 4.2, and Colorado 3.36. It could be possible that the high rates of police killings in those states are concentrated among their very small black populations—New Mexico 2.5%; Alaska 3.9%; South Dakota 1.9%; Arizona 4.6%, Wyoming 1.7%, and Colorado 4.5%. However, with the exception of Colorado—where blacks were 17% of the 29 people killed by police—that does not seem to be the case. Granted, in several of those states the total numbers of people killed by police were very small, in the low single digits. Still, no black people were among those killed by police in South Dakota, Wyoming, or Alaska. In New Mexico, there were no blacks among the 20 people killed by police in 2015, and in Arizona blacks made up just over 2% of the 42 victims of police killing.

What is clear in those states, however, is that the great disproportion of those killed by police have been Latinos, Native Americans, and poor whites. So someone should tell Kai Wright et al to find another iconic date to pontificate about; that 1793 yarn has nothing to do with anything except feeding the narrative of endless collective racial suffering and triumphalist individual overcoming—“resilience”—popular among the black professional-managerial strata and their white friends (or are they just allies?) these days."

Please don't take this as trivializing the prevalence of racism - I think it's real and pernicious. As is sexism. And instances of police brutality (I take as real too - Chicago history is stained with the legacy of Jon Burge, and of one Democratic former states attorney named Richard M. Daley who likely covered up for him). But there are other issues afoot that Lincoln Park/North Shore Liberals ( I was born, raised, and live in the Chicago are) should consider.

Ok, I should have said "I`m too lazy to back up my opinions with facts"

Thanks!

I will add, in addition to "policing the police," attempts to increase empathy for non-white people via the education system are probably not going to do much either. My own experiences teaching The Autobiography of Malcolm X make me think it's possible that sort of thing can happen. But the teacher has to be willing to actually let students read and draw their own conclusions, instead of preaching at students "with a goal of promoting diversity." (With one class, I was explaining what drugs Malcolm was getting high on, and that turned into a discussion of the amphetamines that a good chunk of the class was prescribed. Which led me to ask "was Malcolm self-medicating for ADHD?")

But I really don't have time this morning to start ranting on "education" vs. "indoctrination." I think teachers should focus on making students capable of meeting their own goals, not imposing "good" worldviews.

[Nephrology]

The level of pushback you'd get from that would be fucking staggering. What kind of tyrant are you?

Muh rights are completely divorced from "and responsibilities" in much of today's society. Look at the results.

Yeah, that is the rub. I feel like the sense of civic responsibility my grandfather lived by is dead and buried in this country. It's really sad.

[Yung]

I guess there had to be some sort of hazing eventually...

I don't think it is a hazing. While I don't think you need to start from the beginning, the hard drift on race and politics away from protests/rioting/government actions started somewhere from the last several to dozen pages.

I think something a 'George Floyd politics discussion thread' fork like was done for the coronavirus threads would help a lot with keeping things on track.

[Borderland]

A podcast interview with the guy that disarmed the rioter that took the AR from the police car.

I watched that. Thanks for posting it.

If that type of security action was successful why don't the police adopt it using clandestine operators like this guy. Dragging these idiots down and leaving them cuffed to a sign post might be a tactic worth exploring..... "the grey man" that he referred to.

[Shoresy]

Yeah, that is the rub. I feel like the sense of civic responsibility my grandfather lived by is dead and buried in this country. It's really sad.

I don't think it's dead, I think it's been forced into hiding. My time on a FD brought me into contact with teenagers who actually wanted to be there (there was more motivation than just "ride the big red truck and smash windows", most actually had some real, deep-seated civic motivation) and changed my view on that point. There are committed people out there coming up in these communities (youth/teen/young adults), but participation is not talked discussed or encouraged, and is frequently derided, especially if you're not around similar minds (ie, other fire, LE, EMT types).

[Baldanders]

Muh rights are completely divorced from "and responsibilities" in much of today's society. Look at the results.

I think of that as the most important lesson in Heinlein's work. I disagree with quite a bit he had to say, but that idea makes more and more sense as I age.

We encourage criminality/malevolence/indolence at all levels of society in a myriad of ways. The payoff for those in the higher strata is often far superior, and they are rarely brought to justice. (Trump/the Clintons is just two sides of the asshole coin who get to play with other people's money and never worry about what effects it has.)

Ok, I watched too many episodes of "Dirty Money" recently, and I have been having too many fantasies of some "police brutality" for folks who are immune to repercussions. 😉

[Baldanders]

I don't think it's dead, I think it's been forced into hiding. My time on a FD brought me into contact with teenagers who actually wanted to be there (there was more motivation than just "ride the big red truck and smash windows", most actually had some real, deep-seated civic motivation) and changed my view on that point. There are committed people out there coming up in these communities (youth/teen/young adults), but participation is not talked discussed or encouraged, and is frequently derided, especially if you're not around similar minds (ie, other fire, LE, EMT types).

We have really followed the "rugged maverick hero" idea hard for decades in America. The hero cop who breaks all the rules. The superhero who dispenses vigilante justice. The company built by one maverick (dear lord, Gault is the worst of this), because labor is a hard of interchangeable cogs who should be grateful the true creators give them work.

We bought into the idea that people coming together to change things, or maintain a decent society is icky, maybe sorta communist. The unstated "end goal" of our current system seems to be a bunch of isolated, atomized consumers who bicker with each other over the talking points of the elite.

(Which is why this atheist is worried about America's vanishing churches. No shit.)

"No man is an island." "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

[RevolverRob]

I think every American should have to spend a year in HS/college doing weekly ridealongs, candystriping in the ED, volunteering with a shelter or social service-oriented non-profit. It might convince enough people that this is not somebody else's problem.

I concur.

Though I often opt for ratcheting it up to a minimum of 2-years civil or military service post high school. Importantly, with mandatory civil service, will come a mandatory 'boot camp' that in many ways will mimic military boot camp to instill discipline and order in the servants.

The level of pushback you'd get from that would be fucking staggering. What kind of tyrant are you?

Muh rights are completely divorced from "and responsibilities" in much of today's society. Look at the results.

The kind of tyrant we need.