JOGGING WHILE BLACK

[rothschild]

I'm merely pointing out that there isn't much of a history of police being prosecuted, much less convicted -- for whites or blacks.

[BlueTiki]

The officers were fired and arrested quickly in this case. The question has already been asked-the statement has already been made that they were punished much quicker than any white officer has been.
Oy vay.

Are you going to watch the video. It's been released and I'm seeing people talking about it and some have described what they saw. I doubt I'll watch, the descriptions I've seen are appalling. 

It is horrid and disturbing.  It's a "snuff-film".

And this one takes the racial component completely out as the cause for police brutality and the killing of those who don't identify as "white".

Seriously . . . it's like watching a pack of savage animals performing a "hunt and kill".

[Duchess]

It's a "snuff-film".

You're not alone in that opinion. I'm seeing that expression used over & over again this morning as I read through the news and comments.

[cannongal]

I couldn't watch more than 30 seconds of it.  I guess they fired a sixth cop, too.  A white guy who tazed tyre, and then could be heard saying "I hope they beat his ass"  or something to that effect.

[MirahM]

Ralph Yarl

[Duchess]

Horrible story, horrible, and it pisses me off. Three times this week alone young people have been shot for doing something many of us have done at one point or another in our life. I once got into the wrong car outside of a restaurant, granted, I was drunk, but still. Jesus Christ. I've gone to the wrong address as well and not once did I even consider I could be shot! I'm so fucking sick of this shit.

[rothschild]

This has been happening for more than a hundred years. The only thing that's new is that it's getting media coverage.

Did the powers-that-be have an epiphany and discover their moral compasses? I highly doubt it. Does that matter? To me it does, because motivations reveal true intentions.

If black lives *really* mattered, you'd think that efforts would be directed to invigorating local economies. The reality is the exact opposite: local economies are worse than they've ever been, violent crime is worse than it's ever been, domestic abuse is worse than it's ever been, suicide is skyrocketing, as is drug addiction and homelessness.

No policy has greater impact on human lives than economic policy. Social justice activists used to appreciate that reality. The new activists seem to be exclusively focused on abusive policing. I'd really like to know why that is.

[MirahM]

Not the social activists I know. I get what you are saying. Wildfires have been happening for 100 years too-should I not mention any new ones that happen?

[rothschild]

Not the social activists I know. I get what you are saying. Wildfires have been happening for 100 years too-should I not mention any new ones that happen?

Wildfires are necessary for healthy ecosystems, so maybe not a great analogy.

Policing is ostensibly about crime reduction, but crime is directly related to economic disparity. Police reform in the absence of economic reform, IMO, is counterintuitive. None of the name brand SJ activists talk about the relationship between extreme concentrations of wealth and the quality of life for those who don't belong to the billionaire's club. None of them. In the absence of radical economic reform, police reform merely emboldens those predisposed to violence, which is precisely what is happening in cities all across America, where violent crime is skyrocketing -- which worsens the living conditions of the very people that are supposed to benefit from police reform.

This is why I gave up on liberalism 35 years ago. The policies that are enacted are always counterproductive regarding quality of life -- which is not to say that republicanism is an adequate alternative, because it isn't. Both are deficient when it comes to serving the general interests of society, i.e., policies that benefit the 99%. Criminally deficient.

[BlueTiki]

Both you and Mirah provided solid points .  . . both causing my mind to ponder.  Unfortunately, a cohesive response is not forthcoming, tonight (as for some reason I find myself inexplicably exhausted).  

Although disjointed, the ever present theme is somehow revolving around free-will and responsibility.  

Perhaps tomorrow morning, after sufficiently caffeinated, I will be able to make sense of what my mind is trying to resolve.

Quite frankly, I don't know whether to thank . . .  or curse you both . . . for this "brain splinter" you have given me.

Damned cage rattlers!  

[rothschild]

I obviously have no aspirations to joining the billionaires' club, so color me biased. Maybe even antisemitic.

[MirahM]

If black lives *really* mattered, you'd think that efforts would be directed to invigorating local economies. The reality is the exact opposite: local economies are worse than they've ever been, violent crime is worse than it's ever been, domestic abuse is worse than it's ever been, suicide is skyrocketing, as is drug addiction and homelessness.

So you see the BLM movement as only focusing on what the police do and not on any programs or bettering thier neighborhoods or making positive change. They must not really feel thier lives matter because crime is worse, people are killing themselves and getting addicted to drugs.

[MirahM]

This has been happening for more than a hundred years. The only thing that's new is that it's getting media coverage.

Did the powers-that-be have an epiphany and discover their moral compasses? I highly doubt it. Does that matter? To me it does, because motivations reveal true intentions.

I brought up wildfires, I could have brought up any recent news story such as climate change. Lots of things are getting more media coverage, media is reporting 24-7. Cell phones etc etc people are doing thier own news, tik tok, youtube, blogs.

Which powers that be?

The most recent incident is what I was talking about-a young man walks up to a house and gets shot. Ducess mentioned the other incidents that happened recently as well for people being "in the wrong place at the wrong time"?
Or is there some other force at work here?

Sure, all the most recent victims weren't black, sure there as alos a recent shooting where a black person shot and killed other black people.

But to just respond with "Oh its been happening for 100 years" and "People's moral compasses haven't changed" isn't offering anything to some of these specific incidences. None of us can obviously know people's true motivations or true intentions unless they tell us and aren't lying.

[MirahM]

Both you and Mirah provided solid points .  . . both causing my mind to ponder.  Unfortunately, a cohesive response is not forthcoming, tonight (as for some reason I find myself inexplicably exhausted).  

Although disjointed, the ever present theme is somehow revolving around free-will and responsibility.  

Perhaps tomorrow morning, after sufficiently caffeinated, I will be able to make sense of what my mind is trying to resolve.

Quite frankly, I don't know whether to thank . . .  or curse you both . . . for this "brain splinter" you have given me.

Damned cage rattlers!  

I find that hard to believe!

[Duchess]

But to just respond with "Oh its been happening for 100 years" and "People's moral compasses haven't changed" isn't offering anything to some of these specific incidences. None of us can obviously know people's true motivations or true intentions unless they tell us and aren't lying.

When he responds like that, as he is wont to do, I feel like he is saying it isn't worthy of discussion because it's been happening for 100 years. I'm old, but I'm not that old, and this shit still has the power to piss me the hell off and I want to get it off my chest.

[BlueTiki]

MirahM

I find that hard to believe!

No! I am being sincere.  Please don't think otherwise.  I was not being patronizing or sarcastic.

I'm still working it all through my simpleton brain.

(Sorry . . . somehow I screwed up the quote function)

[MirahM]

OH no! I totally knew what you meant. 100%

I usually have a difficult time responding in your discussions as I feel some of it (okay sometimes much) is over my head and I have to look stuff up, but its good for me! So I appreciate it. So I was actually tickeled when I read what you wrote. I didn't write all of that last night either. : )

[rothschild]

But to just respond with "Oh its been happening for 100 years" and "People's moral compasses haven't changed" isn't offering anything to some of these specific incidences. None of us can obviously know people's true motivations or true intentions unless they tell us and aren't lying.

When he responds like that, as he is wont to do, I feel like he is saying it isn't worthy of discussion because it's been happening for 100 years. I'm old, but I'm not that old, and this shit still has the power to piss me the hell off and I want to get it off my chest.

I'm asking why is it now getting sustained media attention, when for decades it's been ignored by the commercial press. What changed? Did corporate society have a spiritual awakening? Is that probable, given that greed is the primary characteristic of such people?

I think systemic abuse is 100% worthy of serious discussion, which for me means focusing on causes and conditions rather than symptoms, because treating symptons doesn't cure a disease. So I look at these sorts of problems from the perspective of socio-economics, rather than criminal justice, and see a problem that goes far beyond police abuse and gun violence.

In our society we're conditioned to equate health with an absence of symptoms. When a symptom pops up we take a pill to make it go away, which works -- seemingly -- until the underlying condition becomes chronic and we're forced to seek medical treatment that generally consists of suppressing the bodies ability to produce symptoms, removal of "bad" organs or tissue, etc. All of which is antithetical to good health. It's a model based on symptom management, followed by disease management that measures success by short-term survival.

Criminal justice is identical in many respects. Another model that measures success with the abatement of symptoms, invariably leading to chronic dysfunctionality in cities, communities, families, etc., and costs that increase exponentially to the point of bankruptcy. IMO, public health and criminal justice are both oxymorons, because neither system is designed to produce outcomes consistent with health or justice.

Mirah asked who I meant by the "powers-that-be". My answer is this: finance is where wealth and power are the most concentrated. There is very little that happens in this world without financing, so we have a tiny group of people making far-reaching decisions re economic development, policy development, resource allocation, etc.

Have you ever wondered how megacorporations came to be? Contrary to popular mythology, it's the result of corporate consolidation facilitated by debt financing, which in turn was facilitated by a centralized, fractional reserve banking system that has contol of the expansion and contraction of money -- of which currency is but one type.

https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-is-money/

Don't take my word for it...


“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

-- Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States


“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with a flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.”

-- Josiah Stamp, director of the Bank of England.





This is in reply to both Mirah and Duchess.