I googled Jared Taylor who runs the amren (American Renaissance) site, as it seemed a little suspect to me. Here’s what I found.
I’m not going to quote any of his stated views here. Too much for me to stomach.
Officer Nakia Jones, thank you so much. Her video gave me the chills and I shared the exact thoughts. You swore to protect and serve your community and how dare you go into a community in which you know you’re unable to withhold that oath.
The video just popped up on my Facebook NewsFeed.
I have not watched any of the videos and probably will not. I don’t believe in watching another human be murdered, but I’m glad that they are out there. The videos at least offer some type of accountability (even if only in the court of public opinion) for what the officers did. I’ve read what occurred in the videos however and watched the men’s family members discuss what happened. When I think about it I can’t hold back tears. It is ridiculous that this is still a problem. It is not the job of cops to serve as judge, jury, and executioner. Aren’t they supposed to do their best to deescalate a situation and apprehend the suspect alive so that justice may be served? Horrible that black men and women receive the death penalty for broken tail lights, selling CDs without permits, walking down the street looking ‘suspicious’, etc., while these cops won’t even serve jail time. I was just reading about the Freddie Gray trial and how none of the officers have been convicted yet… Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the cops in Minnesota and Lousiana are cleared of their crimes.
Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, I am just struggling to comprehend these tragedies. It’s so sad that POC have to tell their children what to do if confronted by the police. They shouldn’t have to worry that their child will be the next hashtag. Simply unimaginable.
If you haven’t already take a look at this article about Philando Castile: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/07/07/he-knew-the-kids-and-they-loved-him-minnesota-shooting-victim-was-an-adored-school-cafeteria-manager/
"Rebecca Penfold Murray, who has two 5-year-old children at J.J. Hill, said Castile seemed to know every student’s name. He knew them, too, carrying on conversations about their classrooms and their interests as they made their way through the cafeteria line each day.
“When you see 400 kids a day and you can remember those details about them, I think that you really care about how those kids are doing,” she said. “It’s preposterous for anyone to die violently, but I am still unable to wrap my head around the fact that this happened to a person like him.”
She said that one of her children has a sensory processing disorder that makes it hard for him to make eye contact and show affection. But with Castile? Her child would fist-bump him, she said, and hug his legs. Her son felt safe with Castile, she said."
I feel like I’m living in “Groundhog Day”. There’s a mass shooting and everyone argues about gun control for a few days, then there’s a terrorist attack someplace and we talk about ISIS/Al Qaeda/extremism, then there are some black people killed by police and we talk about racism and police treatment of minorities. Around and around and what ever really gets done? What’s up next?
A photo meme is showing up on my FB feed underscoring the racial biases apparent in how many LEOs handle armed suspects:
On left side it shows a White pro-Confederate sympathizer with a hand on his holstered pistol while an LEO standing in front of him is visibly trying to calmly deescalate the situation. Took place last August at a pro-Confederate rally at Stone Mountain. Story about that incident is here:
On the right side is the picture of Alton Sterling after being murdered by 2 LEOs.
Top caption states “They are going to tell us he is dead because he had a gun and was a threat.”
Bottom Caption: “Remind them the guy on the left is still alive.”
Yes. sylvan. And isn’t it amazing how silent the NRA and their ilk have been about the deaths of individuals whose killings were (directly or indirectly) likely a result of their “2nd Ammendment right” to bear arms?
The silence is deafening.
It should be noted that the girlfriend of the Minnesota victim said the police officer was “Chinese”.
I just hope there are no riots over any of this. The Baltimore riots solved nothing and the police officers were acquitted.
And it’s not just minorities who are mistreated by police. There was an Orange County case a few years ago. A homeless schizophrenic man was beaten to death by police officers. His name was Kelly Thomas. He was white. The police officers were charged, tried and acquitted.
Question: do you know that his gun was legally carried, romani? Did he somehow make a choice by carrying it, legal or not?
Two officers were just shot in Dallas a few minutes ago during protests over the Minnesota and Baton Rouge shootings. No word yet on their condition.
I recently was at a conference and attended a session led by the Baltimore attorney who represented the family of Freddie Gray in their civil suit. I can’t recall the initial topic of the session, but the conversation among the attendees quickly turned to a discussion of police brutality and what to do about it. The reality is that science shows that both white and black cops exhibit subconscious racism towards blacks and are more prone to treat blacks with more suspicion and fear. Police departments can, and some have, provide training to try and educate police officers about this bias and its impact. What will be harder to address, however, is the cultural problem within police departments.
Almost all of the attendees of the session I was at were criminal defense investigators, many of whom had previously been in law enforcement themselves. Several said that they had left police departments because of what they had seen. When asked what officers who were opposed to unlawful or inappropriate police behavior could do to help change the system, they said that there was no safe way for someone to cross the blue line. “Snitches get ditches,” one African American former policer officer said. Attendees pointed out that many officers have minimal education and/or are recent discharges from the military without proper psychological counseling who are then sent out on the streets to protect and enforce. It seems that if we are to address this horrific societal problem we need to: pay officers more; set higher employment standards in terms of both education and psychological readiness; significantly improve training on hidden racial bias and conflict de-escalation; provide ongoing counseling and emotional support for, and evaluation of, the stresses inherent in the job; significantly reward and protect officers who speak up with concerns about fellow officers; be quick to take officers out of active duty and re-train or counsel for smaller infractions, rather than wait for something horrific to happen. Of course, all of these measures will take time and money. But to my mind, police officers and teachers are two of the most important professions in our country and should receive a lot more of our resources.
As an aside, these last few incidents do seem to suggest that having armed citizens makes police officers more fearful (understandably) and more prone to shoot innocent citizens. If our police force can’t handle having an armed citizenry than perhaps that is another reason that we shouldn’t have one.
My kids and I almost moved to the neighborhood where the MN shooting happened, and we are very familiar with it. We are all dismayed and heartbroken and angry today – how could this happen? This guy worked in a school, and the kids all knew him – how in the world will the school and parents be able to explain how this could happen? The MN governor certainly is angry, hopefully there will be pressure from state politicians to prosecute this officer.
@partyof5 I think there is a lot of outrage about these killings. My Facebook wall is filled with outrage – and my friends there are probably 95% white. There are many people who are very upset and supportive of the blacklivesmatter movement. Most people on this thread are very upset, and we acknowledge that there is something very wrong in our society.
I have no idea what the solution is. These videos are doing a great service, though. I know that people of color have believed that they have been treated unfairly for years – and now there is indisputable evidence for their claims. I suggest that everyone figure out how to use Facebook live video or Periscope.
@mom23travelers, that is a horrifying story. Thank you for sharing it.
There was a very short, grainy video that just came out from Dallas. It looks like a non-officer is down but it’s not clear and it’s not clear whether it was from a gunshot or something else.
Cops can look at homicide stats as well as some of the people here and arrive at their own conclusions.
It might be inexact, but my experience with police is that they range from Andy to Barney and the Barneys have their bullets in their gun, not their shirt pocket.
Anyone carrying, licensed or illegally, is making a choice. One they need to have thought through, for when they have an encounter with the police. Wise, would be to put your hands up and not give any appearance of being the problem. Much as some might want them to be, police aren’t social workers, not in high crime cities.
That said, there was no reason for Sterling’s death, other than fear. Shouldn’t have happened and it’s one more tragedy in a long list.
There are a couple of elementary schools prety close to where Sterling was shot. One of which we seriously considered for our kids.
I had a random thought, after seeing s couple of posts from local teachers, that I’m glad kids aren’t having to ride buses through all this right now. Although of course the kids right in the neighborhood are seeing it.
And the “white” neighborhoods (including mine) can just ignore it all. So sad.
“Question: do you know that his gun was legally carried, romani? Did he somehow make a choice by carrying it, legal or not?”
For Sterling in Louisiana, apparently anyone over the age of 17 is allowed to legally carry in Louisiana. (Insane, but you can’t argue the guy was breaking the law.)
For Castile in Minnesota, apparently he had an appropriately issued permit to carry.
I have zero interest in getting into a gun debate. There are things I’d risk losing posting privileges for but this isn’t one of them. I was just pointing out the hypocrisy is all.
The shooter in Dallas has been cornered. I hope beyond hope no one else is injured tonight. Too much bloodshed already.
Yeah, next up - some officers get shot. Now we discuss all that. All talk and nothing ever changes. Sorry, it’s irritating as hell, IMHO. It’s like we’re stuck on stupid.
I’m waiting for the NRA to applaud the shooting of officers in Dallas. Isn’t that the whole point of why it’s so very important we all carry guns – to protect ourselves from tyranny in the form of our government turning on us?
Romani is right, it’s very hypocritical. The NRA wants guns in the hands of nice white suburbanites out of a fear that the government is going to knock down their door and they can’t defend themselves. But in the hands of black people – well, that’s different. I’m just disgusted right now with humanity.
This line of questioning is reflecting the meme about racial biases in how LEOs handling suspects posted on my FB feed and that I posted earlier and attempts by some to implicitly blame the victims who happen to be Black or non-White.
Was this question asked or even thought of in the case of that White pro-Confederate sympathizer at a Confederate rally at Stone Mountain?
In a photo, he was clearly reaching for his holstered pistol while the cop directly in front of him was visibly trying to deescalate the situation rather than pulling out his own service weapon and shooting him…and would have arguably been much more justified in doing so considering that sympathizer was reaching for his weapon.
Picture is in the following article:
Incidentally, that White Pro-Confederate sympathizer is still alive unlike Alton Sterling or Philando Castile…and that sympathizer was clearly reaching for his weapon unlike the latter two.