I’m not that dumb, come on. I also know about the issues after the war and past the 60s and 70s. I meant like 10-15 years ago (when I was just a young kid). But I guess what I remember of those years going to the lake and swimming with our closest family friends - who happened to be black.
Oh, and while we throw the constitution out the window, don’t forget to get rid of the right to assembly.
I am absolutely convinced, after reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, that not much has really changed in our country when it comes to us vs. them mentality in over 200+ years, other than our weapons of choice. Every generation thinks theirs is the armageddon waiting to happen. Which is also why I think a slogan such as “Make America Great Again” is just silliness.
Now that my kids have flown the nest, one of the things I want to do is commit to reading more about our country’s history - particularly around the time of the American Revolution and the Civil War - the little I recall from high school and college is all jumbled up with raising-kids-kind-of-information. I’m tired of being held hostage to news stations that reinvent history to justify their narrative. I want to read it for myself and draw my own conclusions. But yea, division has always been this bad; and I don’t expect a lot to change before I die. We may pass different laws to make certain discrimination illegal, but people will always hold hateful beliefs and find their own ilk to justify them.
I guess all of this is making me think back to a time I didn’t know racism existed. It was a concept that I didn’t know of until I started reading history books and other books written about the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. I remember that the only thought I had to the differences between myself and my sisters and the kids of the family we played with was that their numerous little braids were simply incredible and I wished my hair could be like that.
Wow I just woke up to this. Prayers out to the city of Dallas and the officers.
I’m sad because I was holding out hope that this time would be different. I was given hope by the governor of Minnesota. Silly me, I was praying these last incidents would foster change in policing and now that will not happen. BLM will be blamed, when what the movement wanted was to stop the killing of unarmed blacks. Certain candidates will fan the flames, everyone will go to his respective corner, rinse repeat.
I was even given hope by my governor (never would have said that in past years). But my impression is that LA governor Edwards was asking for the feds to take over the investigation early on. And I’m am not sure the feds can do a perfect job at this either, mind you–but having the local cops investigate themselves is clearly worse. Now, I just don’t know.
Just as a technicality, the slogan shouldn’t be to stop killing unarmed blacks. Both of the men in these most recent killings were armed. Perhaps not the one in Louisiana, but the one in Minnesota had every legal right to be armed. Besides, being armed by itself should not be a reason for a cop to shoot someone dead. The movement should be to stop illegal killings by trigger happy, perhaps racist police.
There is just too much news to process. A person was found hanging from a tree in AtlantA yesterday which is very suspicious.
Heartsick. And so worried about what’s happening to this country. My deepest, scariest thought is that in the end, it may be the African American community that will pay the greatest price for what happened in Dallas tonight/this morning. A community that’s still processing what happened earlier this week. This is a national tragedy. (Scattered thoughts, sorry.)
“The movement should be to stop illegal killings by trigger happy, perhaps racist police.”
that goes without saying. But it boggles my mind that you are perfectly willing to note that some small percent of cops are trigger happy – undoubtedly true – but pooh-pooh legitimate concerns that we the public have that Joe Average with a gun is also trigger happy (and hence will either pick fights, or make a crime situation worse by trying to play hero).
I started a thread about the Dallas incident. I didn’t realize it was being discussed here.
A good portion of downtown will be closed today while the investigation continues. D2 works downtown, though not in that area. She was contacted and told to stay home today.
everyone lets keep the Dallas shootings separate. There will be a lot of information to come out from the the Louisiana, and Minnesota shootings in the coming weeks.
Lets keep the dallas comments on the new thread, as there will be lots of information on the other shootings in the coming weeks.
》》 But it boggles my mind that you are perfectly willing to note that some small percent of cops are trigger happy – undoubtedly true – but pooh-pooh legitimate concerns that we the public have that Joe Average with a gun is also trigger happy (and hence will either pick fights, or make a crime situation worse by trying to play hero).《《
I never said no legal gun owner is trigger happy. Some are. You seem to distrust all gun owners. I don’t think you would agree to do away with all cops’ rights to weapons because a segment misuse them, however, you would like to do away with regular citizens’ rights to them for the same reason. (Yes, I know, in your dreams.)
What’s curious to me also is that when a cop shoots someone, the motive is the key suspect, not the gun. Maybe it’s because it’s not an AR-15? I don’t know. But when a citizen commits a gun murder, their motive is hardly relevant when compared to the brouhaha over the gun. Curbing racism is seen as viable whereas curbing radical religion and mental illness isn’t, perhaps?
Not sure if this was mentioned up-thread - sorry if it was.
Did anyone hear the NPR interview on Thursday of the man from the “organization” that video-taped the Alton Sterling shooting? This group apparently listens to police scanners so they can get to scenes for this purpose. My first thought was I wonder if someone affiliated or knowledgeable of this group’s activities placed that 911 call on purpose to create an incident. It’s horrible to consider, but like the volunteer fireman who sets fires, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities.
According to the following report, the 911 call was made by a homeless man who had a heated dispute with Sterling because of refusal to give the homeless man money:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/baton-rouge-alton-sterling-shooting/
In short, that conspiracy theory is just that…a conspiracy theory.
15 years ago all these police-involved deaths like Brown/Gray/Castile/Garner/etc would have been local news reported as “Subject resisted arrest and police used deadly force to defend themselves.” No grand jury, case closed. Remember one of those recent cases where all the testimony from all the on-the-scene cops were directly contradictory to the video evidence? I expect this type of thing has been going on since forever, and the general public is only now becoming aware of these incidents due to pervasive smartphones and social media. Hence the black community’s very frustrated, “that’s what we’ve been saying for decades!”
Even 10 years ago I remember a spate of state laws banning private citizens from videotaping cops, those bills being pushed by police and police supporters. I vaguely recall hearing them being overturned by the Supreme Court, but could be wrong. Now the genie’s out of the bottle and we’re all paying the price.
Besides the obvious, what also really gets to me with these shootings, is that the officers dont render first aid. They freak out and kill and individual, meanwhile the individual couldve been saved, but the officer is basically either chatting with other officers or freaking out.
“Now the genie’s out of the bottle and we’re all paying the price.”
Maybe more like, now the veil has been lifted from some of our eyes and we’re seeing and dealing with the price we’ve been paying as a society for a long, long time.
The associated violence is a complete tragedy but I believe that the broader scale dialogue is a positive, necessary step forward. Let’s hope we can keep it peaceful and avoid more bloodshed.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-police-are-killing-people-as-often-as-they-were-before-ferguson/ indicates that the rate of officer involved killings did not change since the previous well publicized officer involved killings.
This is an interesting article on how some white conservatives are starting to accept that police really do interact with people of color differently than with whites. I was quite surprised at some of the people quoted. It gives me some hope that people are starting to come around.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but accepting that a problem actually exists is always the first step.