Poor throwbacks…Their world paradigm had not yet caught up to the concept that blacks with enough money were now able to live just about anywhere they pleased. Must have blown their minds to find out that girl’s yearly allowance might be more than their salaries. :))
“I’m not entirely convinced it’s fair to charge good cops with “not speaking out/applying pressure to their brethren.” Just because they aren’t taking to the street with bullhorns and words of public condemnation doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about it at muster, during meetings, and in their squad cars.”
I agree.
“It reminds me of the charge conservatives like to level against “black leaders” (of whom they cynically have only a couple in mind) concerning black-on-black crime”
The couple that they keep talking about, happen to be the most publically visible black leaders, who are intent upon using race baiting for their own power and monetary privilege. Does that not offend you? Tell me some other, more (or even equally) visible black leaders, who are constantly speaking out against black-on-black crime. Who might they be? I certainly am annoyed that Sharpton and Jackson seem to be anointed as the ones who speak for all black people. I don’t understand why anyone gives them a microphone.
“(as if they give a flying flock that black people are killing each other)”
That is an incredibly cynical assumption to make. Do you really think that people don’t care? How do you know that? Can you speak for them? Do you really know who actually cares, or who doesn’t?
“It does no good to point out that black communities have been organizing rallies and community meetings over crime and gang violence for years and years (sometimes, even conservative-identified “leaders” show up at them).”
Of course it helps to point these things out, however, maybe rallies and community meetings really aren’t the answer, if they aren’t helping to make a dent. Perhaps there are other more effective solutions, that actually work.
^^ Like catching abusive police red-handed on video? The parade of unjustified force incidents we’re seeing might end up being a game changer, once cops figure out that the jig is up.
Well, it took 142 posts (aside from some more minor ones earlier) but ya just knew it was gonna happen at some point…
Sigh.
Interesting that, isn’t it? You want to know what really offends me? It’s the fact that neither Al nor Jessie has been “appointed” by black people as their agreed upon spokespersons. I personally haven’t much use for either of them, and I know many black people feel the same. Ironically, though certainly not surprisingly, the people who have appointed “the Reverands Jackson and Sharpton” as the leaders of “the black community” are in truth the same people who fail to see that some of their own “leaders” (Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, just to name a few—I’m surprised anyone gives them a microphone!) are just as adroit at “race-baiting to the furtherance of their own power and monetary priviledge”. These are the people who steadfastly insist that AfAms have little reason to be so aggrieved by instances of law enforcement overreach against unarmed black citizens for as long as black-on-black crime remains a pressing problem. The tone used to constantly advance that false equivalency is inflected with no small amount of condescension, so I can’t even begin to say how insulting I find it. I guess it never occurs to them that some among them might want to hold off on insisting upon sounding the alarm on warrant-less wiretaps, the “erosion of the Constitution”, and the need to “take their country back” for as along as whites continue to murder one another, cook meth in trailer parks, and massacre their classmates in random schools shootings.
Yes, I do indeed believe they couldn’t care less. I only need listen to other things they routinely intimate about black people to know they largely view us as lazy, prone to criminality, and intellectually deficient. Given how they see black people almost entirely in terms of social pathology, it makes no sense for them to care when one of us dies. In truth, the phenomenon of black-on-black crime (a largely urban problem) merely serves as a very convenient (and might I add, extremely lucrative) talking point when it’s time to throw around a little red meat.
America’s long and beleagured war on drugs isn’t making much of a dent either, but that’s the problem with intractable social problems. They tend to be complex, being composed of many thorny variables, and so effective solutions are difficult to identify, much less implement. Nevertheless, efforts to combat them tend to be constant.
^^Poetsheart, you would be surprised how much of that post that I agree with. Pretty much all of it. Though I do disagree with your generalizing groups of people, though now I realize you probably had specific individuals in mind.
It’s funny, I don’t know if it was intended but the first person who came into my mind was Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby came to my mind also, and people were always trying to discredit him for that. Many people did not appreciate the fact that he was speaking out against black-on-black crime. However, I left out his example because he roundly managed to discredit himself.
I feel helpless because I’ve lived for several decades and haven’t chosen a leader. Oh what to do…
Why are posters trying to switch this thread to black on black crime from white cops killing unarmed blacks?
I guess people aren’t comfortable with the fact that white policemen are killing unarmed blacks so they need to divert…
dstark, if you follow the posts, you will see that poetsheart brought up the subject, and her post was merely responded to. Do you think she was trying to change the subject?
And why would you think anyone would be comfortable with white cops killing unarmed blacks? Or cops of any color killing any unarmed person who wasn’t a mortal threat? While overuse of force does affect black men disproportionately, it has affected men, women, children, elderly, disabled people of all colors.
@poetsheart #145 - Just excellent.
@busdriver11 – It’s hard to draw any other conclusion. True, it’s been unseen by whites until the last 8 months, but do we now not give blacks the benefit of the doubt when they say this is a very old problem? You can’t believe that Michael Brown was the first victim of this phenomenon.
It certainly has not been unseen by police departments across the country, so I can only assume that they are comfortable with it, or at least comfortable enough not to address the problem.
LasMa, I don’t know why any police department would be comfortable or not go ballistic for any sort of unjustified killing by their officers. I understand giving their people the benefit of the doubt, however, they need vehicle and body cameras everywhere, and effective non lethal weapons.
@dstark, the black on black mantra started at post #93,to which I promptly responded
Also, a friend a couple of nights ago felt the need to voluntarily leave a bar in a White majority area of NJ because there was an idiot trying to pugnaciously bait him into an argument by saying the SC cop was in the right to shoot Walter Scott 8 times in the back while fleeing without posing any imminent threat of harm to the cop or others and saying “He was an animal who needed to be put down”.
Friend felt it wasn’t worth the risk of him losing his temper to give him a well-deserved knuckle sandwich for his offensive racist remarks and a possible risk of arrest and charge of assault. Especially when he knew from living there that there are many cops in that area who would agree with that baiter.
@busdriver11 - I think white America is just now seeing the veil lifted on the culture in too many police departments. What we’re now seeing is hard to square with our own personal experience, which is that we’ve mostly been “protected and served” by the police – so hard to square that many whites simply refuse to believe it until confronted with irrefutable visual evidence that our black neighbors are viciously and systematically harassed, abused and killed by those very same friendly police officers. We may not understand it, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not true.
Police culture has been studied; there are plenty of resources online if you’re interested. There’s a distinct “us vs. them” mentality, a “soldier in hostile territory” mentality. And again, this is invisible to us as suburban middle class whites. The most unpleasant encounter we’re likely to have with a cop is a receiving a traffic ticket – and we need not fear for our lives during that encounter. But it’s just a fact that blacks’ experience of the police is very, very different.
Dehumanization of the enemy is a time-honored military tactic, and you can see one way in which that tactic is practiced by today’s police in [this very disturbing piece](What Cop T-Shirts Tell Us About Police Culture | HuffPost Latest News). What do those tell us about the police attitude toward those they’re supposed to protect and serve?
Poetsheart, thank you for your excellent, excellent post#145.
Dstark (#150) - the black-on-black crime point/diversion/mantra is sooo classic (but I think you know that). Party of 5 is correct that it started overtly here in post #93.
But poetsheart, probably anticipating it, alluded to it in posts # 33 and 46 - the police and others who view blacks as rabid animals (cuz they’re always killing each other and commiting so much crime!)
And it’s certainly reasonable to have anticipated it. Classic racist dogwhistles – “black-on-black crime!” “Al Sharpton!” “Jesse Jackson!” “Sharpton and Jackson are just a buncha racebaiters!”
People who have been paying attention know that these “points” come up over and over and over again from a certain contingent. Eugene Robinson, in the excellent column that LasMa linked to way back in this thread, knows it:
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/09/4469607_eugene-robinson-misdemeanor-becomes.html?rh=1
Ahhhh, yes, those self-serving activists.
Not surprising to most people on this thread – but still sobering:
Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found. Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/04/11/thousands-dead-few-prosecuted/
@MomCat2 - Yes, dog whistles. That’s exactly what they are, and the intended audience hears them loud and clear.