George Floyd

Introversion

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Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop

Medium said:
I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.

This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.

But enough is enough.

The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders.

American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities and if you don’t believe it when the poor and the marginalized say it, if you don’t believe it when you see cops across the country shooting journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe you’ll believe it when you hear it straight from the pig’s mouth.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS

As someone who went through the training, hiring, and socialization of a career in law enforcement, I wanted to give a first-hand account of why I believe police officers are the way they are. Not to excuse their behavior, but to explain it and to indict the structures that perpetuate it.
I believe that if everyone understood how we’re trained and brought up in the profession, it would inform the demands our communities should be making of a new way of community safety. If I tell you how we were made, I hope it will empower you to unmake us.

One of the other reasons I’ve struggled to write this essay is that I don’t want to center the conversation on myself and my big salty boo-hoo feelings about my bad choices. It’s a toxic white impulse to see atrocities and think “How can I make this about me?” So, I hope you’ll take me at my word that this account isn’t meant to highlight me, but rather the hundred thousand of me in every city in the country. It’s about the structure that made me (that I chose to pollute myself with) and it’s my meager contribution to the cause of radical justice.

...
 

Lyv

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Video evidence increasingly disproves police narratives

Most of us have seen that firsthand, and also know that often other cops will back up the lying police officer's version. It happens often enough that there's a name for it.

The habit of police giving false testimony is so widely known in New York that it has long been nicknamed “testilying.” Officers are rarely held accountable because they enjoy broad legal protections, and prosecutors almost never charge them with perjury, Avery said.

False public statements made by police departments and their leaders are more of a “political issue” than a legal one, he said.

Well, that's a problem.

I am hoping to have an entry for the good news thread soon, because for the first time since one of the two high schools in my city adopted its terribly racist mascot, those pushing for its removal aren't being shouted down by many voices (of course, one of the racist defenders is our revolting, useless mayor). A majority of voices in article comments sections and in social media groups support the removal. That's a huge change from even weeks ago. It's still going to be tough fight, but it's getting harder to defend the caricature of an Armenian man wearing a Native American headdress and carrying a hatchet.

And because of course Trump supporters would be this racist and disgusting, some of them reenacted George Floyd's death as a Black Lives Matter march passed them. They were having their own "All Lives Matter" protest. By mocking the death of a human being, proving that their group name is a lie. One of the two men doing the reenactment lost his job. The other, a corrections officer, is suspended, pending the results of an investigation. I wonder how much brutality he is responsible for.
 

frimble3

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I am hoping to have an entry for the good news thread soon, because for the first time since one of the two high schools in my city adopted its terribly racist mascot, those pushing for its removal aren't being shouted down by many voices (of course, one of the racist defenders is our revolting, useless mayor).
Followed the link, read the article, and am still trying to wrap my head around why a mascot meant as a tribute to an Armenian dentist, is made to look like an American Indian with a tomahawk?

I'm thinking that the same caricatured face, in dental whites and carrying a giant pair of pliers would inspire fear in their opponents. Instead of waving the tomahawk (which I presume is the gimmick) he could wave the pliers and yell "Take 'em out! Take 'em all out!" Possibly carrying an outsized tooth in his other hand?

A fine tribute to a generous man - whom I'm sure never willingly hurt a patient in his life.
 

CWatts

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...and Jeff Davis is gone!
https://youtu.be/ph8r4mG8EN0

It was amazing watching the live feed late last night of that scumbag getting ignominiously hauled away in a flatbed tow truck while the crowd sang "Na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, GOODBYE!"
 

frimble3

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...and Jeff Davis is gone!
https://youtu.be/ph8r4mG8EN0

It was amazing watching the live feed late last night of that scumbag getting ignominiously hauled away in a flatbed tow truck while the crowd sang "Na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, GOODBYE!"
Gone and good riddance! I wonder how many people really care that it's gone? I remember there used to be a fair amount of pearl-clutching over 'our heritage', but maybe that only happens if the good ol'boys get people worked up?

Time for memorials to the Old South to go, and something else put on those pedestals - if not actual humans (too divisive) then animals or something more abstract?
 

CWatts

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Gone and good riddance! I wonder how many people really care that it's gone? I remember there used to be a fair amount of pearl-clutching over 'our heritage', but maybe that only happens if the good ol'boys get people worked up?

There's been a backlash but they're a vocal minority.

I think a lot more white Southerners realise our actual ancestors were poor folks like Inman who got nothing out of the meat grinder these plantation elite generals threw him into.

Maybe we should have an honest monument to war, like the pile of limbs outside the surgery tent?
 

MaeZe

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A Tale of Two Cities (also see my post in the resist disinformation thread):

Guardian: Seattle protesters take over city blocks to create police-free 'autonomous zone'
Hundreds of protesters have taken over several blocks of Seattle and transformed it into the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or “Chaz”, helping to amplify nationwide protests while offering a real-world example of what a community can look like without police.

The police left and it became a peaceful event with relatively little trouble.

But you'd never know that from dozens of other news media reports. They look like this:

Fox News: Seattle law enforcement experts urge police to take back CHAZ before it's too late
Officers effectively abandoned the area during violent clashes with demonstrators calling to defund the police.

Demonstrators have since set up occupancy in that section of downtown Seattle and have renamed it “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ)....

Photos of the area show protesters have remained peaceful –* pitching tents, painting, watching outdoor movies and holding gatherings with music and speeches –* but police have also said they have received numerous complaints about armed guards surrounding the perimeter and asking residents who live in the area to show ID.

Police have also alluded to the potential extortion of local businesses and citizens....

Michael Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that the occupy-style demonstrations have gone too far and "is absolutely unreasonable activism."

"We lost a precinct, now, what’s next? Are we going to lose another precinct? The city council has removed our ability to have less lethal ammunition for us to properly protect those facilities and protect ourselves,” Solan said.
Fox interviewee claims "an entire city government has handed over the city to domestic terrorists."

No one was shaking anyone down, obviously it is not a domestic terrorist group. That man needs to review what the definition of terrorism is.
 
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MaeZe

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Sure enough, tonight the Seattle police chief and assistant chief have taken back the claim any extortion occurred excusing their disinformation as based on anecdotes.

Okay, so any comment on where those anecdotes came from? [crickets] Of course no one in the media asked. :rant:
 
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Chris P

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There's been a backlash but they're a vocal minority.

I think a lot more white Southerners realise our actual ancestors were poor folks like Inman who got nothing out of the meat grinder these plantation elite generals threw him into.

Maybe we should have an honest monument to war, like the pile of limbs outside the surgery tent?

If they do put that statue in a museum somewhere, I think they should leave the paint and graffiti on. That would tell a more complete story of our past.

I think the Civil War itself is too remote for many southern Whites to really connect themselves, regardless of economic status, to any exploitation of their ancestors by the planter class. It's more of a regional pride of place and connection to the family stories they heard on grandpa's knee that nevertheless ignores the entire history of all of its residents; ignores the majority of them in some places.
 
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MaeZe

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...
Okay, so any comment on where those anecdotes came from? [crickets] Of course no one in the media asked. :rant:

And the news media has interviewed or shown comments from people saying there were armed men at the CHAZone. They have reporters on the scene.

Not one followup comment about whether those claims of armed people being there are true or false. :rant:
 

CWatts

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A lot of us probably follow this blog already, but How to Fight Write is killing it on all the issues with militarized policing: https://howtofightwrite.tumblr.com/post/620782652723789824/qa-america-right-now

At this point, as a nation, we have two separate police forces. The one that exists in the real world, and a fictionalized version that doesn’t. If you rarely, or never, interact with the real thing, it’s easy to fill in the blanks from the fiction. The danger is, if you are part of the real thing, it’s easy to self-justify using that same fiction.
....
A soldier can muster out, and then go into law enforcement and execute their job admirably. There’s nothing wrong with this. They stopped being a soldier, and became a cop. Hell, I have a good friend who followed this path. He left the army, and went into the police.


Someone who is a soldier is tasked with fighting the enemy. A peace officer is tasked with protecting their community. It may sound like these are compatible, but they’re not. If you are a soldier, the foes you face are other. You cannot be a good cop and view your community as other.


So, we loop back to the pop culture thing. We have police officers who are cosplaying as soldiers. They pick up the philosophical outlook of finding and eliminating “the enemy,” whoever that may be.


You’ll notice I said, “the enemy.” For police the job should be to find, “criminals.” But, for these “cops” with surplus military hardware it’s about taking down anyone who threatens them. When that fails, it’s about making a show of dealing with, “the enemy.”
 

MaeZe

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That's an excellent piece.


I'm still waiting for the local broadcast media to address the lies about CHAZ but the Seattle Times has and confronted Fox News, getting the fake images taken down but not the fake headline and story.

See the Times article for the outrageous images Fox aired and published online:

Seattle Times: Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Fox’s site had no disclaimers revealing the photos had been manipulated. The network removed the images after inquiries from The Seattle Times.

In addition, Fox’s site for a time on Friday ran a frightening image of a burning city, above a package of stories about Seattle’s protests, headlined “CRAZY TOWN.” The photo actually showed a scene from St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 30. That image also was later removed. ...

The network’s misleading and faked images were published as the Capitol Hill zone — quickly labeled CHAZ — became a political flashpoint for conservatives nationally and a target of tweets by President Donald Trump, who has branded the demonstrators “domestic terrorists” and threatened federal action unless local officials “take back” the area.

National news outlets on Friday also continued to cite a now-withdrawn comment by a Seattle police commander suggesting protesters were extorting payments from businesses within CHAZ. Seattle police Chief Carmen Best walked back that statement on Thursday, saying the comment was based on rumor and social media.
Ran all day: damage done. But gee, they didn't mean to and they took the images down.

Fox: Seattle 'autonomous zone' has armed guards, local businesses being threatened with extortion, police say
Editor’s Note: A FoxNews.com home page photo collage which originally accompanied this story included multiple scenes from Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” and of wreckage following recent riots. The collage did not clearly delineate between these images, and has since been replaced. In addition, a recent slideshow depicting scenes from Seattle mistakenly included a picture from Minneapolis. Fox News regrets these errors.
What a fucking lie.

And they kept the dishonest headline, continuing to repeat this story after it was discredited by the police chief herself.
Seattle police say they have received reports of armed guards and potential extortion in a self-declared autonomous zone that spans several blocks and includes a now-closed precinct.

“We’ve heard, anecdotally, reports of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area. This is the crime of extortion. If anyone has been subjected to this, we need them to call 911,” Assistant Chief of Police Deanna Nollette said on Wednesday.
No one called 911, no one reported any of this crap despite the chief asking people to please report such incidents.

Per Police Chief Best, "we have received no reports".

So Fox took down propaganda photos but left up the propaganda report.

Also they have exaggerated the size of the zone:
Protesters calling to defund the police and make sweeping reforms to law enforcement tactics have declared a six-block region -- spanning 13th Avenue past 11th Avenue, near Cal Anderson Park, and from East Olive Street to East Pike Street -- the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ).
11th, 12th, 13th... Hey Fox, that is 3 blocks and look at a map, they are short blocks.


The dishonesty is disgusting.
 

MaeZe

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Not that we need more evidence there is systematic racism and lying in many police departments:

Alabama Political Reporter: Opinion | Black store owner calls police to report a robbery. They show up, punch and arrest him
There are store video and at least one body cam. (Not sure why there aren't four body cams.)
Mistaken identity.

That’s how Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen described an incident in which DPD officers punched, wrestled to the ground and ultimately arrested a Decatur store owner who had called them to report a robbery.

The store owner was a black man.

So, yeah, mistaken identity....

By Monday afternoon, DPD had organized a news conference to let people know that in nearly three months it still hasn’t managed to get to the bottom of this 30-second incident. It is officially “under investigation.” ...

Except that the video clearly shows Penn holding his gun as he motioned for police to enter his store, and then unloading his gun. He ejects the magazine, then removes the round from the chamber and then places the gun on the counter. As police enter, he is returning a bullet to the magazine and is still holding the magazine in his left hand when an officer punches him. ...
The cops are such liars. That needs to be part of any police department overhaul.
 

nighttimer

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I'm self-quarantining.

I'm an American Black man and those three words alone put me in a higher risk demographic than anything else.

This means I'm predisposed to certain illnesses and conditions. I'm at higher risk for strokes, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, poverty, income inequality, redlining, profiling, stereotyping, to name just a few.

I'm at a higher risk from two pandemics with no treatment and no cure. COVID-19 and Bad Cops No Donut. Both can kill me deader than fucking fried chicken.

So I'm self-quarantining. I'm staying away from crowds and cops. I wear a mask when I do venture out and I stay nervous hoping a cop car doesn't turn on his flashing lights and indicate I need to pull over for a traffic stop. Not that I'm afraid of a ticket for a brake light that's out or not signaling properly before changing lanes.

I'm afraid of getting George Floyd'ed. You wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing. Nobody's putting you face down in the street while three cops sit on you and one of them puts his knee on your neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until you are dead.

For passing a counterfeit $20. That's what a Black man's life is worth in the Land of the Free and Home of the Slave.

So I'm self-quarantining.

I'm staying away from White people and places where White people congregate. I don't feel safe. I've never felt wanted, but now I don't even feel safe being around White people. I've been working from home since March. I hate it. I hate not being around other people. I hate that I haven't had to fill my gas tank for over a month because I don't go anywhere.

I'm lucky. I'm one of the lucky bastards who has a job he can do from home. My wife can't and my son can't and my daughter can't, but I can, and I'm worried every time they leave the relative safety of home to go outside and go to work.

Around White people. It's scary.

I have some resources I've been sharing with White people. The ones whom I do feel safe around, but don't want to be around right now.

James Baldwin's 1968 interview in Esquire.
Why should a 52-year-old article have any relevance now? Because certain things are timeless and America's preeminent social commentator on race is one of those certain things.
Is there any white man who can…

White, by the way, is not a color—it's an attitude. You're as white as you think you are. It's your choice.
Then black is a state of mind, too?

No, black is a condition.
Who among the white community can talk to the black community and be accepted?

Anybody, who doesn't think of himself as white.

Kimberly Jones, co-author of the YA novel, I'm Not Dying With You Tonight explains why people are looting and "burning down their own neighborhoods. If you don't understand, all you need is six minutes and 46 seconds and you will.

Sista Jones name-checked Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show and here is why she did. Amy Cooper vs. Christian Cooper was the theory of how White privilege can be weaponized against Black people. George Floyd vs the Minneapolis Police was the practice.

Non-White people have a part to play too and Hasan Minhaj of Patriot Act is here to tell people of color you can't stay asleep when your house is burning down.

You are being manipulated. You are being lied to. Carlos Maza, formerly of Vox, reveals six ways the media protects the cops and deceives the public.

Last, but far from least is Dave Chappelle's "8:46." No explanation necessary. Or offered.

There's so much more. So, so much more, but I'm not going to take up anymore of your time. This is homework. You're smart. You'll figure it out. I can't do it for you. Sorry.

I'm self-quarantining.
 

MaeZe

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Valuable post nighttimer. I posted the link on deceptive mainstream news in the 'Resist Misinformation' thread.
 

Chris P

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Thank you nighttimer. These are the stories I need to see.
 

Chris P

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Finally: Mississippi looks like it will finally change its flag.

I lived there from 2001 (arriving shortly after the last flag vote failed) until 2012. I loved most of the people there, the food, the weather, the open spaces, and always wanted to love it completely. But, there was a lot I couldn't love, too. Like the flag and the attitudes behind it. I have no illusions that changing the flag will change much of anything else, but it's another step in the state's long, slow progression.
 
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Lyv

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A bill will say that the current flag will be removed from state law. A commission would design a new flag that cannot include the Confederate battle emblem but must include the phrase “In God We Trust." The new design would be put on the ballot Nov. 3. If a majority voting that day accept the new design, it would become the state flag. If a majority reject it, the commission would design a new flag using the same guidelines.

So the new flag would be better, much better, but still problematic. When the government says "we," that we should not exclude a whole bunch of people. I know that divisive phrase is plastered all kinds of places it doesn't belong, but that doesn't make it right. I guess Mississippi wants to make sure those who don't believe in God (and we know they mean the Christian one) aren't welcome and aren't respected.
 

Lyv

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Amy Cooper Is Facing Charges After She Called The Cops On A Black Man Who Was Bird Watching

Amy Cooper, the white woman who was filmed calling the police to falsely accuse a Black man of threatening her life after he asked her to leash her dog in a New York City park, is being charged with falsely reporting an incident, prosecutors announced Monday.


The charge against Cooper, the 41-year-old woman who infamously became known as the "Central Park Karen" after the viral encounter, is in the third degree, a misdemeanor. She will be arraigned on Oct. 14.

Good. I hope she's found guilty. This should happen every time.
 
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So the new flag would be better, much better, but still problematic. When the government says "we," that we should not exclude a whole bunch of people. I know that divisive phrase is plastered all kinds of places it doesn't belong, but that doesn't make it right. I guess Mississippi wants to make sure those who don't believe in God (and we know they mean the Christian one) aren't welcome and aren't respected.

I think that's pretty much it. It's been a central goal of many people who call themselves Christians for a very long time. Of course, if they had their way and the US was officially declared a Christian nation, the blood would really start flowing, because the different groups of Christians would fight over which version of everything from the Bible to iconic depictions of Jesus are the correct ones. And of course, there would be disagreements about what the scriptures really mean. After centuries of religious wars between different Christian groups in Europe, I imagine this is what the founding fathers wanted to avoid by creating the so-called "wall of separation."
 
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Lyv

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Ben Crump just tweeted that he and Breonna Taylor's family met with the AG of Kentucky and the mayor of Louisville, and they expect the officers to be charged. As they should.
 

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Ben Crump just tweeted that he and Breonna Taylor's family met with the AG of Kentucky and the mayor of Louisville, and they expect the officers to be charged. As they should.

And hopefully justice will be served. Worried that it could simply be a publicity stunt with acquittal a foregone conclusion. I have less and less faith in public officials.
 

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frimble3

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So the new flag would be better, much better, but still problematic. When the government says "we," that we should not exclude a whole bunch of people. I know that divisive phrase is plastered all kinds of places it doesn't belong, but that doesn't make it right. I guess Mississippi wants to make sure those who don't believe in God (and we know they mean the Christian one) aren't welcome and aren't respected.
I wonder if a really good or well-known designer could slide through a design through that has "In God We Trust" with sort of a floral, leafy question mark at the end? Mirrored on the other side, for design's sake of course.

Even Jesus would dislike these people.
'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'
Mark 12:17
If that isn't about the separation of church and state, I don't know what is.