Minneapolis is Burning

[GRHorn 105]

32 minutes ago, Serak The Preparer said:

And there is still the completely cowardly lack of follow-through on thought. Ok, so you recognize that not all minorities are equally disadvantaged. You even recognize the Nigerian immigrants do better than US-born African Americans. But wait, if it's not systemic racism, then tell me, WHY is it they US-born African Americans are disadvantaged? Something in the culture, something in the genes, something else? If it is not systemic racism, please, I would love to hear the explanation. Is it really just the democratic party as the author suggests?

I think the main reason Nigerians do better than African Americans as a whole is their adherence to the nuclear family. Every Nigerian doc I work with comes from a strong family that had high expectations for them. 
 

Now I know that many will say that the main reason for the deterioration of black families was the enforcement of the drug war and its ripple effects starting a long time ago. And that makes sense to me. I think criminal justice reform is vital.
 

But it makes this plank of the platform on the official BLM site look incredibly misguided. 
 

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

 

That shit is fucking retarded. 

[elfenix 34,658]

6 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

 

Seems apropos. 

 

 

[safe sex 11,913]

34 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

I think the main reason Nigerians do better than African Americans as a whole is their adherence to the nuclear family. Every Nigerian doc I work with comes from a strong family that had high expectations for them. 
 

Now I know that many will say that the main reason for the deterioration of black families was the enforcement of the drug war and its ripple effects starting a long time ago. And that makes sense to me. I think criminal justice reform is vital.
 

But it makes this plank of the platform on the official BLM site look incredibly misguided. 
 

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

 

That shit is fucking retarded. 

You completely misunderstand what they're actually saying. They're rejecting the individualistic American nuclear family that pressures people to only care about their own immediate family to the detriment of the overall community. You know, a part of why we are where we are.

Here are the immediate two paragraphs above the one you quoted that gives the full context of what you misunderstood:

Quote

We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.

We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.

We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

 

[SmokeyTheBear 5,569]

1 hour ago, GRHorn said:

Pseudonymous handle toting internet tough guy calls somebody a coward. 🙄

Happy to meet face to face and call any Trump supporter a coward. Do better. And that's a general statement, not just pointed to this exact situation. 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

11 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

Happy to meet face to face and call any Trump supporter a coward. Do better. And that's a general statement, not just pointed to this exact situation. 

Dude is a straight up troll. His handle has a pic of his ridiculous disgusting dinner for Christ sakes. You would be better served arguing politics with your dishwasher.

[freyguy 4,364]

3 hours ago, GRHorn said:

FWIW I dont agree with everything in here.

Also, is it really a UCB professor? Impossible to know, but from having a family member that's a Professor at the University with similar political beliefs to myself, I can verify that the same atmosphere that only allows approved thought is present in Austin.  No surprise there.

https://medium.com/@soumynona_/anonymous-letter-from-uc-berkeley-professor-in-response-to-black-lives-matter-protests-24a66a6f1ca7

  Reveal hidden contents

Dear profs X, Y, Z

I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.

In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them.

In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls, and institutions.

Many cogent objections to this thesis have been raised by sober voices, including from within the black community itself, such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly. These people are not racists or ‘Uncle Toms’. They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalizes the problems of the black community onto outsiders. Their view is entirely absent from the departmental and UCB-wide communiques.

The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians. Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.

A counternarrative exists. If you have time, please consider examining some of the documents I attach at the end of this email.

Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black. Would we characterize criminal justice as a systemically misandrist conspiracy against innocent American men? I hope you see that this type of reasoning is flawed, and requires a significant suspension of our rational faculties. Black people are not incarcerated at higher rates than their involvement in violent crime would predict. This fact has been demonstrated multiple times across multiple jurisdictions in multiple countries. And yet, I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department’s apparent desire to shoulder the ‘white man’s burden’ and to promote a narrative of white guilt.

If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it’s fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews. None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. “Those are racist dogwhistles”. “The model minority myth is white supremacist”. “Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime”, ad nauseam. These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse. Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are, common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department.

Increasingly, we are being called upon to comply and subscribe to BLM’s problematic view of history, and the department is being presented as unified on the matter. In particular, ethnic minorities are being aggressively marshaled into a single position. Any apparent unity is surely a function of the fact that dissent could almost certainly lead to expulsion or cancellation for those of us in a precarious position, which is no small number.

I personally don’t dare speak out against the BLM narrative, and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriat, the UC administration, corporate America, and the media, the punishment for dissent is a clear danger at a time of widespread economic vulnerability. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type.

The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people. There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims, no public silences, no heartfelt letters from the UC regents, deans, and departmental heads. The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution. Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is.

No discussion is permitted for nonblack victims of black violence, who proportionally outnumber black victims of nonblack violence. This is especially bitter in the Bay Area, where Asian victimization by black assailants has reached epidemic proportions, to the point that the SF police chief has advised Asians to stop hanging good-luck charms on their doors, as this attracts the attention of (overwhelmingly black) home invaders. Home invaders like George Floyd. For this actual, lived, physically experienced reality of violence in the USA, there are no marches, no tearful emails from departmental heads, no support from McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. For the History department, our silence is not a mere abrogation of our duty to shed light on the truth: it is a rejection of it.

The claim that black intraracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn’t led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively. Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices — as do Nigerian Americans, who incidentally have black skin. It is for historians to point out and discuss these anomalies. However, no real discussion is possible in the current climate at our department. The explanation is provided to us, disagreement with it is racist, and the job of historians is to further explore additional ways in which the explanation is additionally correct. This is a mockery of the historical profession.

Most troublingly, our department appears to have been entirely captured by the interests of the Democratic National Convention, and the Democratic Party more broadly. To explain what I mean, consider what happens if you choose to donate to Black Lives Matter, an organization UCB History has explicitly promoted in its recent mailers. All donations to the official BLM website are immediately redirected to ActBlue Charities, an organization primarily concerned with bankrolling election campaigns for Democrat candidates. Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades; the ‘systemic racism’ there was built by successive Democrat administrations.

The patronizing and condescending attitudes of Democrat leaders towards the black community, exemplified by nearly every Biden statement on the black race, all but guarantee a perpetual state of misery, resentment, poverty, and the attendant grievance politics which are simultaneously annihilating American political discourse and black lives. And yet, donating to BLM is bankrolling the election campaigns of men like Mayor Frey, who saw their cities devolve into violence. This is a grotesque capture of a good-faith movement for necessary police reform, and of our department, by a political party. Even worse, there are virtually no avenues for dissent in academic circles. I refuse to serve the Party, and so should you. The total alliance of major corporations involved in human exploitation with BLM should be a warning flag to us, and yet this damning evidence goes unnoticed, purposefully ignored, or perversely celebrated. We are the useful idiots of the wealthiest classes, carrying water for Jeff Bezos and other actual, real, modern-day slavers. Starbucks, an organisation using literal black slaves in its coffee plantation suppliers, is in favor of BLM. Sony, an organisation using cobalt mined by yet more literal black slaves, many of whom are children, is in favor of BLM. And so, apparently, are we. The absence of counter-narrative enables this obscenity. Fiat lux, indeed.

There also exists a large constituency of what can only be called ‘race hustlers’: hucksters of all colors who benefit from stoking the fires of racial conflict to secure administrative jobs, charity management positions, academic jobs and advancement, or personal political entrepreneurship.

Given the direction our history department appears to be taking far from any commitment to truth, we can regard ourselves as a formative training institution for this brand of snake-oil salespeople. Their activities are corrosive, demolishing any hope at harmonious racial coexistence in our nation and colonizing our political and institutional life. Many of their voices are unironically segregationist. MLK would likely be called an Uncle Tom if he spoke on our campus today. We are training leaders who intend, explicitly, to destroy one of the only truly successful ethnically diverse societies in modern history. As the PRC, an ethnonationalist and aggressively racially chauvinist national polity with null immigration and no concept of jus solis increasingly presents itself as the global political alternative to the US, I ask you: Is this wise? Are we really doing the right thing?

As a final point, our university and department has made multiple statements celebrating and eulogizing George Floyd. Floyd was a multiple felon who once held a pregnant black woman at gunpoint. He broke into her home with a gang of men and pointed a gun at her pregnant stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children, playing no part in their support or upbringing, failing one of the most basic tests of decency for a human being. He was a drug-addict and sometime drug-dealer, a swindler who preyed upon his honest and hard-working neighbors.

And yet, the regents of UC and the historians of the UCB History department are celebrating this violent criminal, elevating his name to virtual sainthood. A man who hurt women. A man who hurt black women. With the full collaboration of the UCB history department, corporate America, most mainstream media outlets, and some of the wealthiest and most privileged opinion-shaping elites of the USA, he has become a culture hero, buried in a golden casket, his (recognized) family showered with gifts and praise. Americans are being socially pressured into kneeling for this violent, abusive misogynist. A generation of black men are being coerced into identifying with George Floyd, the absolute worst specimen of our race and species. I’m ashamed of my department. I would say that I’m ashamed of both of you, but perhaps you agree with me, and are simply afraid, as I am, of the backlash of speaking the truth. It’s hard to know what kneeling means, when you have to kneel to keep your job.

It shouldn’t affect the strength of my argument above, but for the record, I write as a person of color. My family have been personally victimized by men like Floyd. We are aware of the condescending depredations of the Democrat party against our race. The humiliating assumption that we are too stupid to do STEM, that we need special help and lower requirements to get ahead in life, is richly familiar to us. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to deal with open fascists, who at least would be straightforward in calling me a subhuman, and who are unlikely to share my race.

The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating. No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies. A whole generation of black children are being taught that only by begging and weeping and screaming will they get handouts from guilt-ridden whites. No message will more surely devastate their futures, especially if whites run out of guilt, or indeed if America runs out of whites. If this had been done to Japanese Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Chinese Americans, then Chinatown and Japantown would surely be no different to the roughest parts of Baltimore and East St. Louis today. The History department of UCB is now an integral institutional promulgator of a destructive and denigrating fallacy about the black race.

I hope you appreciate the frustration behind this message. I do not support BLM. I do not support the Democrat grievance agenda and the Party’s uncontested capture of our department. I do not support the Party co-opting my race, as Biden recently did in his disturbing interview, claiming that voting Democrat and being black are isomorphic. I condemn the manner of George Floyd’s death and join you in calling for greater police accountability and police reform. However, I will not pretend that George Floyd was anything other than a violent misogynist, a brutal man who met a predictably brutal end.

I also want to protect the practice of history. Cleo is no grovelling handmaiden to politicians and corporations. Like us, she is free.

 

dude just should’ve hit delete instead of send.

[freyguy 4,364]

dubble

Edited June 13, 2020 by freyguy

[VRHorn 731]

2 hours ago, GRHorn said:

Pseudonymous handle toting internet tough guy calls somebody a coward. 🙄

All Trump supporters are cowards and/or racists and/or idiots.

Is that clear enough for your cowardly ass?

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,834]

This doesn't pass the smell test: A 22 year-old BLM protestor was found hanged by a noose outside of City Hall in Palmdale, California.  City officials say it appears to be suicide.   However, he was wearing a backpack when he was found and his parents say he was a blessed, happy young man, as do fellow students from his high school etc...   I don't want to prejudge, but why would a young man wear a backpack and go to a public place to hang himself with a rope?


https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/robert-fuller-palmdale-death-rally/2379558/?_osource=db_npd_nbc_knbc_twt_shr

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

4 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

This doesn't pass the smell test: A 22 year-old BLM protestor was found hanged by a noose outside of City Hall in Palmdale, California.  City officials say it appears to be suicide.   However, he was wearing a backpack when he was found and his parents say he was a blessed, happy young man, as do fellow students from his high school etc...   I don't want to prejudge, but why would a young man wear a backpack and go to a public place to hang himself with a rope?


https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/robert-fuller-palmdale-death-rally/2379558/?_osource=db_npd_nbc_knbc_twt_shr

That's terrible for that young man, and now his family that has to go on with this in their lives. Suicidal people are already off in their mental health so anything they do that would seem weird to a healthy person is just part, and parcel of their condition.

He could have been acting compulsively....... IF it was indeed suicide.  Who knows what thought process really goes on in the mind of someone contemplating suicide.

[TwiceHorn 31,987]

I just want to point something out that was triggered by the post about the worst police brutality occurring in D-mayor cities.

The root problem underlying our defective police culture and many other aspects of the criminal justice system is the fear of the citizenry.  A fear that has been stoked or at least politically preyed upon by politicians of #bothsides for several decades. 

Doing something to "strengthen" police, or increase sentences, or create new crimes has been a very reliable way to pander to the citizenry for a long time.  By the same token, doing anything to weaken police, reduce sentences, or reduce the reach and punitiveness of the criminal justice system has been mostly an untouchable third rail politically, until pretty recently, and even then that is on thin ice.

Neither party has the political or philosophical high ground on these issues, from an historical standpoint.

Obviously, the right-wing R-types currently supporting the status quo are on the wrong side of this issue, but we got here through the derelictions of both parties.

The only reason I bring this up is that I frequently see "fear-based" reactions on this site to crime stories.  When I say "fear-based," I don't mean you're quaking in your shoes with pee running down your leg.  When you talk about vengeance, punishment, and especially deterrence, those are fear-based rationales, and not often the product of having thought through an issue.

So, check yourself before you wreck yourself.  Be on guard when any politician uses your fear-based responses.  This has implications outside of police and criminal justice reform, too.

[TwiceHorn 31,987]

47 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I just want to point something out that was triggered by the post about the worst police brutality occurring in D-mayor cities.

The root problem underlying our defective police culture and many other aspects of the criminal justice system is the fear of the citizenry.  A fear that has been stoked or at least politically preyed upon by politicians of #bothsides for several decades. 

Doing something to "strengthen" police, or increase sentences, or create new crimes has been a very reliable way to pander to the citizenry for a long time.  By the same token, doing anything to weaken police, reduce sentences, or reduce the reach and punitiveness of the criminal justice system has been mostly an untouchable third rail politically, until pretty recently, and even then that is on thin ice.

Neither party has the political or philosophical high ground on these issues, from an historical standpoint.

Obviously, the right-wing R-types currently supporting the status quo are on the wrong side of this issue, but we got here through the derelictions of both parties.

The only reason I bring this up is that I frequently see "fear-based" reactions on this site to crime stories.  When I say "fear-based," I don't mean you're quaking in your shoes with pee running down your leg.  When you talk about vengeance, punishment, and especially deterrence, those are fear-based rationales, and not often the product of having thought through an issue.

So, check yourself before you wreck yourself.  Be on guard when any politician uses your fear-based responses.  This has implications outside of police and criminal justice reform, too.

Forgot to put this in a more current frame.  Trump's Law & Order nonsense is a thinly veiled predation of voter fear.  So is the (mis)characterization of "defund" the police.

But don't kid yourself, stuff like that has been going on for a long time and it works like a charm, if you let it.  Try not to let it.

[HenryJames 67,116]

 

[GRHorn 105]

11 hours ago, trauma babe said:

You completely misunderstand what they're actually saying. They're rejecting the individualistic American nuclear family that pressures people to only care about their own immediate family to the detriment of the overall community. You know, a part of why we are where we are.

Here are the immediate two paragraphs above the one you quoted that gives the full context of what you misunderstood:

 

Do people really feel outside pressure to care for their family “to the detriment of the overall community”?  That shit is actually in our DNA for good reasons. 
 

As far as the impact of focusing on your family first, I’d submit that strong family units are more likely to produce strong, independent citizens that benefit the overall community.  

That plank of their platform is absolute nonsense. 

[Parliament 14,559]

Local Minneapolis folks gun up to protect their neighborhoods.  They look pretty well coordinated.  Jeremiah Ellison makes an appearance, and he acquits himself well. 

 

[Brisketexan 106,619]

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I just want to point something out that was triggered by the post about the worst police brutality occurring in D-mayor cities.

The root problem underlying our defective police culture and many other aspects of the criminal justice system is the fear of the citizenry.  A fear that has been stoked or at least politically preyed upon by politicians of #bothsides for several decades. 

Doing something to "strengthen" police, or increase sentences, or create new crimes has been a very reliable way to pander to the citizenry for a long time.  By the same token, doing anything to weaken police, reduce sentences, or reduce the reach and punitiveness of the criminal justice system has been mostly an untouchable third rail politically, until pretty recently, and even then that is on thin ice.

Neither party has the political or philosophical high ground on these issues, from an historical standpoint.

Obviously, the right-wing R-types currently supporting the status quo are on the wrong side of this issue, but we got here through the derelictions of both parties.

The only reason I bring this up is that I frequently see "fear-based" reactions on this site to crime stories.  When I say "fear-based," I don't mean you're quaking in your shoes with pee running down your leg.  When you talk about vengeance, punishment, and especially deterrence, those are fear-based rationales, and not often the product of having thought through an issue.

So, check yourself before you wreck yourself.  Be on guard when any politician uses your fear-based responses.  This has implications outside of police and criminal justice reform, too.

Fantastic post.  Twice, when we can all get back together, I need to buy you a non-alcoholic beverage of your choice.

So much this.  It has been a universal element of American politics for my entire life - regardless of party affiliation, the only acceptable stance is to be super "tough on crime."  Which leads to mindless "we need more police, we need tougher laws, we need more prisons."  Zero policy thought at all, zero thought as to the negative repercussions....just more "tough on crime" window dressing, all the time. Which means that anything that could be remotely characterized as contrary to that means that you are a coward who wants people to be murdered and raped everywhere, and you need to be voted out.

Remember the 1990 Texas Dem governor's primary?  SNL even did a skit mocking the ads, where each candidate talked about how pro-capital punishment they were.  You didn't (and still don't?) get elected to any office in Texas, from any party, unless you talk a good game about being tough on crime.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

7 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Local Minneapolis folks gun up to protect their neighborhoods.  They look pretty well coordinated.  Jeremiah Ellison makes an appearance, and he acquits himself well. 

 

One step closer to a massive crowd of black people armed to the teeth storming state capitols. 

let’s do this.

[jimmyjazz 46,976]

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Fantastic post.  Twice, when we can all get back together, I need to buy you a non-alcoholic beverage of your choice.

Can I have his beer?

 

Quote

So much this.  It has been a universal element of American politics for my entire life - regardless of party affiliation, the only acceptable stance is to be super "tough on crime."  Which leads to mindless "we need more police, we need tougher laws, we need more prisons."  Zero policy thought at all, zero thought as to the negative repercussions....just more "tough on crime" window dressing, all the time.

There is growing evidence that attacking the social issues instead of the crime actually has more effect in reducing crime than more cops, more prisons, etc.  You know what happens when fewer people are unemployed?  Crime goes down.  Same for a more direct approach to mental health, drug abuse, etc.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

As someone who is around a lot of alumni former students from a certain school in my area; you could substitute the words "National" and "Championship" for "tough on crime"  and see why it's window dressing when it comes to achieving the desired results.

[Brisketexan 106,619]

3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

 

There is growing evidence that attacking the social issues instead of the crime actually has more effect in reducing crime than more cops, more prisons, etc.  You know what happens when fewer people are unemployed?  Crime goes down.  Same for a more direct approach to mental health, drug abuse, etc.

Yep.  It's kinda like the old McDonald's theory of global stability: for a long, long time, no two countries that had a McDonald's in them had ever gone to war.  The theory was that having a McDonald's was an indicator of some level of prosperity, and in the post-WWII world, a country that was prosperous and stable enough to have a McD's didn't want to risk those things by getting into a war.  Contentment leads to more peace and prosperity.

If more and more folks rise from the "we've got nothing to lose" ranks to the "we've now got something to lose" ranks, then they are collectively less likely to engage in risky, destructive behavior.  Nothing eliminates crime (rich people kill each other sometimes, too), but increased prosperity is the #1 factor in reducing crime overall.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

I don’t watch any of these cops killing black dudes videos...but the Atlanta killing from last night is as described? Drunk black guy running away from cops get shot in the back?

 

[GRHorn 105]

10 hours ago, VRHorn said:

All Trump supporters are cowards and/or racists and/or idiots.

Is that clear enough for your cowardly ass?

 

[jimmyjazz 46,976]

10 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.  It's kinda like the old McDonald's theory of global stability: for a long, long time, no two countries that had a McDonald's in them had ever gone to war.  The theory was that having a McDonald's was an indicator of some level of prosperity, and in the post-WWII world, a country that was prosperous and stable enough to have a McD's didn't want to risk those things by getting into a war.  Contentment leads to more peace and prosperity.

If more and more folks rise from the "we've got nothing to lose" ranks to the "we've now got something to lose" ranks, then they are collectively less likely to engage in risky, destructive behavior.  Nothing eliminates crime (rich people kill each other sometimes, too), but increased prosperity is the #1 factor in reducing crime overall.

Good thing Trump has driven unemployment #'s to an all-time low.

[SmokeyTheBear 5,569]

1 minute ago, GRHorn said:

 

Pseudonymous handle toting internet tough guy responds via gif instead of by countering points. 🙄

[TheRealRonWeaver? 1,274]

Local Minneapolis folks gun up to protect their neighborhoods.  They look pretty well coordinated.  Jeremiah Ellison makes an appearance, and he acquits himself well. 
 

So, we’re good to defund the police now, right?

[HenryJames 67,116]

5 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

Pseudonymous handle toting internet tough guy responds via gif instead of by countering points. 🙄

How do you pronounce ‘gif?’

[Parliament 14,559]

12 minutes ago, TheRealRonWeaver? said:

So, we’re good to defund the police now, right?

Fund them less, I hope.

[GRHorn 105]

22 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

Pseudonymous handle toting internet tough guy responds via gif instead of by countering points. 🙄

His points were just name calling. Waste of time. 

[bad_teammate 13,479]

You're right, I was calling that person a name. I'll do it some more.

Coward, bitch, waste, crybaby are some more names I will call them.

[LABEVO 928]

Delrte

Edited June 13, 2020 by LABEVO

[Jive Turkey 12,930]

This is some absolute bullshit. Like the ref bumping into Charlie and throwing a flag. Except real life. And getting a beat down. 

 

[cactusflinthead 27,626]

13 hours ago, trauma babe said:

You completely misunderstand what they're actually saying. They're rejecting the individualistic American nuclear family that pressures people to only care about their own immediate family to the detriment of the overall community. You know, a part of why we are where we are.

Here are the immediate two paragraphs above the one you quoted that gives the full context of what you misunderstood:

 

Whoa hey that sounds like it takes a village to raise a child.

[Parliament 14,559]

So polyamory is gonna be a thing? Asking for my wife.

[Bama Chick 28,596]

Life comes at you fast.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

Is it just me? I find this sentiment disgusting. This isn't a baseball game, it isn't a game at all. Traveling to a city to attack its residents sounds more like terrorism.

 

[Post Oak 20,551]

7 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Is it just me? I find this sentiment disgusting. This isn't a baseball game, it isn't a game at all. Traveling to a city to attack its residents sounds more like terrorism.

 

So actual criminals are coming and this misogynistic cunt is rooting for them.

 

[Brisketexan 106,619]

So actual criminals are coming and this misogynistic cunt is rooting for them.
 

When you remember that you still live in Amerikkka, it all makes sense.

[Degenerate Gardner 4,132]

When you're cheering for Methed out thugs, you're beyond hope and quite possibly an OU fan.

[HenryJames 67,116]

 

[bad_teammate 13,479]

22 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Is it just me? I find this sentiment disgusting. This isn't a baseball game, it isn't a game at all. Traveling to a city to attack its residents sounds more like terrorism.

 

damn they're coming all the way from the UK?

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

15 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

So actual criminals are coming and this misogynistic cunt is rooting for them.

 

Someone in the comments mentioned London and so I did a reverse image search on that pic in the tweet. It's from Europe. I think that might be bad for the carburetor.

 

Edit-B_T with the fast typing. Thanks B_T!

Edited June 13, 2020 by Mrs Whiggins
addition

[JimmyJames 12,271]

5 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I just want to point something out that was triggered by the post about the worst police brutality occurring in D-mayor cities.

The root problem underlying our defective police culture and many other aspects of the criminal justice system is the fear of the citizenry.  A fear that has been stoked or at least politically preyed upon by politicians of #bothsides for several decades. 

Doing something to "strengthen" police, or increase sentences, or create new crimes has been a very reliable way to pander to the citizenry for a long time.  By the same token, doing anything to weaken police, reduce sentences, or reduce the reach and punitiveness of the criminal justice system has been mostly an untouchable third rail politically, until pretty recently, and even then that is on thin ice.

Neither party has the political or philosophical high ground on these issues, from an historical standpoint.

Obviously, the right-wing R-types currently supporting the status quo are on the wrong side of this issue, but we got here through the derelictions of both parties.

The only reason I bring this up is that I frequently see "fear-based" reactions on this site to crime stories.  When I say "fear-based," I don't mean you're quaking in your shoes with pee running down your leg.  When you talk about vengeance, punishment, and especially deterrence, those are fear-based rationales, and not often the product of having thought through an issue.

So, check yourself before you wreck yourself.  Be on guard when any politician uses your fear-based responses.  This has implications outside of police and criminal justice reform, too.

Of course it’s based on fear. It always has.

The key is to overcoming your fear, swallow your pride in having to do so, which is difficult,  and open your fucking eyes. 

[Degenerate Gardner 4,132]

It's a pity Philo Beddoe turned into a racist Hollywood elite. He used to kick biker ass.

[Chooky 13,337]

31 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Is it just me? I find this sentiment disgusting. This isn't a baseball game, it isn't a game at all. Traveling to a city to attack its residents sounds more like terrorism.

 

Lookout everyone! Here comes some once semi relevant Marlon Brando fetishists. Weight problems and irritable bowel syndrome now makes them twice as fierce. Did the twiggy-armed nerds think they could escape Sonny Barger's tracheotomy? Hahaha! Fools!!! Make way as they storm the Antifa Headquarters and break their Playstations. 

[Aqua Buddha 14,782]

19 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

damn they're coming all the way from the UK?

Fucking well done, sir.  Well done.

[UpperWestside 6,263]

I was talking with a friend I have known for 20+ years who works in law down in New Orleans. She was sharing a story with me yesterday about someone she defended that was accused of theft. He saw police officers running towards him so he ran from them. When they caught up to him and arrested him it was on the grounds of a school so he was charged not only with theft, but with trespassing on school property. The arresting officer asked him why he ran and he said "because you started running towards me". He had nothing on him and the kicker is the 911 call said there were TWO young black men who committed the theft. When she presented the 911 call to the DA they would not drop the charges even in the face of this not being the two people they were looking for.

This young man, in his early 20's, had to sit in jail for two months awaiting his day in court because he could not afford bail either. All charges were dropped once evidence was presented in court from the 911 call. She talked about something else that I thought was important. Imagine if that young man had kids and he is away for two months and isn't able to take care of them. The state could've taken them and then he winds up in the court system trying to get them back and all because of a DA that wouldn't drop the charges even when shown the evidence that says they should be. This is the experience that black men in this country have when it comes to the law. They are not treated equally and continuing to pretend there is not a problem is not a viable excuse anymore. I am so glad my friend fights the good fight along with her husband down there. She said it does sadden her still that she will have to sit down with her two young sons at some point and explain to them what they should do when confronted by a police officer. 

Edited June 13, 2020 by UpperWestside

[Brisketexan 106,619]

 

Fucking Tulsa. My BIL got married in Tulsa. When we were up there for the wedding is when I confirmed that my racist FIL was a genuine POS racist.

We were driving to pick up the tuxes, and talking about Tulsa in general - how it’s actually a pretty little town, nice geography, etc. Then out of nowhere, with nothing in percolate promoting it, he drops a “Yeah, but they’ve got a real ni**er problem.” I just sat there, stunned, and didn’t say another word for the rest of the drive.

We never had a really good relationship, after that, but after my MIL died, and he got even more entrenched in his bullshit, we essentially cut him off. He’s fucking toxic, and he’ll never change. And thinking like his is functionally identical to the thinking that got the black population of Tulsa wiped out 100 years ago. It’s still there. His share of it will die when he does...but only his share.

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,834]

 

[Brisketexan 106,619]

 

Why is it that pretty much every representative of the “master race”.....isn’t?

[elfenix 34,658]