MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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The Intolerable Tensions Between American Cities and their Police Forces
By artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:36am |In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, as in many other big cities, the gap between liberal mayors and police officers has become especially pronounced.
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells @ NewYorker.com, May 29
I lived in Baltimore during the Freddie Gray protests in April, 2015. My apartment was in a brownstone next to a small park in a pretty neighborhood called Bolton Hill, which sits on the border between downtown and the West Baltimore neighborhoods where the upheaval was centered. A central image of those riots was a burning CVS at Pennsylvania and North Avenues; that store was about ten blocks from my house [....]
Eventually, I decided to write about the uprising, and met a senior figure in the Baltimore Police Department named Melvin Russell. He is as vivid in my memory as anyone I’ve written about, perhaps because it is rare to see a powerful person be so hugely sad [....]
A whole generation of Democratic mayors have seen their reputations defined by their inability to manage the aftermath of police killings: Rawlings-Blake in Baltimore, Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, Bill de Blasio in New York, Pete Buttigieg in South Bend. (Political pundits often wonder why the “bench” of Democratic Presidential candidates is so thin; looking at that list, it doesn’t seem like such a mystery to me.) One reaction, in some of the most progressive cities, has been to elect new leaders who champion activist causes, especially reform-minded prosecutors: Larry Krasner in Philadelphia; Kim Foxx in Cook County, Illinois; Rachael Rollins in Suffolk County, Massachusetts; Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. This, in turn, has kicked up so much resistance from law enforcement that, in many cases, reforms have been smothered, in a more pitted battle between progressive elected officials and the rank-and-file cops whose behavior they seek to change [....]
URL:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-intolerable-tensions-between-american-cities-and-their-police-forces
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Comments
Good rundown on police, laws on the books, possible reforms in terms of rephrasing statutes, et al (click thru)
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 6:30am
The late Elijah Cummings lived a similar distance away from Sandtown, the center of the riots in Baltimore, as the author. Things were quiet. He walked from his house to Sandtown in an effort to quell the violence. How do you tell people to behave lawfully when the police are criminals?
It is noteworthy the the black cop moved his family out of the city because of fear of the Baltimore police department.
Perhaps being brave enough to challenge concessions made to police unions is a start. Once the Minnesota officers were fired, they lost protections that would have covered them if they remained on the force. There may have been a delay in the time when investigators were allowed to question the officers, for example.
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 8:45am
How do you tell people to behave lawfully when the police are criminals?
The conservative answer is to let everyone have guns to protect their property and person, that that is exactly what the 2nd Amendment is for. That's why true liberals aren't afraid to publicly denounce violent protest instead of making excuses for it, that there are other ways to deal with "jack booted thugs" and still keep civilization intact.
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 1:58pm
How many rednecks protected black lives from getting killed over stupid shit? Hard to instill ownership values when your people keep getting locked up and killed. We know Target Stores Matter and CVS Stores Matter. And cops have no problem getting 50 Fucking Police to defend a killer in blue's house, but none of these motherfuckers can seem to step up when a cop's killing a black civilian, can't even say a fucking word, just sit around shooting the shit while the poor sucker asphyxiates. Fuck Target - how about we show community values, and then maybe the real estate will survive. It's not Target's fault per se, but find the closest set of balls to squeeze and maybe something'll get done. That dirty cop was reported 12 times and still nothing done? Maybe CVS can step in and pressure city hall.
White idiots wanted their football and flag? Well I guess they get it up their asses. Asshole behavior has consequences along with elections (and by the way, that overt stealing of votes and making the poor go to infected zones to vote? Fuck them too. They haven't got near enough violence to equal. These are often same people who have no trouble lighting up a foreign village with no thought - American exceptionalism and all that shit. Only sad thing is, this won't touch Mar-a-Lago - he's protected, however much shit he disturbs.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 2:38pm
This illustrates the weakness of the Civil Rights movement. Think of how much more would have been accomplished if Martin Luther King had led his people to local stores along the march path, smashed the windows and handed out the merchandise inside. I'm sure there were some gun shops along the way. They could have armed themselves too.That would have solved all the problems of racism in America
by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 2:57pm
Strawman argument.
Even MLK might have had quite enough after yet another 42 years playing this bullshit. We think we don't need Iraq tactics at home cuz we're white - maybe not rich, but it works well enough for us. But for them, every day can turn into Beirut, standing right next to us. We can shut down the economy when white people are getting infected, but we can't even manage to kneel at a football game in a pathetic act of powerlessness for abused black people.much less figure out how to get more pandemic supplies to poor black areas where they're needed. MLK worked good enough when there was Malcolm X and Huey Newton right behind them. But we're getting awfully complacent - not a lot of Prize to keep eyes on.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:07pm
"MLK worked good enough when there was Malcolm X and Huey Newton right behind them."
Yeah, non violent strategies only work if there's a group in the background burning cites and looting. That's why Act Up was such a failure. No violent organizations right there behind them.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:15pm
Black Panthers knew to set up programs to take care of those not able to fight in the revolution. The rioters in Minneapolis don't have a plan except tear it all down in anger and hope someone else comes and fixes it. Those that suffer from what they did while waiting for the rebuild supposedly coming from some angel should just consider themselves martyrs to the cause. They are no better than let the old people die of coronavirus, we don't need them.
The fear of rioting is very very real and mostly causes counter-reactionism.
Non-violent theory addresses this precisely by evoking violence from your enemy and taking it and publicizing it so that the majority in the middle sympathizes with you and not them.
But Black Panthers at least tried to set up their own civil society first.
Most people just don't like anarchy, they prefer some kind of civilization, trains running on time, not gonna sacrifice themselves just because it's a nasty government. It's just reality. They like having agriculture, commerce, food on the table, courts, schools, police and firemen, all that stuff.
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:22pm
Yes, I'll agree with the Panthers thing (I was under the impression that was part of Hezbollahs popularity, but after talking to a Lebanese guy, realize I have to research more).
I don't like anarchy, nor do I like having a chaos monkey in the White House and all the thieving baboons in the Senate, rigging courts, DoJ, housing, business, healthcare, foreign diplomacy, NATO, everything.
You know, we have a good chunk of the population thinking they can drink bleach to cure Covid and run around without masks and Jesus will protect them. I can't imagine why we'd expect a NY more erudite response from an in general less-educated poorer demographic that we largely treat like shit.
The Trump era affects blacks the worst, Covid affects blacks the worst, and our police problem seems to get worse as well. Yeah, at some point things unfixed do pop, like that SpaceX rocket that blew up yesterday..
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 4:07pm
Very brave woman to speak up about the violence not just scaring her but ruining her future life in her neighborhood:
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:07pm
Right - how many Covid19 dollars went the needy, paying people's rent and health insurance - how many went to so many companies that didn't deserve it, including friends of Trump? Yeah, if you wait for a Bastille to happen, poor people will get hurt, normal people will get hurt, chaos will ensure.
So where's the "lessons learned"? Ffs, we stayed in Iraq and Afghanistan for how long - it's not like we ever get a clue and figure out a better way, no matter how much patience people have with us. We elected nasty sons of bitches to run the country the last 20 years, to occupy the courts, to tilt the playing field - yet a night of rioting and we're tut-tutting and using some poor woman as a prop? Buy her a goddamn house with whatever HUD money Ben Carson's been squirreling away, Jared and Donald hiding away in their fraudulent taxes, the taxes Amazon's been avoiding these last 20 years. Yes, stupid white (and other) people - disinvestment in infrastructure causes you a load of motherfucking problems down the road - so don't fucking do it. Trillions of dollars pissed away because that corrupt maggot and his GOP henchmen gutted the pandemic relief bureaus and played with his dick on Twitter instead of doing the relief job that moron had no way of ever doing. Tell these fuckers to get their shit together and stop with the platitudes about violence and destruction. People will get pissed. Deal with it. Sadly, no pain, no gain - ageless lesson.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:24pm
Yeah, it's about time. If only there were riots after Rodney King was beat up we wouldn't have to have them now.There was video of that too. We could have solved this problem with a riot in 91, Or if only we had a good riot in Watts in 65. A good riot with looting is they only way to get meaningful change.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:44pm
Riots aren't going to solve it - they just show were still fucking up. This riot started 5+ years ago - we just keep thinking it's gone away, don't worry, all's cool, hey, let's cut the budget and give the money to the rich, same as always.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 3:50pm
Rummy "wisdom" comes to mind here:
https://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/11/sprj.irq.pentagon/
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 5:13pm
We had years to prepare for the pandemic.
Rummy had over 6 months to prepare for post-invasion.
We had at least 5 years to know our black policing's been getting out of hand.
If you don't put oil in the engine, it's not the highway's fault where you break down.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 5:17pm
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 5:53pm
I totally believe that.
Also would not be surprised to find a lot of violence is white college kids who were bored sitting in mom's basement last couple months, find revolution an antifa-temp-job an exciting distraction, fooling themselves that they care about the masses, because it's cool and glamorous, something they can brag to their own kids about, being on the streets during this time. I know the syndrome, was at UW-Madison in 71-72.
Though Keisha Lance Bottoms speech also suggested there were also incidents of afro-american 'hood slacker and gansta types, as well with her comment about looting liquor in her speech. I don't think she would make that up as unlike our Surgeon General, she's not associated with Trump, so dissing "the community" would be allowed. Plus overall she's boosterish of Atlanta being representative of minority success, Dem style. And she must have had intel on actual events or she wouldn't have been so upset and fearful of it getting worse.
I don't find any need to go conspiracy theories of white supremacist wingnuts causing the violence. I can easily see white kids who think they are liberals doing it. I travelled with that crowd as a young college student. It's quite easy to be infatuated with the idea of causing a revolution and being a "Street Fighting Man" as the song goes. It's all nonsense. The Chicago 7 and 68 Dem convention riots got Nixon elected. And still we wanted to be "Street Fighting Men" as if that was going to help.Non-college Afro-Americans wisely mostly stayed out of it, had their own riots over other things! Hard to form coalitions when rioting for different reasons...
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 8:32pm
Oh, and I forgot to mention: cops were "pigs" back then, too. It was a secondary issue, especially after Kent State. But the primary issue was being drafted. Though the spitting on returning vets was mostly a myth, I dare say lots of cops were spit on--the famous flower in the rifle barrel picture was outlier behavior.
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 8:37pm
Here it is, what I am talking about above and it thoroughly disgusts me, bunch of kids having fun playing big shot revolutionaries trying to destroy Nashville city hall. Not much better than Trump himself. Watch with sound on:
http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/go-home-31405#comment-282402
ugh. Love to sic Keisha Lance Bottons on them.
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 10:14pm
Just like Baghdad:
except for the part about a replacement commission of Davy Crockett already on order.
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 10:42pm
This IS just like Baghdad. Stand back and let free people be free to destroy things
by artappraiser on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 10:45pm
Why follow the rules when the rules don't mean shit?
Trump was impeached but not convicted
Barr dropped the case against Flynn
A DA said that there was nothing wrong with two white vigilantes killing a black guy
Time had to be taken before charges were brought against a cop who murdered a man while staring into a camera
If the rules don't apply, why follow the rules?
The Minneapolis police are kept hidden because they are all considered scumbags
The guy in the White House is quoting a segregationist
Fuck the rules
Note: There may be violence perpetrated by white folks like Umbrella guy
We caught him on camera too.
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 6:00pm
Go ahead and have a nice riot with plenty of looting. I've made it clear I don't give a shit anymore. I'm not even voting this year. I just can't find any instance where riots resulted in positive change. I'm not a historian so I might have missed one but if it ever happened it's damn rare. I can find non violent movements like MLK and Act Up that resulted in positive change though. What did the Watts riot and the Rodney King riots get you?
by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 6:25pm
I think riots removed Yanukovych, Ceaucescu, Milosevic, along with antiShah and antiTsar riots, and whatnot in China. But the flare-ups yesterday are timid compared to real riots...
https://matadornetwork.com/change/11-of-historys-biggest-riots-and-why-they-happened/
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 6:51pm
Kabul, success:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_retreat_from_Kabul
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 7:05pm
I consider revolutions and riots as different but if you think they're the same good luck over throwing the US government and taking over.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 7:42pm
Hey, I'm the Hillary-loving neolib who chose the status quo over revolution - think you got me pegged wrong. But protest/riot/revolution - sometimes a thin difference.
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 05/31/2020 - 3:38am
Who is behind the riots?
The Governor of Minnesota
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/george-floyd-death-minneapolis-protests-live-updates-n1217886/ncrd1219396#blogHeader
The arrests are people from out of state
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/05/30/who-is-umbrella-man-mystery-vandal-at-minneapolis-riot-spurs-conspiracies/#30d6f271236e
Edit to add:
Also see PP's post above about black activists telling white protesters to chill out
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 05/30/2020 - 7:03pm