The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    OK,guys let's put the turkey on the table

    By Flavius on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 9:27pm |

    Everything that we've written here about Ferguson missed the point. Including my "contributions"  of course. In fact them especially...A million years ago,or to be more precise,  yesterday, Erica and I had an exchange about whether  Wilson shot at Brown  while he was going away, or only after Brown turned and started back.

    Somehow I'm reminded of a comment by the ceo of my company about a suggestion of mine " Who the hell cares about (what I'd just recommended).?"

    Who the hell cares about whether Wilson shot at Brown when he was going in both directions or only on the return leg? He shouldn't have  shot at him on either leg..

    AOBTW who the hell cares whether blacks are executed at the same rates as whites? We could fix that by just killing some more whites. That would be fair..

    Fair, but wrong.

    I'm reminded of a recent New Yorker cartoon . The executive is saying into the phone

    " How about never? Does never work for you?

    Because ,Never is how often we should execute guilty criminals. Black ,white, brown, green or purple.

    They should be tried of course. And if convicted ,imprisoned until  their testosterone or whatever was causing their problem  dries up and they're only a danger to themselves any more.

    Cops would still be armed but  only use their weapons in self defense. And no more choke holds. 

    Comments

    Good on ol Flav for getting to the heart of the matter.

    I do have my own version: no more excuses for violence. For police. For protestors. For suspected perps, guilty, innocent or inbetween. Even for those who have been subjected to it.

    I hope NYer's out there protesting tonight and the police watching them will continue to show how it can be done. Violence = bad, and no excuses, work it out some other way. In unfair courts if that all there is. Better screwed than dead.

    Police = an invention of society intended to reduce violence. Could they be re-taught that? Maybe?

    What really struck me was the video of the 60+ police cars chasing the one car in Cleveland and then the story of like 13 cops shooting it 130+ times and one even jumping on top the car and shooting down through the windshield. An orgy of violence. Can we blame Hollywood? I don't know. All I know is that even Dirty Harry would call them punks. And shame does work on some cops. Some react by playing the angry victim card, but those that play out that way are giving a signal to be culled from the force.


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 11:10pm

    Yup.

    Police officers just should not be doing this stuff. 


    by erica20 on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 11:15pm

    "Lie down for Brown." You guys know how I love a slogan--you heard it here first.


    by erica20 on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 12:16am

    "Lie down for Brown." You guys know how I love a slogan--you heard it here first.


    by erica20 on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 12:17am

    It is morally wrong.  Just like hanging a person from a tree. Who can really justify it?


    by trkingmomoe on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 1:35am

    We could fix that by just killing some more whites. That would be fair..

    Fair, but wrong.

    Hmmm, well maybe. How about this?

    We have e-mails that show you're involved in a conspiracy to defraud people by selling derivatives you know are worthlessBANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

    cop: His hands were under his desk. I thought he had a gun.


    by ocean-kat on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 1:37am

    LOL.....


    by trkingmomoe on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 1:39am

    Cops:You are being charged with conspiracy to defraud people

    Co conspirator: I paid for protection, you need to go back to your bosses and stop bothering me.


    by Resistance on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 1:01pm

    Because ,Never is how often we should execute guilty criminals. Black ,white, brown, green or purple.

    Except I think you are forgetting about murderers and other serious offenders, who are already incarcerated ?

    These hardened criminals,still run their operations from behind the walls and they don't mind ordering the execution of innocent people. 

    Some members of society have become sheeple,  easily preyed upon because the shepherds have become to lax or uncaring. 


    by Resistance on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 12:56pm

    Certainly a legitimate question. I had fully anticipated that it would be raised but with Hitler as the example. But that doesn't mean I have an answer.

    Joke:

    Christ and the Virgin walking together came upon a crowd (of men, of course) preparing to stone a woman caught in adultery.

    Christ: Let whoever among you  who is without sin throw the first rock.

    A stone whizzes past him

    Christ:  "MOM !"


    by Flavius on Fri, 12/05/2014 - 3:03pm

    This factor is continually gnawing at the back of my mind as regards the NYC case, and I can't shake it, so I am plopping it on your thread, Flav, hope you don't mind

    NYPD graduates diverse class of cops, who will work in city's roughest areas

    The 607 graduates form one of the most diverse classes in the NYPD's history. Fifty-one percent of the class is black, Latino or Asian, and women make up 20%. The new cops will be assigned to high-crime areas.

    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
    Monday, June 30, 2014
    I read similar stories in 2013 and 2012 etc. etc., This change in the NYPD, it not just upon us this year.
     
    Those of us that are New Yorkers know that Staten Island, where Eric Garner died, is the least like all the other boroughs culturally. It is sort of addressed in this new New York Daily News article:

    Grief and loss troubles Staten Island street where Eric Garner died

    by Denis Hamill, Dec. 4/5, 2014

    [....] Tran Scarlett, 44, stood outside a Spanish restaurant, dark eyes peering from under a black skullcap.

    “I testified at the grand jury,” he says. “I was a witness. The DA was respectful. The grand jury listened. But I grew up here on Staten Island, in the Jersey St. projects, same place Eric lived. I used to box out of Park Hill projects. With the toughest guy Staten Island ever saw, named Johnny Verderosa. But Staten Island has no fight left in it. So don’t expect no Ferguson here. There’s no unity in the black community in Staten Island. Look around, everybody’s just scraping by.

    "Not all the cops are bad. But what that cop did to Eric was murder. ... Eric had just broken up two fights. One between two ladies. Then one between two guys. A peacemaker. Me, I'm a fighter so I know a nonfighter. Eric never harmed a soul. So when that cop choked him to death like that, right there on the sidewalk, it was murder.”

    He told that to the grand jury?

    “I did,” he said, glancing at Eric Garner’s memorial. “But I knew just looking at them that they were never gonna indict a cop. Not here. Not for killing a black guy in Staten Island.”


    by artappraiser on Sat, 12/06/2014 - 12:22am

    But it isn't really about the where. It would be so much easier to find an answer if it was.

    I do have to wonder why they're assigning new graduates to high-crime areas. That seems like a big problem waiting to happen - a brand new officer with no real practical experience patrolling "bad" neighborhoods? High stress and critical, split-second, life and death decision making shouldn't be part of a rookie's first day or two.


    by barefooted on Sat, 12/06/2014 - 1:01am

    Who else wants the job?

    Damned if you do, damned if you don't.


    by Resistance on Sat, 12/06/2014 - 6:24am

     

     

     

     

    Don't mind. I'm flattered.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


    by Flavius on Sat, 12/06/2014 - 7:06am