Black Lives Matter

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by lisarea

It's been killing me that I can't be at the Denver protests, but we're too old, and it's just too dangerous.

We live in a small, embarrassingly white city, but not as conservative as it used to be, and there's a walk scheduled here tomorrow. It'll be small enough to keep a distance from people, and if it were just about anything else, I wouldn't take the risk, but this is important enough that I can't not go. And I think it's important that even cities like ours are stepping up too.

So I made a couple signs today, and Matlock and I are going tomorrow. It's something, and we've got to do something.

[Stormlight]

Black Lives Matter - Luxembourg joins the...

[beyelzu]

The clip was short, but surreal: Mitt Romney—his face wrapped in a white mask, his sleeves rolled at the wrists—marches toward the White House alongside protesters chanting about police brutality. A reporter asks him what he’s doing there, and the Republican senator from Utah responds: “We need to stand up and say that black lives matter.”

Why Mitt Romney Joined Black Lives Matter Protesters - The Atlantic

I do not agree with Mitt Romney on many issues, but I appreciate his support of Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by beyelzu

Why Mitt Romney Joined Black Lives Matter Protesters - The Atlantic

I do not agree with Mitt Romney on many issues, but I appreciate his support of Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter.

Pretty much. Romney, by doing even this little bit, is doing so much more than any of his Republican colleagues.

[lisarea]

Mitt Romney has principles is the thing.

A whole lot of the principles he has are stupid and misguided, and I think he's dangerously wrong in a lot of ways, but he does have integrity.

[Ari]

Originally Posted by lisarea

It's been killing me that I can't be at the Denver protests, but we're too old, and it's just too dangerous.

One thing everyone needs to remember is that just like CoVid, we’re really in this for the long haul. In three months we’re still going to need people out showing supporting and fighting for this to change.

Just look to SF for the reason, our racist violent police force was deemed out of control and told to get it together by the feds and while there’s been some internal changes, it’s taken so long that they are being investigated again to see if they are purposefully dragging their feet or just too inept to understand what reform even means.

Oakland has had a similar problem, churning through police captains as either the city or the officers quickly lose confidence in their ability to fix the issue or convincingly explain to the city that there is no issue.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Some are subtle, some don't show, but it's there.
Racism is real.

The day when Black Lives finally Matter, that's one step closer to equality. pic.twitter.com/NS9sgTueHO

— Jib Kodi (@JibKodi) June 8, 2020

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Thrad:

1/x The narrative on Camden, NJ disbanding its police is dangerously oversimplified. The new force embraced broken windows policing (and more). Local NAACP pushed the new force to embrace deescalation (and more). To the force’s credit, it is increasingly responsive. Here we go: https://t.co/jwV5fYr3IM

— Stephen Danley (@SteveDanley) June 8, 2020

[Jerome]

Why is it the generally most aggressive policing is done mostly in Democratically controlled enclaves?

IOW, why do liberal voters vote for politicians that use the Police to oppress minorities?

My home town is a liberal enclave, run by minorities, something like 70% democratic voters... yet we make the news all the time for riots over police abuse of poor minorities.

Ever think its the liberal policies...or do you think when black people come into power that they suddenly become white?

[ChuckF]

Why did Trump destroy all the jobs that Obama created and murder over 100,000 people? So many questions.

[Stephen Maturin]

It is knee-slappingly hilarious that anyone would believe there are "oppressed minorities" in the least racist country in the world, but hey, it just goes to show the adeptness of the Bilderbergers in distracting the docile masses from Trump's 110,000+ murders and obliteration of all those Obamajobs.

[lisarea]

PS That little march that I expected to be a couple dozen people turned out to be more like 600+ and they had to close some streets on the fly. People tried to distance, and almost everyone except the really little kids wore masks, though, so I'm hoping nobody caught it there.

[Ari]

There was some trouble on my local cliffs (I don’t think anyone died) so I tuned into the local police/fire radio. Caught something something about a small group of people marching down downtown streets, estimated at 300 - 320... so apparently 300 is small now.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Ari

so apparently 300 is small now.

meme.gif

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by lisarea

PS That little march that I expected to be a couple dozen people turned out to be more like 600+ and they had to close some streets on the fly. People tried to distance, and almost everyone except the really little kids wore masks, though, so I'm hoping nobody caught it there.

Weird what happens when there’s a large volume of people not on job sites pissing in jars at their desks to avoid the boss’s wrath if seen going to the water closet on company time.

[BrotherMan]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

meme.gif

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Stormlight

Black Lives Matter - Luxembourg joins the movement - YouTube

That literally brought tears to my eyes. The global response has been so encouraging.

[ShottleBop]

Trevor Noah and activists, incuding Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of Black Lives Matter, discussing what it means to defund or abolish the police:

What Does It Mean to Defund Or Abolish the...

[lisarea]

One small thing I'd add is about the little white suburban towns not having police all over. We live in one of those, and we are lousy with cops. We have a higher ratio of police per capita than the national or state averages. It's the city's largest expense after public works, and not by all that much even. We spend almost twice as much on police as we do on Health and Human Services.

We not only share a SWAT Team with a few similar surrounding communities, but then we also have our own SWAT Team as well, just in case. I've complained about this shit here before, I'm sure, but the police are pretty obviously bored, and WE KEEP ADDING MORE. The most minor call will get a massive response. I started looking up on their 'crime map' when I saw a response like that, and more than half the time, there's nothing.

And it's partly the culture of sheltered people. It's not just a white thing or a conservative thing, either, because I've seen a lot of supposedly progressive people who are like that too. It's just people who sequester themselves in their homes and controlled little communities who learn to fear the outside world by experiencing it through the misleading vividness of the media. So if they see someone they don't recognize walking down the street or Tamir Rice playing by himself in the park, it looks like a cold open for a detective show, and they call the police.

It is very much ingrained in our culture to defer everything to the police, whether you love or hate them or something in between, and I think that's why the idea of defunding them seems to unfathomable to so many people. And I don't have a clear idea myself what abolishing them would do or even consist of.

[mickthinks]

Sometimes Breitbart surprises me:

Watch: CNN's Anderson Cooper Breaks Down Discussing George Floyd with Cornel West

I have no idea why an agency as perfidious as Breitbart would promulgate such a beautiful black message. (If you do, please share)

[beyelzu]

A friend shared this on Facebook and I really liked it.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by mickthinks

I have no idea why an agency as perfidious as Breitbart would promulgate such a beautiful black message. (If you do, please share)

I had a vague thought. Not sure it qualifies as an actual idea. Breitbart's editors know their core base will see this as an example of their heroes (the pigs) "owning the libs" (Cooper in this case)? Liberal tears make them happy.

None of them will be listening to West's actual message.

A second vague thought occurred when I looked at the comments FOR THE LOVE OF DOG DON'T LOOK AT THE COMMENTS - maybe it's just to get their base worked up because they love getting worked up?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

A second vague thought occurred when I looked at the comments FOR THE LOVE OF DOG DON'T LOOK AT THE COMMENTS

Someone mentioned communism. I'm don't think that means what they think that means.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

.@bubbawallace will run a special paint scheme to honor #BlackLivesMatter for Wednesday night’s race at @MartinsvilleSwy. pic.twitter.com/1axOlSsig7

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 10, 2020

Some replies in there.

[viscousmemories]

I do wish BLM wouldn't lionize George Floyd. He shouldn't have been executed in the street and I understand that was the straw that broke the camel's back and led to this global movement, but it's so easy for the wingnuts to say "look at these batshit liberals marching around with a career criminal on their shoulders like he's a goddamn saint!!!"

I watched a video BLM released that was like a 5 minute tribute to him and ended with something like "Rest in Power, King" and I just thought that was a little over the top.