Here let me help elucidate @anon61221983’s point:
This post is about the encroaching fascism that threatens to overtake our society.
30 Likes
Apparently, we do. This is yet another case where people are very quick to forget or willfully ignore why the cops in the George Floyd case had charges filed against them in the first place. They also overlook that we’re still dealing with too many deaths where there’s video, but killer cops still avoid charges, prosecution, or meaningful sentencing.
There are plenty of reminders to be found here:
19 Likes
Nothing says “transparency” like making it illegal to be filmed.
I know I would dislike being filmed without my permission, but I also know it would be a very boring video, and contain nothing incriminating. I can think of only one reason why this law exists, and it’s not a good reason.
20 Likes
Some folks in the so-called “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” sure don’t understand irony. Or maybe even straight contradiction.
1 Like
I know what you’re trying to say, but this is a cruelty. Of course this post is important and worthwhile.
The use of this particular image is not vital to the understanding of the post. But it is incredibly triggering, especially to those of us who live in Minneapolis, who mourned and protested at GFS, and who stayed up nights while Boogaloos zoomed down our alleyways. I was not prepared this morning to see George Floyd’s face pressed into the pavement while Derek Chauvin casually ground the life out of him, I’m still coming down from an anxiety spike, and all I’m asking is a little empathy before deciding to use a picture or not.
1 Like
NOTE:
If graphic images of the recent murder of a Black man makes anyone with privilege ‘uncomfortable,’ maybe you should examine what you can personally do to help prevent the prevalence of such inhumane atrocities against EVERYONE who isn’t straight, White and male.
And again:
20 Likes
To be fair, this has already often been the case for most of us. It wasn’t legal for them to harass, abuse or arrest people acting as unobtrusive “fair witness” to their behavior, but good luck with that if you don’t have plenty of time and money to uphold the law through multiple hearings.
Now they’re codifying it, though, which is pretty fucking scary.
ACAB.
15 Likes
Edit:
So far, Texas, Florida, Arizona Oklahoma and Idaho are on my short list;
Never go there, never spend any money there.
23 Likes
I’d feel sad for you but I’m still not over feeling sad for George Floyd’s family and friends.
16 Likes
There’s a reason Mamie Till insisted on an open casket.
21 Likes
It’s a disturbing image to see, I agree. Hiding away the truth of our white supremacist society because it makes us feel uncomfortable isn’t particularly helpful.
It helps remind us that a human being was killed for no fucking reason.
Well, some people forget, because the threat of police violence is not something that some people have to deal with on a daily basis. For those of us who are so privileged, we should indeed bear witness and remind ourselves, that not everyone is so lucky as we are.
RTJ - Walking in the Snow…
And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me
And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, “I can’t breathe”
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give’s a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy
But truly the travesty, you’ve been robbed of your empathy
Now we run the risk of being numb to the images like this, that’s true, but the focus on the individuals who were killed and remind ourselves what happened to them, and SEEING them and the pain the endured, might help us to push for change… including opposing these bills. If someone had not caught this on tape, would we all know George Floyd’s name?
I disagree. If this law had been in effect when Floyd died, at the hands of violent thugs, would we know him? Would we be talking about him? Since literally centuries of violence and brutality against Black Americans was not enough for white Americans to demand change, maybe forcing us to SEE this might help.
26 Likes
Which is already a cop strategy for arresting people to make them stop filming, so they’re going to love that now there’s actually a law that allows them to do so. If they were willing to arrest people despite no laws being broken, you know the cops will go far, far beyond what the law allows when they’re arresting people now.
17 Likes
67 years.
It’s only been 67 years since Emmitt Till was murdered, and his accusers/killers were not only NEVER brought to justice, but some of them are still alive.
That breaks my heart all over again, every time I think about it.
So excuse me if I don’t really give a damn about someone else’s momentary emotional “discomfort.”
29 Likes
If looking at those sorts of images make people who are not direct targets of racial violence uncomfortable, those of us with privilege should at the very least imagine how people who share the race of victims of lynching feel like having to live with that threat.
18 Likes
Oklahoma’s on their heels.
9 Likes
Oops… forgot about them; thanks.
6 Likes
They don’t want people of color in their state… and they want the threat of licensed-to-kill-POC cops to deliver that message.
12 Likes
Agreed. Discomfort is necessary. Comfortable people don’t do anything to make changes. And the way police behave in the US needs to change.
It’s odd that this law is itself a reaction to being made uncomfortable, but one which thinks the real problem isn’t police brutality, but being forced to acknowledge it might exist.
26 Likes
17 Likes
In that sense, it fits in perfectly with all the laws attempting to ban certain aspects of education or those that are aimed at silencing the trans community. It’s all being pushed by people who don’t want to make a better world for all of us, but would rather force the rest of us to live in their small, bigoted, hierarchical dystopia dream world.
19 Likes
