He showed the side that was always obvious if you looked.
I saw an interview with Bradley Whitford the other day. He was discussing the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, and accurately described it as the state murder of an intellectually disabled man.
But Whitford brought up Clinton’s decision to ostentatiously endorse the execution as a thing to be admired. He said it was an example of how Clinton was willing to make whatever compromises were necessary in order to achieve his long-term goals, and he praised this as a good thing.
I don’t know if any of you have been following #BlackLivesMatter in Canada, but protesters spent a couple of weeks in a tent city in front of police headquarters in Toronto and showed up on the Premiers’ lawn. The province is now scrambling to look like it is doing something.
This piece is a little old now, but the protest is on hiatus right now - they gave the province/city 300 hours to act on demands:
The demands are pretty familiar - releasing the name of officers who killed black people. I think the province’s position is that they can’t do that because of privacy laws but that sounds like BS to me. We release the names of suspects and people arrested in criminal cases.
Compared to some US jurisdictions Toronto isn’t that bad and we actually had an officer convicted for wrongfully shooting someone just a few months ago so our police aren’t immune to prosecution in extreme cases. But it goes back to that same failed criminology that was referenced in the “super predator” statement. Police are trained to see every situation in terms of threat and reaction, and they kill people as a result. Minority communities bear the brunt of that.
I like him a lot. Like someone (@funruly?) mentioned upthread, maybe a national role makes more sense than a local one? I like what he has to say, anyway.
So, in 5 years he’s eligible! He seems locally rooted in Baltimore politics though. In some ways, activists are much more effective at changing local conditions.
DeRay has a national audience, though. A successful term as mayor of Baltimore (or even a damn good run at the office) could have him excellently positioned for the presidency.
(Disclaimer: DeRay is high on the list of people I would bend over backward to vote for.)
He certainly seems to exude the values I want to see in government. However I also want to see him deliver. He’s done enough to earn my vote for mayor or state rep. Not enough of a track record for governor or federal rep for me.
I’ll be the first to admit there is a big difference between saying and doing … but the people who only say and can’t do often have some tell-tale signs. One of the things that I find particularly excellent for DeRay that puts me in the “would bend over backwards” category is how much of his activism is amplifying others’ voices.
I know it’s not a guarantee of anything. But it is pretty rare in my experience.
Yeah, I mean, obviously calls for president are premature (maybe nicer to say “aspirational”). I think it’s great that he’s running for mayor and I can see it as a possible stepping stone to a more position of larger influence in the future. The flip side of that, though, is that I really believe he’s running for mayor of Baltimore because he thinks he could make the city of Baltimore a better place by being it’s mayor. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t really be very interested in him, either as a mayoral candidate or as a possible future candidate for something larger.
I’m surprised to see all the love for McKesson here, from people who usually look more deeply into things. He’s not an agent of genuine progressive change. He’s a self-aggrandizing person whom much of BLM disaffiliates from and recognizes as a one-man show. For starters, he pushes public-ed destroying charter schools and job-destroying Teach for America:
I just wanted to follow up on this. The result of the BLM protest outside Toronto police headquarters was actually a big success. The province certainly didn’t give in to specific demands, but the major issue was around releasing the Special Investigations Unit report around the death of Andrew Loku. The province did not release the name of the officer who shot Loku or the full report, but they did release the findings of the report, which include blunt comments from the director of the SIU that police were uncooperative in the investigation. More importantly, the premier is considering releasing that portion of future SIU reports as a general practice.
SIU reports often find the police were uncooperative but are rarely released to the public (and in fact are seen by very few people). Being called to account publicly will mount pressure on cops to stop blocking the SIU. This is a small first step, but it is actually a meaningful one. I was happy to see a real result achieved, one that is going to be the building block for further action. I’m sure many involved in the protest feel this wasn’t good enough, but I’m still very appreciative of them and their efforts.
