Yeah fair does. Pointing out that Gideon’s comment enveloped the BB totality.
This picture perfectly encapsulates what’s fucking wrong with Law Enforcement in this country. These pricks have no cause to point loaded rifles at a US civilian in broad daylight en masse. Are they expecting a suicide vest?
The “War on Terrorism” mentality has trickled down to every shithole town in every state. And the Federal govt has made access to money and military-grade arms easier than believable, and done nothing to stem the hysteria and militarization.
Now, when something bad happens - people being beaten or dying - amped up cops respond with lockdowns and all the bravado of a Russian military parade. All in the name of “community safety” and keeping the officers “safe”. But the mentality of these depts is no longer protecting and serving, it’s waging war.
And god forbid you hold cops/DEA/Fed agents to the same civil, legal standards as the average citizen. They can trample your rights, on or off the clock, with absolute impunity.
Of course not. But recognize as well the honest frustration that comments like Gideon’s are born out of. Given the circumstances of what’s going on in Feguson and elsewhere – it’s that frustration which seems most important rather than how exactly it was said.
Also, to be fair – he specifically dis-included non-libertarians and non-liberals so not all of BB
I thought we chased out all the illiberal unlibertarians?
yes, pet issue. Dragging something from another nation, on another topic, into this discussion. That’s a pet issue.
I’m not invalidating your point. I’m hoping you make a coherent argument FOR your point that isn’t based in handwaving at and namecalling of, say, anyone who disagrees with you
Sounds like you -do- have a prejudice problem. No wonder it bothers you in others.
I went out of my way to mention it (the unrelated story about berlin activists projecting a racist image on the US embassy)(in a causal relationship relative to this murder) was derailing to conversation about US police policies and US race relations, (also a bit insulting of my intelligence (and yours)) and IMHO, totally off topic,
Hey, go start a thread about it and I will gladly ignore whatever is said. It’s not personal.
I came here to hear about Ferguson, and talk about and listen about a murdered black man.
But by all means, change the subject to me. Whatever derails the conversation fastest.
Yeah I’m sure everyone here would suddenly listen if Gideon would just make even more of an effort by stating his case more respectfully. :-/
Hey it’s hard work to pound every story of police killings, slavery, and the Holocaust into a continuous narrative of white Christian victimhood.
in your opinion, who here is doing that?
I believe i dismissed the argument (and not the person) in hand, reasonably, and without any sort of invalidation of his person. I would hope there is a second line of reasoning avaiable to him to explain how racism in berlin (a thread which was totally fractious and much worse in tone than this one) has a direct relationship to this action of police brutality.
yes, racism ultimately led to both actions. They are both symptoms of bigoted intolerace, but that wasn’t Gideons point. was it? Gideons point was that stuff like that projection gets black people killed… and that seems to me to be mistaking the effect as the cause, and changing the subject.
both of which seem quite mendacious to me, and we’ve all had enough of that, haven’t we? FWIW I’m not offended in any way shape or form.
I am bothered by all the rounding errors people make… like where because I say a line of reasoning is specious and off topic, now -I am the racist-. Slow it down everyone. Take it easy.
This is exactly the sort of emotional reaction that the thugs are going for. They’re armed and ready for it.
Maybe the p-ball gun has pepper rounds.
No, the paint gun is being used to mark protesters for later arrest.
Source? I’ve heard of pepper balls. Actually, I know the guy who invented them. I haven’t heard of them marking people for arrest, though I guess its possible if they used an oil based paint or something.
There are actually both kinds of rounds. Some pepperballs also contain UV-reactive dye, so they perform both functions.
Some description here, more in-depth links maybe later as my time permits.
http://ukesanity.org/pdfs/chemguide.pdf
Though, I’m not sure that the skin color of the officer of a clearly, historically, purposefully racist institution changes much. Might make it sadder still, and more frustrating, but doesn’t change the tilt of the machine that makes the bullets rain down on black people.
Wait I know! Let’s make it a new rule that you can only call out racism in haiku form! That will slow them down, and make it much more enjoyable for the racists and their friends to be called out.
Seriously, I think most people here can identify with the impulse to jump to Corey’s defense, respecting and liking his work as much as we do. But it’s okay for someone to call him out on liking something that was racist to an expert on the subject- it’s in fact the most efficient way we get better. We can even, respectfully ask for more info about where the perception railway forked and some people didn’t see the racism seen by others, and learn.
But in any case, it is not GideonTJones’ responsibility to make people feel a certain fuzzy way when doing the brave thing and calling out racism, especially in a forum where s/he can see it will be an unpopular contribution to the discussion.
Random thought: when white people speak over racialized people on the topic of racism, can we call it ‘klansplaining’?
In other countries, markign protestors for later arrest is common, so always have a change of clothes and change of backpack in your backpack.
Works for me, though “whitesplaining” already has currency.