Mod note: a reminder that calls for more violence will be removed promptly. There is enough pain and suffering already without calls for more being tolerated here.
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Cops and corrections officers taking a knee in front of rally in Miami. This is beyond unprecedented.
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Is this a show of solidarity with the protesters? Talk about a unicorn chaser if that’s the case.
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I heard that cops joined the protests in Flint too.
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To me that’s the only significant and meaningful way to publicly address the protests. Telling protestors there’s a curfew, or to calm, go home and let things work themselves out, etc i view as talking down to citizens and only allows for things to continue deteriorating. This is pretty much the only thing that i’ve seen where my immediate reaction isn’t anger, disgust or frustration. If law enforcement themselves had an about face about their own role in the violence these protests would not have escalated to where we are now.
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Finally catching up on this thread. (I’m in Minneapolis and have been more focused on things here in Mpls than on the bbs. We are grieving, sleep-deprived, and on edge.)
FWIW, FTR, the club’s former owner (Maya Santamaria) is quoted as saying that she’s not sure they knew each other.
“They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.”
Although the two overlapped working security on popular music nights within the last year, Santamaria can not say for certain they knew each other because there were often a couple dozen security guards, including off-duty officers.
George Floyd and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin both worked as security guards at the same nightclub as recently as last year, but its former owner says she’s not sure if they knew each other.
…
While Chauvin’s off-duty job at the El Nuevo Rodeo club stretched over 17 years until a few months ago, Floyd only started working there recently as a bouncer and only worked about a dozen events put on by “African American promoters.”
Santamaria, who sold the venue within the past two months, said she doesn’t believe the two men knew each other prior to their fateful encounter Monday night.
However, the second link (CBS - WCCO) is well worth reading for Santamaria’s description and opinion of Chauvin’s behavior toward black customers at the club:
What she is certain of is how aggressive Officer Derek Chauvin became when the club hosted events that drew a mainly black clientele, responding to fights by taking out his mace and spraying the crowd, a tactic she told him was unjustified “overkill.”
“He would mace everyone instead of apprehending the people who were fighting,” said Maya Santamaria, former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo club in Minneapolis. “He would call backup. The next thing you would know, there would five or six squad cars.”
She said Chauvin got along well with the club’s Latino regulars, but his tactics toward unruly customers on what she referred to as “African American” nights led her to speak to him about it.
ETA: oops, I had meant to include this part too:
“I told him I thought this is unnecessary to be pepper-sprayed. The knee-jerk reaction of being afraid, it seemed overkill,” Santamaria said. “It was a concern and I did voice my opinion, but police officers have a way of justifying what they do.”
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I concur; if not all cops are abusive rage monsters who terrorize US citizens at will, then SHOW me that by breaking ranks and speaking out/standing up against the cops who are doing shit like this:
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The land of the free and home of the brave… 
These cops insight disorder, they can only restore order with brutal domination. Must suck living in the same household as these violent monsters.
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It took me until now to put my finger on what he reminded me of… Somewhat tall and thin, the weird, calm way he saunters with the umbrella, almost divorced from the world around him, leaving destruction in his wake…reminded me of the illustrations of the Cat in the Hat in Dr. Seuss’s books.
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I am not there now but the Gables is a city inside Miami where the police are relatively professional. That said, the guy in the picture is wearing a Miami-Dade PD shirt and they are county cops, a whole other animal. Unless somebody finds some deep dark macciavelian conspiracy to save police forces’ collecive asses from a fate like what happened to LAPD after those riots, I would, hopefully, and tentatively believe this may just be a moment of epiphany for some of the smarter members of police departments. Or at the very least, cover for coming out of the thin blue closet.
Heck, Doctors Without Borders is going to the U.S. to help with COVID relief for vulnerable communities, including the homeless population of NYC. America is winding down its empire in the most embarrassing way possible.
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I looked at the comments here, and one aspect I think needs discussing is just how much prosecutors have become beholden to the police. It seems they are cowed by the threat of noncooperation should they start enforcing the law against the law enforcers.
I think that is the real failure of Senators Harris and Klobuchar, the way they played along. At best, they silently accepted that the good old boy network was too powerful.
The watchmen are not being watched.
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That, and after working together with cops day in and day out, I think they feel a certain tribal alligence or at the very least a subconcious bias toward the familiar.
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Amash is my favorite Congresscritter.
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Cops shooting pellets at protestors tag a woman in the head wile she was headded home with groceries in Dallas.
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I’d love to see QI get binned. (None of my values will become written as law until McConnell stops sitting on a pile of stalled legislation like Smaug on gold.)
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When some teacher is revealed to be a child molester you never see teachers around the country rallying behind them in solidarity and instinctively taking their side over the side of the children and the public. You never see teachers suggesting there may have been justification for the crime or extenuating circumstances we should consider before condemning their colleague. You never hear “Not All Teachers!”
You know why? Because as a group, teachers know who they serve and don’t let tribalist bullshit get in the way of the safety of the children they are charged with protecting.
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Mod note: I can’t believe I have to say this, but the BBS does not require the ability, will, or opportunity to be involved in protest to comment in this topic! Further attempts at gatekeeping will be eaten.
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For that metaphor to be accurate, the teachers around the country would have to be molesting children on camera at protests against teachers caught molesting children.
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