we didn’t get here for no reason. we got here because the police value the idea of themselves as macho enforcers and white warriors.
when someone challenges you, you respond with force. repeat until you “win.”
just because it’s obviously not working doesn’t mean you change your mind. you double down.
are any mayors or governors talking about ways to make real change yet? because it’s either that, or presumably this gets worse.
the police aren’t going to reform themselves
Be careful linking some stuff like this, it’s copaganda. They did this in Portland and then immediately started gassing and attacking folks once the press got their pictures, for example. AFAIK Flint didn’t turn, for example, but we have to wait and see if it’s bait.
Yeah, when all the video clearly shows the cops had plenty of room to back up and turn around. Makes me wonder who they use for insurance, because most companies say any incident or accident that could be avoided by the driver is considered to be their fault.
That was actually the most reasonable thing de blasio said about the ramming.
Other quotes from him:
The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround that police car, period…
I’m not going to blame officers who were trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation. The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with, and they created an untenable situation,”
Now first of all the video clearly shows they were nowhere near surrounded: the rear was completely clear and they could have easily backed up. But somehow cops always choose to cowardly “run toward danger”, overwhelming deadly force fully engaged, to make sure the danger is not to themselves.
Even if they had put themselves into an untenable situation, they are the ones who applied for that job and using deadly force on a dozen people who did nothing more than jaywalking on a closed street, just to save their few miserable asses is not even a remotely correct trolley problem solution.
AOC nailed it: driving SUVs into crowds should never be normalized. I cringed reading that, knowing de Blasio would have blood on his hands the next time a right winger felt threatened and drove into a crowd. It was hard to sleep after seeing at least three different videos on twitter, just hours after the de blasio statement, of police SUVs driving into crowds.
And gotta love the people who think this will somehow boost the president as people want a law and order defender. Is anyone really cognitively disassociated enough not to realize this conflagration was entirely on his watch? Please don’t answer.
That’s certainly the excuse they’d use against someone in a hoodie.
I should have included an “/s” after that statement. It was my way of trying to find some sense behind the nonsense that is a Trump Presidency.
fwiw I agree with everything you are saying.
Fair enough. Wasn’t aware of the the Portland chicanery.
Minnesota still hasn’t arrested or charged Chauvin’s accomplices.
The cities that aren’t cracking down on protesters still haven’t taken steps themselves to be proactive about making changes to the police.
Andrew Cuomo ordered the NYAG to report on the NYPD who ran over protesters with their SUVs within 30 days. Yet he doesn’t realize that he should be mobilizing the NY National Guard against the NYPD, rather than against the protesters.
Any city, any police department that genuinely wants to de-escalate the situation need to be pro-active, and voluntarily take steps to reduce police power, to involve the community in policing, to increase community oversight. A good first step would be to ban police unions for a minimum of a year, then re-evaluate. Create community oversight boards that are empowered to put an officer on leave at any time. To create local ordinances outlawing QI.
It’s not rocket science.
I’M SHOCKED
that they don’t follow the spirit or the letter of their own rules
I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE OMELETS
Come on, you know what they say about the cake…
No no, tomorrow…
Every fucking time.
My close relatives with gold badges (including two city chiefs) saw themselves as PEACE officers whose job was to defuse situations, not to lead occupying forces in enemy territory.
When my big Irish father-in-law walked a night beat in town, he was often accosted by a friendly drunk who staggered from the bar at closing, walked up to Pat, and jerked his uniform tie. Pat acquired a clip-on tie. Next time, the drunk yanked the tie loose and fell on his ass. “That’s the end of that, I guess,” he said. Situation defused.
But that was before the US became an open-carry nation. Now cops and civilians alike must assume everyone they see are armed, and any untoward move could be a deadly assault. Any other mindset is suicidal. In this world, everyone is an enemy. The center cannot hold.
That poem has been in my head a lot lately. Wonder why?
I can think of no better way to finish destroying unions than to give cover for getting rid of a union from the left.
Coincidentally, I saw this today. I respect the writer, though I haven’t thought about it at all yet:
Also many instances of police causing damage to propetry, theirs or others’.
Happened here in LA too. They dragged out a crown vic to do it with, graffitied it, and lit it on fire. I don’t think any LA pig has driven one of those in a heckin decade.
It’s sickening and frightening all at once.
Except if you read down, it’s not. The video has been removed because it’s inaccurate information, at least in that case. I don’t know about the LA case.
We can’t have it and eat it too?
If it’s not married by 25 nobody will want it?
