But is the officer racist or not? Assuming that they are also prejudiced against black people on some level, if they have systemic power behind their prejudices, would that make them racist?
Yes, people can be prejudiced against their own group, but my question was if they have systemic power against their own group in addition to these prejudices, would that make them racist?
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Yes.
Also: No.
Depends on what you mean by racist. I tend to define racism broadly enough that everyone commenting right now is at least a little racist. If you tell me what definition of “racist” you find maximally useful, I can offer you a more detailed perspective. But if you can come up with a definition of racist, then you can answer that question for yourself, right? I would just be giving you my angle using your definition.
I don’t ascribe to the idea that there’s only one way to define racism. I suspect what you’re going for is the kind of personal, moral culpability for certain actions that we most often call “racist.” But I don’t want to put words in your mouth. If you clarify that, I’m happy to offer you this one single person’s perspective.
ETA: I hope I’m making sense. Please ask questions if I’m not.
ETAA: I also worry I’m coming across as glib or like I think you’re being stupid. I just want to make clear that I appreciate that you’re asking questions in good faith. I don’t want to come across like I think this is an argument.
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Without knowing more about the officer in question i can’t say for sure. Theoretically speaking though we can reframe the issue and maybe get to some sort of answer: If a person is acting under orders and doing their job exactly as instructed, are they responsible for their actions if they commit any crimes?
This is considered the Nuremberg Defense and though this is for soldiers acting out orders in a war and not police officers i think there is enough overlap that i think this fits. And the conclusion here is:
“if it can be found that policy-makers are pushing or forcing
subordinates to act unjustly in war, they can be responsible for that as
well. Even soldiers who are fighting in an unjust war must still be
treated as legal combatants, and not held responsible for the war
itself.”
So i can’t tell you if this officer is racist but he’s at least prejudiced… though i don’t see how neither is relevant because at the end of the day he’s responsible and liable for his actions.
Well, this isn’t going to help things:
If the video shows what they claim it shows, they could end the violence right now. Which either means they’re lying or they want more violence, both of which are reprehensible.
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I’m a bit curious as to why you guys are giving more space to the police reports than protesters statements. Even one of Rob’s recent posts referred to the protests as riots. I was listening to Tom Hartman’s radio show yesterday and heard from a protester that the police converged on and essentially attacked a group of protesters that included prominent clergy members. I know BoingBoing is trying to be an ally but this still comes off as slanted towards the idea that the cops are holding the narrative.
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Even if the police were to attack the protesters the second it turns violent on both sides it’s a riot, and you can clearly see videos of rioters running around smashing and vandalizing private property.
Even if the protesters were to sit down singing “we all live in a military state, a military state, a military state,” the moment the police attack, the news will report that “protests turn violent,” and pundits will complain about “riots.”
… It’s a recurring pattern.
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I would have to see an actual example of that and it being referred to as a riot. For example when the Berkley protests where the security officer pepper sprayed the shit out of peaceful protesters i always saw that mentioned as a protest, not a riot.
Not saying that you’re statement isn’t true, i’d just need to see it happen. However news outlets do have tendency of calling black protesters thugs and try slanting the narrative heavily. Meanwhile a sports team loses and a mob of white guys lose their shit and destroy a few blocks and they don’t say much negative about the people involved.
I wasn’t there, but based on my research, during the “Battle of Seattle,” the police had been gassing protesters for about 1 1/2 hours before any protesters started smashing windows. And I think that was the symbolic French protest against McDonalds. But the papers the next day reported that the police only gassed protesters after some protesters had smashed windows.
Because the Accountability and Review Commitee had subpoena’d the police radio recordings, they were public records. I put in a request for several of the recordings but don’t have any way to share the recordings online. Anyway, the section from 8:36 to 8:40 had been erased, and 8:41 has some kind of firing, perhaps of the tear gas canisters. The King County police had planned to use tear gas all along, the Seattle Police started later, but still before any rioting.
I was at the 2005 counter-inaugural. From what I could see, we weren’t rioting. I had heard that the police were attacking other protesters, and was trying to get there. So I was standing up at the time. The police attacked us, and someone knocked me down, and they gassed me and sprayed pepper spray in my mouth, and beat me. Most papers decided not to report. I recall one reporting that we were rioting.
I eventually stopped work on the Seattle project, and I don’t feel I can search for the other news reports, especially of my own beating, because of my ptsd.
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I’d just like to take a moment to question why the media accepts the police narrative at face value when reporting on the on-going problem of police shooting black people and why we, their viewers, don’t hold them accountable for it.
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There’s a state of emergency to protect property from citizens, buy no effort at all to protect citizens from rogue officers?
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