Agreed on all points.
Unfortunately the people in charge of that rich protest culture during the civil rights era were all systematically assassinated or imprisoned. Pretty effective method of containing that in the future right? 
edit: useful to see and heart breaking
It still sounds like what i always hear, sorry. You wonât get arrested or assasinated for protesting en masse.
The police will not open fire on a massive protest from the middle class. And if it does, that will be the first step of that ending.
Iâm sorry. I donât know. Iâm not a part of north american culture, but it honestly baffles me how little of this is on your media, except the usual left leaning suspects.
edit: that is indeed a very depressing list.
Boy⌠You may need to bone up on American history. Cause youâre wrong. That is just not true at all.
Basically it hasnât gotten to the point where people are ready to risk having their houses and communities firebombed for speaking out against injustice yet⌠How depressing is that?
I just might do that. Do you have any good reads to recommend on the subject? (or anyone else lurking?)
Iâm sorry if I overgeneralised before, Iâm a hopeless idealist.
A sort of related book that is very American in its subject is
An extensive review (edit: excerpt) of said book can be found here:
Iâm sure if you lookup biographies of anyone on the list of assassinated civil rights advocates youâd also find a great deal of info.
The story of America can be a sad and racist carnival obscured by decades/centuries of re-written history and obfuscating platitude. :\
Itâs not like the friedly brits would shoot anyone without cause. You know, just because they have âmongolian eyesâ so clearly they might be a suicide bomber from Africa.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes)
I know we all want to pad ourselves on the back for not being like those crazy Americans, we Canadians do this all the time, but lets not pretend that we all couldnât do a better job of things - policing, governing, whatever it may be. Thatâs not to say that the US doesnât have serious institutional issues, they sure do, but itâs not helping things much turning it into care-bear fun-fun land vs. evil nazi sith empire.
(this isnât specificically/only aimed at you tw1515tw, just these posts in general)
I would be asking why was she arrested?
Letâs be pretty clear who the âyouâ is, here. There has been massive black mobilization, including constructing country-wide protests at times, protests that have gone on for months, and the creation of a support-structure to ensure that this continues and their message gets out there.
But then white people whine that their traffic gets held up, why donât you think about the children who are SO AFRAID when traffic is held up (this is a serious thing Iâve seen), and then march in front of city halls waving Nazi flags.
The absolute reason more isnât done is because of racism, and because the majority of white people in the US are racist and completely fine with the cops doing whatever they damn well please, because in their eyes, it doesnât actually hurt them.
Yes youâre right, being afraid is the easier choice. The thing is, I just donât see how being more afraid is going to solve any of societyâs problems. Leaders like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. didnât change the world because they were fearful, but because they were fearless.
Moreover, persons in authority have a vested interest in keeping you afraid and fearful of others so that they can manipulate and control you.
Well have a nice day everyone, time for me to bow out of this conversation 
Yeah, thatâs been my perception as well. I saw the protests at ferguson, and the echoes around the country, and i also saw how it was framed by the media. Thatâs why I thought that non-racist white people, and other more privileged groups of your society should push harder against it.
Yes, itâs not perfect, the 2005 killing of Jean Charles de Menezes being a recent example.
There were 52 fatal police shootings 1900-1999, and 55 in the period 1990-2014. There are also deaths in cells (between 25-30 per annum), deaths involving police but not involving guns (such as Ian Tomlinson in 2009). Compared to the USA, these are low figures, but weâd hope they could be lower.
I think your heart is in the right place, but you are 100% incorrect that middle class white people wonât get arrested for protesting in the US.
That has happened repeatedly in both New York City and Toronto (and I am sure other cities). In fact in both cases people just trying to get home were rounded up and arrested when they werenât even part of the protests. I live two blocks from Union Square in Manhattan which is the center of most spontaneous protests and I literally have to stay at home when that kind of thing is going on because as a non citizen I will be deported if I am arrested even if it is mistaken or unjustified.
The NYPD have effectively made peaceful protest illegal. They will tolerate some marches, but the message is clear that the threat of arrest, multi-day detention, criminal record, and all that goes along with that is there.
most protests anywhere end with arrests, and some sort of violent repression. They still happen, because discontent is too big.
We had them here too, in argentina, during 2001. There was a lot of fear on the air, but people still mobilised.
Protests of all sorts happen here almost daily, for far less than a murderous police force doing some bullshie ethnic cleanse. If protest is illegal there, then the more reason to do it, imho.
Perhaps in Argentina a single arrest at a protest will not ruin your life forever as it has the chance to do in todayâs USA.
I have a green card that lets me live in the US, I also work as a consultant and often get background checks. A single arrest (not conviction!) will start the process for me to be deported with me losing my job and my house and all aspects of the life I have built here. That same arrest will also prevent me from working on most of my companyâs projects and would also most likely lead to me losing my job.
For that reason I cannot even be on the sidelines supporting a march or a protest. I wish it were not that way, but thatâs the reality with the current NYPD regime.
How ironic that the US and UK are now being shown how democracy should work by former dictatorships.
Iâm sorry to hear that. That really sucks.
I feel like what iâm always taking from these conversations is the feeling that the fight is lost. That this will fix itself when police tire themselves of having too much power(!) and the ability to murder whoever they want without consequence. Yeah. Good luck with that.
Apparently, my post was unclear.
âŚare observations FROM THE VIDEO. The cop in question did those things. Not some random cop somewhere in the world. The cop in the Sandra Bland video. The cop in the Sandra Bland video IGNORED a sports car that failed to signal a lane change. The cop in the Sandra Bland video IGNORED a car that turned left, in front of him, that did not use a turn signal.
Ya think?
What I find most disturbing, is that she clearly ran a stop sign. Is the cop really that blind? Did he even care why he was pulling her over?
Just curious, have you informed yourself of this?
Exactly. Her only offense was that she was annoyed by an asshole who zoomed up behind her and then pulled her over when she got out of the way.
Why did the cop zoom up behind her, anyway? Was he exceeding the speed limit? Was he driving reckless and she got out of the way? Seems likely if one listens to the audio.
He was rude to her and needling, not acting like a professional. Never-minding the fact itâs legal to smoke in a car in Texas â when she asked why she should have to put out the cigarette in her car, he should have calmly explained to her why instead of using that harmless, verbal action as cause to demand she get out of the car to arrest her.
Bascially, this pile of shit pig thinks we should live in a country where itâs OK to force a situation by driving aggressively behind citizens, needle them and then demand they remove themselves from an automobile because they dare ask a harmless question.
If this cop isnât removed from his position, then itâs time to remove everyone above him from their position. This unprofessional cop shouldnât be a cop, nor in any position of authority.
And the videoâs goneâŚ
You donât say!
Any reason you feel the need to be an ass here?
If itâs your MO, then I apologize. Continue.
