You may well be 100% correct and I’m inclined to agree. But we have to understand that going to route of completely upending society has consequences. Our only path forward might be through, but getting to a new system will really include tearing down the old, and doing that will include large scale destruction, and the people who the most resources will be the most well-insulated from the destruction, I’d fear. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know. Maybe we have nothing to lose but our chains, but I’m not sure that history bears that out.
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I think this is true too. Make people see what they have in common is a big step to getting to meaningful change.
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A major part of the problem, right there.
Maybe this goes along with the professionalization/institutionalization of community protection?
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I remember a brief discussion, in a book on the Minneapolis General Strike of 1934, about how you might have “Officer Friendly” when there’s relatively little conflict going on, but as conflicts heat up, relatively decent police will tend to get pushed out by more combative police.
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St. Louis County separated itself from the city of St. Louis, so that the county is not very black. (Sheriffs are county officers.) It’s kind of a strange political situation. The area I always thought was St. Louis’s main corporate area turns out to be in Clayton, in the county. The town of Ferguson is heavily black though, so if more people voted in municipal elections, the city government might end up rather different.
I’d like to see adults doing this to each other. No matter what color! 
Here are some of my ideas, and I will be using the term of President Obama, “communities of color”:
video cameras, community involvement, black sheriff, etc.
You are simply repeating very obvious things that will never be allowed by the cops and other leaders of the area—and by leaders I mean the Chamber of Commerce, not the community. Democracy is a good thing, but between disenfranchisement and a local media saturated with conservative voices propped up by heavy ad dollars, the obvious thing isn’t tried because the obvious thing is actively fought. By bigots.
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That just world fallacy runs deep…
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And if that cop had shot that kid in cold blood, a grand jury would be presented with exculpatory evidence that the boy’s DNA and fingerprints were all over the cop.
Hugs and tears from police and protestors in Portland isn’t unusual.
I love he’s the adopted son of a Lesbian couple. I’m so goddamn happy I live here.
I’ve spoken to police, out watching Occupy. They were chill, and said privately they agreed with them, and they were just here to make sure people are safe.
I used to think cops were evil. In many places they are. Here its a different culture… But all across the U.S. our justice and policing systems are truly fucked up. Even good people seem bad when the systems they work in are monstrous.
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Well, #notallPortlandcops… are awesome.
This cop actually participated in the “I am Darren Wilson” thing, and later the same day after hugging this kid, drove his motorcycle into a crowd of protesters:
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