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Henroid

Black Lives Matter

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Man that video is rough.  Every time I see something like that with an officer screaming something that the suspect is already doing just infuriates me.  She spent a good two minutes yelling at a guy who was already on the ground with his hands where she could see them to get on the ground and keep his hands were she could see them.  I mean I understand that cops need to escalate in certain situations, but it seems like there is no upper limit on that or any consistent idea of what to do once that escalation has occurred.  I mean she was so amped up as to be completely unintelligible throughout most of that encounter, where I would assume she should have kept her composure to some degree.  Does anyone know what kind of training cops get on unpredictable situations?  I know in medical schools at some point they have all the doctors go into a room and tell an actor they just got some horrible diagnosis just so they can prepare themselves for someone having an extreme reaction to hearing that kind of news.  Do cops go through anything like this?

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Fuck, that was hard to watch. He wasn't a threat at all. Just an old dude laying on the ground being electrocuted over and over. It's like they can't identify signs of fear opposed to signs of resistance. That guy was just terrified.

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Most cops I have heard from were paid pretty abysmally  (I think they make about 30k or less a year so I heard they have to take part time security jobs to support themselves better) so I wouldn't think too highly of average training.  Trigger discipline that most westerners expect out of combatants exist only among like top elite soldiers so I'm actually 'impressed' that she only fired twice and when his left hand was under his body.  That's the reason why jury acquitted her because they thought his hand at that time (around 1:11) could have looked like he was reaching for a weapon and the audible sound of the taser in video is suppose to mean that connection was poor (so defense's argument is that at the time of shooting, victim had full motor control of the body).  Of course he was unarmed... and he was more likely reaching for drug (think it was heroine?) in his possession.

 

Bug I digress because I don't want to sound like her defense lawyer nor think she did a good job, but do keep in mind she was acquitted by the jury AFTER seeing this video which means we not only have police brutality issue, but that American public seem to have extremely high tolerance for one (and somehow thinks running away pretty much make it open season).  Also it sounds like prosecution just fucking dropped the ball hard (no expert witness, no question about possible previous history between the two, the fact that she gave zero shit about victim's brother yelling at her from behind going completely unexamined for examples).

 

Also the escalation issue is kinda borked because cops carry guns... if they have legitimate concern about their safety, because they have weapons on themselves, they have to escalate to maximum very fast because otherwise their weapon is also at a risk... like I recall reading (on other news sites) complaints about how cops should never fire upon unarmed suspects even if they fight back but you can see why having a fistfight with someone else while you have a gun on you is just outrageously dangerous and dumb.

 

Like this whole shit is so fucked because we have so much guns among the population, have a group that's armed to control such population and then have the said group paid like shit.

 

On a positive note, at least we got this one on camera :x

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Do cops go through anything like this?

Probably depends on where they are and a host of other stuff. My old supervisor used to be a police officer in the town I attended college in before becoming a programmer and eventually a supervisor (he was also a fighter pilot or radar guy in fighter planes before that, but I digress). He said he never carried his gun with him...always left it locked up in the car because he never needed it and violent crime was relatively low there. I got the impression he also felt if he ever had to draw a gun he'd likely fucked up. But that was one individual in one place (with a small population in WV) during one period of time.

Other areas are different due to both policy and just the realities of the locale. In a lot of places I think police are so separate from the community that it creates friction between the public and police. I'm not sure how you fix that in an acceptable amount of time and I think it's one of the many root issues. If police don't see themselves as part of the community and start seeing the community as a threat or an obstacle, they aren't going to function as they should. I also think there needs to be almost a variation of the Hippocratic oath for law enforcement: do the least amount of harm. The best resolution should be one where punitive action is avoided, violence isn't enacted, and conflict is resolved with fairness, compassion, and humanity. But making that happen is tough and in the immediate future concrete clear policy reforms with an eye for making things better are needed...and I will admit that I'm not qualified to sharp enough to say what those should be (the site mentioned above has some good ideas) and my life experiences don't make me the ideal person to really speak on that.

Edit: I typed this out on a phone so its probably a meanderings mess.

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Training standards for police vary wildly around the country. Here in Seattle, I'd call what we have fairly robust having talked to friends-of-friends about it, and we still have pretty stupid mistakes from time to time. I'd imagine that no level of training can really prepare you for when the shit hits the fan.

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Campaign Zero has an update to the site; they have a report on body camera usage.

http://www.joincampaignzero.org/reports

 

The chart has the answers to the following questions, which are at the bottom of the image but are super tiny to read.

 

Coverage: What percent of the total police force is currently wearing body cameras?

Fairness: Are officers prohibited from viewing footage of critical incidents before making initial statements or reports, a common investigative practice used with civilians suspected of a crime?

Transparency: Can the public obtain footage of a deadly force incident once investigations have concluded without being subject to the police, the court's, or the Mayor's discretion?

Privacy: Is footage deleted after six months or less if it does not depict use of force, detention, civilian complaint, or is determined to have evidentiary, exculpatory, or training value?

Accountability: Are there clear guidelines for how officers who do not follow body camera policy should be disciplined?

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Fuck pigs and this white washed world.

Ugh

Yeah, this a drive-by fuck this world post. As a PoC having dealt this, I'm almost 24/7 angry at this world we live in.

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The shit going on with Mizzou, racism, and their football program is fucking nuts.

 

What are they chanting in that video? It sounded like "I am..." (crowd) "JESUS!" but that makes no sense.

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He was chanting "in the name of" and the crowd was replying with "Jesus!". 

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The city of Boston has just banned toy guns being out in public. I didn't read the article yet but I'm guessing it's because cops are fucking shooting kids.

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I might grudgingly agree to this making sense if it weren't for the fact that (if my brief and superficial googling bears out) Massachusetts allows concealed carry permits. So, (black) kids holding fake guns in a playground = dangerous, (white male) adults swaggering around with hand-cannons in their pockets = no problem! 

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He was chanting "in the name of" and the crowd was replying with "Jesus!". 

 

So can someone explain why they were chanting this? I thought systematic racism was a secular issue. 

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The history of charismatic preaching, Christianity and the fight for civil rights are all heavily wrapped up together in the US.  It's not that it's a secular or religious issue, but it is that African Americans are much more likely to be religious and to use that religion as part of every facet of their lives. 

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Is there any simple historical reason for that? I know nothing about about it, it's probably complex?

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Is there any simple historical reason for that? I know nothing about about it, it's probably complex?

Like most other things, it has it's roots in slavery. Slaves were not allowed to read, but they were allowed to listen to scripture, which upon emancipation became the way most black people learned to read. There is more to it than that, but essentially the ubiquity of the Bible and white people's feelings about it basically made it the one type of knowledge that wasn't forbidden in the slavery era and moving forward. Basically white people had a problem with black people learning anything, for all the reasons you would suspect, but an exception was made for the Bible and Christianity.

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Not an expert, but my supposition is that Christianity is a religion that preaches deliverance. Thus, if you find yourself in a position where you have been systematically excluded from the powerful corners of society, it makes sense to find comfort in a faith that tells you the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished and all worldly concerns are fleeting.

 

Also, many of the branches of Christianity popular in the US (Baptism, Methodism, etc.) are based around the pulpit. This means that there are ready-made charismatic leaders inside the community who have the skill and the clout to make public demands. Lots of civil rights leaders have been clergy members, most famously Martin Luther King Jr.

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That's really interesting. Near where I live there are a few evangelical churches that are all black. They seem super popular.

 

In my ignorance, I've always wondered "Who in the UK identifies as Christian any more?" since my only exposure to Christians has been middle class fundamentalist (they're rare here, but they do exist). Everyone else seems to be atheist, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh. Of course, I don't know any non-middle class black people, and in my field of work, black people are incredibly underrepresented. I'm sure that makes up a huge part of those people within the UK that identify as Christian. 

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Not an expert, but my supposition is that Christianity is a religion that preaches deliverance. Thus, if you find yourself in a position where you have been systematically excluded from the powerful corners of society, it makes sense to find comfort in a faith that tells you the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished and all worldly concerns are fleeting.

 

Also, many of the branches of Christianity popular in the US (Baptism, Methodism, etc.) are based around the pulpit. This means that there are ready-made charismatic leaders inside the community who have the skill and the clout to make public demands. Lots of civil rights leaders have been clergy members, most famously Martin Luther King Jr.

 

I'm inclined to agree with you, lacking a more thorough knowledge of religiosity in the modern black community, because these are the same processes that lead to the rapid spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Yet another piece of evidence for (the awful and false analogy of) Pax Americana!

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That's really interesting. Near where I live there are a few evangelical churches that are all black. They seem super popular.

 

In my ignorance, I've always wondered "Who in the UK identifies as Christian any more?" since my only exposure to Christians has been middle class fundamentalist (they're rare here, but they do exist). Everyone else seems to be atheist, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh.

 

Turns out that census data is pretty easy to dig up. Using 2011 numbers, 59% of the UK is Christian, while 64% of the white UK is Christian. Given that the UK has less than two million black people with a 69% rate of Christianity, they're not buoying the numbers much. The large categories are Christian (59%), No religion (25%), Religion not stated (7%) and Muslim (5%).

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Wow that's some unexpected numbers. I have no idea if I'm completely disconnected from it, or whether people just don't admit to being christian any more.

 

Anyway, thread derailing.

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So this is tangentially related to Black Lives Matter.

 

Anyone know John Oliver's show, Last Week Tonight? They've had some episodes this year focusing on prisons in some manner, and the terribleness that comes with it. The latest episode is about people being released from prison, and how almost-impossible they have it in life once free (though this also applies to exonerated peoples too, for some fucking reason). I'm bringing this up and linking the subsequent episodes because black people are disproportionately thrown into prison above everyone else.

 

Actually looking through the list, I think I'm gonna pull stuff that has to do with law enforcement or the judicial system. Starting with the episode on Ferguson. These are all in chronological order, with this past Sunday's episode at the bottom. This isn't just about awareness building (please, share John's show with people), but I'm asking people in America to get in touch with your representatives in government - local and federal - and start demanding some change on this shit.

 

Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization

 

Civil Forfeiture (this has become a point for BLM / Campaign Zero)

 

Elected Judges

 

Municipal Violations

 

Bail

 

Mandatory Minimums

 

Public Defenders

 

Prison Re-Entry (that's the term for re-entry into society)

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Yesterday Black Lives Matters protesters were shot at by white supremacists in front of a police department in Minneapolis. The protesters, thankfully, have had non-fatal injuries. The protesters were there because of the shooting of a young man named Jamal Clark last week by the Minneapolis police.

 

http://www.citypages.com/news/report-white-supremacists-shoot-five-black-lives-matters-protesters-7855265

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