Anyone who doesnt see that what the police are doing in most of these incidences are wrong, is blind. Anyone projecting a righteous cause of social injustice on these looters and thugs is being naive.
Lol, their problems? Rioting? Really? I have no problem with peaceful demonstrations and i dont condone police brutality, but rioting is not the answer. They are distroying their own neighborhoods. Also not sure why you think the national guard protecting people and businesses is an issue.
Having crowds of angry people burning things to the ground a few miles from your house goes a bit beyond inconvient. Maybe EQSup doesn’t have a secret bunker in the mountains to run away to if the destruction finds its way to his house.
EQSup, I just didn’t see any thought given to the underlying issue. Maybe it was just my interpretation but I’ve never heard a peep from you before the riots and there was no mention about trying to move on to addressing the issue in your post. Kinda looked like you just wanted the riots to go away so you could go back to ignoring their problems.
What is the answer then? What else do black impoverished communities do? There are no Koch brothers out there to buy a voice for them. People keep talking and talking and nothing gets done while these cases keep piling up. If the outlook of law makers on the cost of instuting reforms is a risk / reward play as I’m sure it is, then the risks to inaction just got revised.
Actually miles away is pretty much just an inconvenience. If anybody had lifted a finger in the two weeks after the kid died maybe Baltimore wouldn’t be in this boat, per my point on the South Carolina homicide charges 3 days after the event took place.
The solution to “police brutality” is to just obey the law and not cause trouble. Looting and rioting is the opposite of this. Police use excessive force partly because they fear for their own safety in the line of duty. The more blacks participate in unrest and violence, the more the police will fear black crime suspects and err on the side of excessive force when dealing with these people.
Instead of blowing up in the face of police incidents, the community must become better. If they are not a threat, they will not face violence from law enforcement.
How about some leadership coming from within the black community? Name the first two black leaders that pop into your head. Now, think about how amazingly determental they’ve been to the overall cause of the very people they claim to represent.
But let’s forget about leadership at the national level. It’s not like we have a black President or anything. How about community leadership? How about a middle-aged black man standing up and saying he’s had enough and he’s embarrashed by the younger members of his community? How about a black person taking a leadership role and advocating community involvement through any number of avenues? How about black people rising up against their idiot cousins, and making it known they won’t stand for rioting and looting anymore? How about having a little pride and taking care of your community instead of burning it down…or at least pick up the damn trash in your yard and make an attempt at keeping your neighborhood respectable looking?
Rioting may effect change but it’d be through fear and anger. Other races (it wouldn’t just be whites) would resent blacks for essentially terrorizing their way to get what they want. Instead of having to help them out of fear, wouldn’t be better to want to help the black community because they want to help themselves?
BS is all for black people!
I hope your daughter is lucky enough to become impregnated by one of these fine upstanding vote for change protestors.
Dude, too far.
A few things come to mind:
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I agree with Black Swan, inasfar as violent protests are usually much better at effecting change than nonviolent protests. In fact, most great revolutions come about because of violent protests. (Remember the Alamo!)
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However, in almost all of these high-notoriety cases, it involves white-on-black violence, where the white is a cop and the black is violent toward the cop. Now, common sense should dictate not to be violent towards a cop, or a person with a firearm. Apparently the “victims” didn’t get the memo.
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I’ve never been killed by a cop, or shot by a cop, or attacked by a cop, or wrestled to the ground by a cop. I believe this is because I don’t break the law. And if I do, I shut the f–k up and say “Yes sir, no sir” until I am released.
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Black Swan seems to be dangerously close to defending people’s right loot and mob and destroy other people’s property, even when the root cause is their own stupidity. Yes, Freddie Gray’s case is a tragic accident. But the dude was running from the cops. What do you expect to happen, idiot?
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Black Swan likes to tell people that he’s willing to fight and suffer and die for what he believes is right. Hence, the “grow a spine” comment. However, his bark seems to be more than his bite. I have yet to hear him say that he actually participates in any of these protests. (I, on the other hand, was in the Marines, and I fully admit to being a coward.)
I didn’t know Black Swan wrote for the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/
Ohai and I have different views. I get what he’s saying, I don’t agree based on the cases that have come forward.
STL, I agree 100% about the lack of leadership.
First I don’t think a lack of leadership in the community excuses or alters the root cause to the riots.
That being said, I was thinking about it at lunch and one of the HUGE issues for why nothing is being done comes from a lack of clear objectives. There’s no clear endgame to any of the protests. In the 60’s they wanted to end segregation and repeal racist laws, but they were clear about what they were. They would protest that specific thing and get it changed. Now people protest then they go home and we all feel like something should be done, but no one is quite sure what. So we want to end racism in the police force, sure ok, but what laws do you want, repealed or added, what policies. This is a real problem to the cause. Additionally, I would like to get involved but at the same time, white leadership is bound to face resistence and potentially undermine a black civil liberties cause.
^^^^^ too far.
EDIT: Holy crap this thread is moving fast.
Reminds me of a quote I heard out here in Republican White Supremicist West Texas:
“Everyone is pro-life until their daughter gets knocked up by a nigger.” (Yes–I actually heard this statement from a “pillar of the community” out here.)
#3 The guy never did or was accused of anything. He has a right to run if he wants. It may be not a smart move, but it’s his constitutional right. You can say what you want about your own experience but you’re also white.
#4 I have rioted once (there were cars flipped, windows broken, I saw some looting, I limited my participation to ripping down a bus stop) and been arrested several times (one of which was for breaking a cell door during a detainment).
This is a naive view that assumes that ALL cops are unbiased upholders of law especially when dealing with black people. I don’t doubt that MOST of them are. But there are plenty of thugs in the ranks of the cops and the uniform gives them a good cover to bully and harrass those that they dislike.
Non-violence works against those who have a conscience and/or care for their self-image as being just. Period. It didn’t work against Southern hillbillies like Wallace who don’t care about right and wrong as much as they care about protecting their privilege. Today the cops seem to think they are privileged and their brutality needs no justification. Any number of non-violent protests are unlikely to change that view, especially since the cops’ “power stems from the barrel of a gun”.
Violence is not the answer but it is an expression of frustration. If the cops had listened to black people’s concerns in the last two weeks then we wouldn’t be here at this point today.
I’m not an expert in Maryland state law, but I doubt this is true.
Sure, he has a right to resist unecessary force, but I don’t know if this was the case.
You can’t be stopped, detained or searched without cause. It’s constitutionally factual. It’s been used to avoid stopping at DUI checkpoints a lot lately.
BLACK swan…coincidence…?