News In case you haven't noticed, the US is on fire #BandwithWarning

BlackRainbowFT

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How can people keep living there ? I mean, I know the answer... I'm just an outsider looking in.

I'm from Europe and I'm perfectly aware we have truckloads of racist assholes (I'm trying to do my part... I'm in a position that sometimes allows me to have a very real effect on people's lives... and I managed to literally save a few patients by fighting against the notion that they were just "thugs", thus unworthy of our collective efforts ("what's the point ? they'll just get back on the streets, slinging dope and getting into fights"). And they absolutely weren't thugs, they were honest, lovely people who just had the misfortune to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time.)... but THIS level of evil is just something I can't deal with.

One thing that I find particularly aggravating is the perpetuation of the myth that the USA is the most bestestest country on earth. This level of collective cognitive dissonance is mind-boggling.

One can only hope that all of this will finally bring about some major societal changes.

Just out of curiosity... have there ever been concerted efforts from the black community to encourage more people to become police officers (you know... like some kind of targeted chemotherapy) ? I wonder what the proportion of African Americans in the force is.
 
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Hektor

Hektor

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Another person killed by the fascist regime

Nevermind, it's two
 
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fantomena

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In Norway, due to corona rules, you there cannot be more than 50 people in one place with less than 1 meter distance.

It's reported that close to 20k will show up outside the US ambassad here to protest tommorrow and close to 50k has shown interest. That's insane for a small country like Norway.
 
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NarohDethan

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Mexico is also having some protest due to the killing Giovanni, a construction worker who was killed by the police because he wasn’t wearing a face mask.
 

Firewithin

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Though even then: Only two officers suspended when everyone else walks past a person that lies on the ground and bleeds from the head is nothing
yup absolutely sickening how one of the pigs had an actual moment of "oh shit" then just kept marching along with fellow pigs

[UWSL]ACAB[/UWSL]
 

Phoenix RISING

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I'm so angry, I'm...calm.

I think my calm comes from the realization that the police have been trained with so much racist ideology over generations in order to quell any potential uprising by minorities to maintain the white hegemonic status quo, that they WOULD HAVE NEVER EXPECTED white people to join blacks out in the streets, and the results are what we are seeing on video.

No one is being spared. White moderates can't look at this and say, "Welp, if only they..." nope! Police gonna shoot you with rubber bullets while you stand on your porch, too.

This isn't sustainable. Additionally, the whole world is witnessing how bad it is in "the best country."

Chickens coming home to roost.
 

Trisolarian

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One of the darkly amusing things coming out is how the world is getting to see, via social media, the absolute loony toon level of crazy statements released by Police Unions.


That LAPD statement is just a taste.

Also, the absurdly high police budgets. You wonder how people living in terrible places with no money from cities/towns to even inspect these places or hold landlords to account??? Money was needed to buy moar military surplus gear and pay overtime.


If this was a fictional world, it'd be satire.

As to what Phoenix said, to cops its other cops first, white supporters second, netural whites third, down 50 rows to white protesters, down 5000 to black people and down 5 million to black protesters. If you're not taking home the bronze in this contest...... whew.
 

Swenhir

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If this was a fictional world, it'd be satire.
That graph is surreal. Is the full data available somewhere? Not to doubt anything about it but to try and see if it's that disproportionate compared to absolutely everything else, or "just" Art&Culture, Employment and Health.
 

Trisolarian

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That graph is surreal. Is the full data available somewhere? Not to doubt anything about it but to try and see if it's that disproportionate compared to absolutely everything else, or "just" Art&Culture, Employment and Health.
I'm sure there is full data on past budgets, what I linked to was the purposed budget.

There are more examples deeper in that thread.

Police get $$ in America. They get serious $$. Just like the military in the federal budget. Unfortunately, it seems like our homeland paramilitary force sees its own countryman as their enemies too often.
 

gabbo

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That graph is surreal. Is the full data available somewhere? Not to doubt anything about it but to try and see if it's that disproportionate compared to absolutely everything else, or "just" Art&Culture, Employment and Health.
The people in charge would have to actually want to give a damn about the problems in their cities to spend that money on those other things. Splitting that 500million (or the 3 billion the LAPD gets, because jeeeesus) would probably eliminate the other issues on the graph - but if the government is seen as doing it, it's bad and those operating in the open market will voice their displeasure loudly.
 

Swenhir

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An interesting article I stumbled upon. I'm by no means pro-military, especially the US one, but this is pretty important and, well, right.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper broke publicly with Trump on Wednesday in an appearance at the Pentagon and said active-duty military troops should not be used to quell the protests. Other military leaders soon followed.

"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations," Esper said.

General Mark Milley, the top US commander, later the same day issued a memo to military leaders reminding them of their oaths to protect the US Constitution and the "right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly".
Again, I'm not a fan of the military and its impact on the "civilian" world, from the MIC to the way they shape budgets and all that jazz. However, as an institutional body revolving around force, their behavior so far couldn't be more different from the police. From what I understood, the Pentagon basically packed up and told Trump to go inspect the side of the white house where light doesn't shine after he tried to deploy the National Guard in anticipation for protests today.

I hope I didn't get any details wrong, do correct me if I did!

edit: typo
 
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fantomena

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An interesting article I stumbled upon. I'm by no means pro-military, especially the US one, but this is pretty important and, well, right.



Again, I'm not a fan of the military and its impact on the "civilian" work, from the MIC to the way they shape budgets and all that jazz. However, as an institutional body revolving around force, their behavior so far couldn't be more different from the police. From what I understood, the Pentagon basically packed up and told Trump to go inspect the side of the white house where light doesn't shine after he tried to deploy the National Guard in anticipation for protests today.

I hope I didn't get any details wrong, do correct me if I did!
Reminds me off this:

 
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ISee

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Police expected a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people to protest in mayor German cities this Saturday. Instead ten of thousands (15k Berlin, 20k München, 8k Frankfurt, etc.) came. Not that it's helping much, the U.S. administration certainly doesn't give one single f* about foreign demonstrations.

---


Two officers pushed an elderly man, who felt and started bleeding out of his ear. I'm pretty sure you all saw the video. The department claimed that the old person tripped, but the mayor intervened and suspended the officers, And now 57 cops resigned in protest because they feel like their colleagues have the right to be as violent as they want to be, and there should be not consequences if things go horribly wrong.
:steam_pig_scowling:
 

Ascheroth

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Police expected a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people to protest in mayor German cities this Saturday. Instead ten of thousands (15k Berlin, 20k München, 8k Frankfurt, etc.) came. Not that it's helping much, the U.S. administration certainly doesn't give one single f* about foreign demonstrations.

---


Two officers pushed an elderly man, who felt and started bleeding out of his ear. I'm pretty sure you all saw the video. The department claimed that the old person tripped, but the mayor intervened and suspended the officers, And now 57 cops resigned in protest because they feel like their colleagues have the right to be as violent as they want to be, and there should be not consequences if things go horribly wrong.
:steam_pig_scowling:
It really makes your blood boil.
They have no shame at all. Literally creating their own "evidence" to justify their abhorrent shit.


Look at this. It's a fucking candle! There's still the fucking sticker on it!
"We had to get violent, because they threw explosives at us, like checks note candles."
(Note: they apparently weren't even thrown:
)
It's unbelievable.
 
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Phoenix RISING

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I looked for anything around New Jersey and New York and discovered that there is a street named after Robert E Lee in NYC...
The number of racist symbols that exist in this country is staggering.

Constant reminders that we are displaced in our own home.

Today, I drove by a huge General Custer monument.

 

Swenhir

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The number of racist symbols that exist in this country is staggering.

Constant reminders that we are displaced in our own home.

Today, I drove by a huge General Custer monument.
If only they were actually historical monuments, I could see some measure of value to them, some context that justifies preserving them in some form. However they are just intimidation symbols built and intended for that purpose. They are loathsome.
 

Trisolarian

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I looked for anything around New Jersey and New York and discovered that there is a street named after Robert E Lee in NYC...
Nothing in NJ. We just sent Union troops down south lol, no love lost there.

Finally got to go to a protest today. Was in central NJ town, couple hundred people, surprisingly white, actually marched down mainstreet and everything. There was a county jail we walked by, we could hear the people inside banging on the windows as the chant was "let my people free" Hell of a moment.
 

Swenhir

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It's not directly related to the protests but I came across this today. There's been a lot of disheartening news lately, lots of things that make you draw on that well of hope and faith in humanity to believe it'll be okay. But this one is just flat-out disgusting.

Mind you, it starts off okay, or would if those statues were actually historical. Flawed premise, kind of understandable reasoning :
At one point during the meeting, a white supervisor, Harry Sanders, said moving the monument would solve nothing and would be an attempt to erase history.

“We need to be reminded of some atrocity that happened,” he said. “If we are not reminded about it, we are going to have a tendency to forget it and (the history) is going to repeat itself.”
However after that, the mask falls off and this pearl came out to the sound of his carreer shattering as he committed political suicide (or at least ought to)
After the meeting, Sanders, a Republican, was quoted by the Commercial Dispatch as saying that other groups of people who had also been mistreated in the past — he cited Irish, Italian, Polish and Japanese immigrants — were able to successfully “assimilate” afterward.

“The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans,” Sanders said. “You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didn’t have to go out and earn any money, they didn’t have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there. The Democrats right here who depend on the black vote to get elected, they make them dependent on them.”
You cannot make that stuff up.
 

Phoenix RISING

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Ah yes, the 'ol "black people are lazy" gag.

Gets 'em every time. Nevermind the Black Migration where we ran away from "not slavery" of sharecropping to find good-paying work to the chagrin of European immigrants who came to this country for the same reasons. Let's ignore that because it's convenient.




At any rate, those ideologies are dying, and protests have been peaceful. Those monuments to racism will fall, even over their dead bodies.
 
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Trisolarian

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Glad Trisolarian bumped this thread.

Fuck this country man.
Like how the fuck is there a defense force for

A: Getting shot in the back 7 times, in front of your kids, after stopping a fight, no weapons..... No defense is possible.

B: 17 year old kid open carrying an AR when they're from another state.... Like how in the fuck do you defend the kid and the media/social media shit storm and groups that got him into that position.
 

Swenhir

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Like how the fuck is there a defense force for

A: Getting shot in the back 7 times, in front of your kids, after stopping a fight, no weapons..... No defense is possible.

B: 17 year old kid open carrying an AR when they're from another state.... Like how in the fuck do you defend the kid and the media/social media shit storm and groups that got him into that position.
When you have either a vested interest or emotional stake in the system not being wrong, or when you are paid to do so. At least those are motives - as unhealthy as they are - that I can come up with.

Not that I'm likely to surprise you with those :/.
 
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