The Murder of George Floyd & Subsequent Protests/Riots

[Cupcakemonster]

Too bad more people don't get they have something in common - government overreach.

 

[Red Memories]

The police officers in some places literally joining the peaceful protest sides is just a beautiful unifier to me.

I don't believe all police are bad, or racist, but there are bad officers who truly need to face repercussions. I ask that we not forget those officers who do actually care. But let's not see them as a reason to ignore the bad apples of the police force because it is a growing issue. Officers are trained often to react first and figure things out later, sometimes realizing the person wasn't armed at all. we need a better procedure, not turning the local police into a military force.

 

[anticlimatic]

I did? Where? Can you find the post? I don't remember it?



Actually, I said that I don't like the fact that there are riots, but I understand why they are happening. The fact that you can't wrap your head around that is exactly what I mean when I mentioned right-wing emotionalism. You're incapable of looking at the situation objectively, probably because you're very scared.

But I blame the police (and the mayors of these cities for encouraging them or dragging their feet on reform) for not holding their own accountable and protecting them for misconduct unless called on it. if they actually did show signs in listening to the protestors when they were being peaceful, instead of gassing them and whining about how it was unfair because the job is hard, we probably wouldn't have riots. It's logic. They acted like they were above accountability and the law, and it turns out, that can have negative consequences.


It's ok... I think they are nuts. I'm not particularly interested in earning the respect of people who admire a reality-tv show clown.

Objectively, tangibly, physically- I see riots. I do not see the systemic racism they claim to represent, in any of those ways. I'm open to changing my mind, but at present I just don't.

I might be emotional over it, and more than a little disturbed. By my own guidelines that may disqualify me from debating the issue credibly.

 

[Luminous]

Too bad more people don't get they have something in common - government overreach.

The left image - the government action of telling people to stay at home - that's TO SAVE LIVES
The right image - that's the government TAKING LIVES

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

The police officers in some places literally joining the peaceful protest sides is just a beautiful unifier to me.

I don't believe all police are bad, or racist, but there are bad officers who truly need to face repercussions. I ask that we not forget those officers who do actually care. But let's not see them as a reason to ignore the bad apples of the police force because it is a growing issue. Officers are trained often to react first and figure things out later, sometimes realizing the person wasn't armed at all. we need a better procedure, not turning the local police into a military force.

Yeah, the police should not be a military force. It was always cause for concern for me when I heard they were getting all kinds of surplus equipment from the U.S. military.

Trump makes it easier for the police to get military equipment

To be clear, this did not start with him.

Objectively, tangibly, physically- I see riots. I do not see the systemic racism they claim to represent, in any of those ways. I'm open to changing my mind, but at present I just don't.

I might be emotional over it, and more than a little disturbed. By my own guidelines that may disqualify me from debating the issue credibly.

There are riots. The riots are because of very real problems that were swept under the rug for too long. If one wishes to prevent riots, I think it is prudent to find ways to address those problems. Continue to sweep the problems under the rug, and I guarantee you, there will unfortunately be more riots.

 

[rav3n]

Just a reminder to people why serial killer cops (not all police) like Chauvin, might have felt liberated enough to murder.

Trump’s Plan to End Obama’s Peaceful Police Reform Succeeded

Last October, Minneapolis Police Union president Bob Kroll appeared at a Trump rally. Clad in his red “Cops for Trump” T-shirt, Kroll (who has been alleged to be affiliated with white supremacists) gloated that the president had unshackled his officers from the restraints imposed by Trump’s predecessor. “The Obama administration and the handcuffing and oppression of police was despicable,” he told the crowd. “The first thing President Trump did when he took office was turn that around, got rid of the Holder-Loretta Lynch regime and decided to start takin— letting the cops do their job, put the handcuffs on the criminals instead of us.”

We will never know if that unshackling emboldened Derek Chauvin to murder George Floyd. But the line between the relief demanded by Kroll on behalf of Minneapolis police, and the naked assassination committed on camera by one of his officers, is quite direct. The world around us, in which the streets of every major American city are filled with protesters, is the result of Trump granting the wishes of the most retrograde police officers. They are getting what they asked for.

The last few years of the Obama administration were one of the most productive periods of criminal justice reform in American history. The Obama administration changed sentencing guidelines to reduce the disparity in the treatment of drug crimes that had disproportionately harmed black defendants. As part of an effort to inculcate a “guardian, not a warrior” mindset, it restricted the transfer of surplus military equipment to police departments. Most importantly, it formed consent decrees with more than a dozen police departments to force them to change their practices.

These reforms did not root out brutality and racism. They were mild both in form and intent, undertaken with the goal of conciliating police and their communities, believing that enhancing trust would ultimately create safer conditions for police as well as those who fear them. It was the epitome of evolutionary cultural change.

This was the context for Trump’s nightmarish claims in 2016 that cities were being overtaken by bloodshed and carnage. Whatever wisps of data he could cite to support his wild rhetoric, Trump was drawing a picture borrowed from the imaginations of resentful police who experienced Obama’s carefully drawn nudges as intolerable oppression.

He reversed them swiftly. Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, ended the restriction on transferring military equipment to police, reviewed all consent decrees struck by his predecessor, and then restricted their use going forward. “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies,” he insisted.

When William Barr took over for Sessions — whom Trump fired for refusing to violate Justice Department guidelines — there was nothing left of the Obama reforms to undo. Still, Barr continued to rail against the specter of criminal justice reform. Barr presented the reform movement, now confined to local officials, as a civilizational threat. “There is another development that is demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety,” he railed last August, “that is the emergence in some of our large cities of district attorneys that style themselves as ‘social justice’ reformers, who spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook, and refusing to enforce the law.” (Letting criminals off the hook is only acceptable if Barr is doing it himself.)

In another, even more unhinged speech two months later, Barr warned, “If communities don’t give [police] that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.” The enthusiastic assent of both Sessions and Barr indicates how broadly reflective Trump’s agenda is within his party. Trump’s hatred of criminal justice reform is not just bleating from an old racist who still thinks the Central Park Five were guilty. It is party doctrine.

And it was not enough for Trump and his supporters merely to uproot the seedling of criminal justice reform. Trump felt obliged as well to clamp down on peaceful protest. When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality, Trump intimidated owners into blacklisting him from their rosters, even boasting of his success. Trump dispatched Mike Pence to stage a walkout from an NFL game when players kneeled, and prevailed upon the league to stamp out the kneeling altogether.

It probably gives Trump far too much credit to presume this is a strategy. But there is a crude logic to his actions. He has snuffed out the peaceful, democratic avenues for evolutionary change, while goading the most violent police officers and offering them unconditional support. He is all but calling forth into the streets the very brutality he claimed would be necessary. If a militarized and unshackled police seemed excessive to many Americans three years ago, Trump now has conditions that might make it appear necessary to some.

What Trump and Barr cannot say to the protesters now is that they should try working through the system instead. They snuffed out every avenue of bureaucratic and social change. They sowed the wind and now reap the whirlwind.

 

[Cupcakemonster]

The left image - the government action of telling people to stay at home - that's TO SAVE LIVES
The right image - that's the government TAKING LIVES

I think people can make their own health choices, & both images bother me. I'm for personal freedom & I also don't think our country needs any police officers. I'm fine with any or most people disagreeing with me, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Cupcakemonster]

The problem lies in when your choice affects other people's health, life if they're particularly unlucky.
Hence, your freedom and rights stop when it affects other people's rights -to live, to be healthy.

No, because they can still wear masks, gloves, stay in the house for as long as they'd like.. but if I want to just normally go about my life then I think that's up to me. The death rate is comparable to the normal flu, so should everything close down & all that during flu season every year too? Cars kill people, but we still drive. STDs kill people, but we still have sex.

I prioritize personal freedom for not just me but everyone over safety. Like I said, that's my opinion.

Also, government can tell you that a lot of things are for "your safety". There's always a big agenda behind it.

I also don't think we need a government or leaders, or at least not much of a government anyway.

 

[rav3n]

This is Biden today, at the Wilmington protest.

This is Trump today, tweeting safely behind closed doors and security forces.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

FAKE NEWS!

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

This is Biden today, at the Wilmington protest.

This is Trump today, tweeting safely behind closed doors and security forces.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

FAKE NEWS!

He said he was going to make antifa a terrorist organization. I didn't realize there was one giant antifa organization. Anyway, don't see what's so bad about being antifascist. If you outlaw ant-fascism, that sends a pretty clear message.

 

[rav3n]

He said he was going to make antifa a terrorist organization. I didn't realize there was one giant antifa organization. Anyway, don't see what's so bad about being antifascist. If you outlaw ant-fascism, that sends a pretty clear message.

That's just it. Antifa doesn't exist as an organization so experts are chiming in, calling it unconstitutional.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

That's just it. Antifa doesn't exist as an organization so experts are chiming in, calling it unconstitutional.

it's not even unconstitutional.... it is impossible. You can't pay dues to antifa or even visit their website.

 

[rav3n]

it's not even unconstitutional.... it is impossible. You can't pay dues to antifa or even visit their website.

Next up, the great spaghetti monster and unicorns are terrorist organizations. /Anoodle

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Next up, the great spaghetti monster and unicorns are terrorist organizations. /Anoodle

I never trusted unicorns. Even the name is suspicious. Shouldn't they be called "unihorns"?

 

[rav3n]

I never trusted unicorns. Even the name is suspicious. Shouldn't they be called "unihorns"?

Its origin is latin, uni (single) and cornu (horn).

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Its origin is latin, uni (single) and cornu (horn).

Oh wow. Thanks! I guess there's a link between that and cornucopia, which, is after all, a horn of food. I believe in mythology it was originally the horn of a goat.

 

[Stanton Moore]

'copia' means 'supply' , often translated as 'plenty` in English.

 

[Luminous]

Watch this and say that it was warranted, that it doesn't strip him of his humanity. And tell me why it could be that the police officers so easily stripped him of his humanity.

8 Minutes and 46 Seconds: How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody - The New York Times

 

[draon9]

Those cops are straight evil. There was no reason to do that. Those cops are cowards and they wonder why a lot of people dont trust cops

 

[Population: 1]

Those particular cops were evil. So are the savages looting and burning this country into ruin. I watched a video of a mob murdering a man last night in Texas. Perhaps the protesters will remember his name along with Mr. Floyd’s?