JimmyJabroni said:
I had deleted that post earlier, because I wanted more time to think on it and was going to repost point by point. But I got busy and lazy. So I'll post here but at the moment I don't want to go point by point with everything or get real in depth because I'm worn out, but I do agree with a good deal of it for sure....
For sure I do agree with body cams...it's 2016 and the technology is there so lets get everything recorded and sort out the data storage stuff and whatever rules and issues later. I agree with more and better training and more education of force training, I don't see how that would be a bad thing. I agree with ending this for profit policing, it's BS for cops to pull people over and have incentives to ticket them and find issues. I agree with independent offices investigating and keeping in check the local departments.
My annoyance with the movement comes from what I see as a lack of leadership, or strong leadership with the ability to effectively organize and communicate...which has me seeing it as more of a mob mentality...
When I see a killing get highlighted in the media, and before the facts are out, being reported as if something wrong might of happened, and hours later people flooding the streets with BLM signs and chants saying that the only good cops are dead cops and other violent rhetoric, along with walking onto highways and disrupting peoples lives, along with some really hateful stuff I've seen....makes me not want to support the group or listen to them at all.
I'd be willing to understand and accept the movement if they can get an effective leader who is organized and communicate well and when the movement is not just a sort of wildfire that spreads randomly and chaotically.
I appreciate the dialogue on BLM policy recommendations and no need to go point by point on here. We all get busy and lazy, the SP is not the appropriate place, and to be honest, I work on policy for a living. Not really trying to argue that on a site I usually visit to help my efforts to continue kicking azszszzzz in fantasy football.
There were riots before BLM and there will be riots after BLM as long as the same conditions exist in America. The anger black people feel in certain communities is due to generations of getting the absolute short end of the economic opportunity stick combined with the emotional response to murders in the streets of people at the hands of police and others.
Imagine if police came into predominantly white communities, shot and KILLED a 12 year old holding a toy gun in a park (Tamir Rice), imagine a self assigned neigbhorhood watchmen profiling, following, approaching, and ultimately shooting and KILLING a 17 year old walking back to his father's home with nothing but some skittles and other teenage items in his pocket. (Trayvon Martin). Imagine those things happening in a white surburban neighborhood and what the response would be from that community if the people responsible for the killing of unarmed children resulted in NO convictions and nobody held accountable.
These things DID happen in poor black communities, with people who own NOTHING, and whose ancestors have been forcibly put at the bottom of the totem pole for centuries. What do you think the response is going to be. Riots have happened in this country LONG before BLM and will continue to happen as long as these conditions exist.
And that's why I applaud Colin Kaepernick. As young and imperfect a messenger he may be, he is taking a public stance to highlight an I issue that does not affect him personally but does affect millions of people. I'm a black man in America. I am very fortunate in that I grew up with two good parents, a father who was a college athlete and a police officer, and a mother who graduated 2nd in her high school class, has two degrees and is now a partner in a major firm. I make a comfortable living, am married to a woman with a J.D. from a top 25 law school, and am raising two beautiful girls. My life as a Black American is great (actually just not too bad). B ut I also recognize, and have family and friends, whose life as Black Americans has been fillled with hardships and uphill battles against a system that has been designed to keep them at the bottom.
But my point in response to you is on leadership, and the lack thereof in the BLM movement. First understand that this is a "movement" started by young activist in their 20s with limited resources. They are basically relying on social media and other 20 somethings to organize events and put together social media, PR material, organization of rallies, etc.
More importantly, recognize that strong black leadership in America has consistently been met with state sponsored violence, harrassment, surveillance, and basically murder. MLK, Malcoml X, Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK, the Black Panthers. These are examples of individual and group leadership advancing self interest in the black community that were demonized and destroyed. MLK's legacy has been completely whitewashed to the point that people only quote the "not the color of my skin but content of my character" line. But our schools fail to teach us that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. advoccated for what would be considered today (and certainly was in his time, which is part of the reason why he was assassinated) a radically far left economic agenda with basically repirations. He recognized the economic injustice of American policies at all levels of governement and social intersections. SYSTEMIC RACISM.
Speaking of leadership, we have a black president now, as you may have noticed and some posters have pointed outl appen to think he's done a pretty good job turning around the economy, having the longest recorded streak of uninterrupted private sector job growth, historic highs in stock market performance, cutting the unemployment rate in half, reducing homicides by 13%, a reduction in killing of police officers BTW.
Yet somehow this President has set racism back 40 years..somehow. From what I can gather its because he's black, has appointed black attorney generals, and well... because he's black. But the same people espousing this non sense can't bring themselves to view it from the perspective of people living through what generations of black people have endured in this country. That to me is what is sad and unfortunately, my only hope for this vocal minority is that and thier ilk perish over time.