As far as the nasty guy is concerned the pandemic is over, Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reports. He’s done “a great job” and is moving on. It’s irrelevant (to him) that there are still a thousand deaths a day and the case count is increasing. Looks like if there is a second wave he’ll ignore it.
The ACLU tweeted a thread reviewing your rights while protesting. A few things from what they said, though all of it is worth reviewing:
The police's main job during a protest is to protect your right to protest and de-escalate any threat of violence.
If arrested, don’t say anything, don’t sign anything. Ask for a lawyer immediately. Don’t agree to anything without the lawyer.
Demand the right to a local phone call. If you call a lawyer police are not allowed to listen.
Police are not allowed to view your photos or video without a warrant.
Leah McElrath tweeted:
The police know they’re being recorded right now.
The police know that—literally—the whole world is watching right now.
And this is the level of brutality we’re seeing and experiencing.
Just sit with that for a moment and consider the implications.
Clarene Mitchell tweeted a quote from Sarah Kendzior
Back in 2014, the police feared their actions being captured. Now they are reveling in it. They know they can get away with it because of (the culture Trump has created).To which Peter Merlin Cane replied:
Ah, but they are NOT getting away with it, because every video clip of their fascism recruits another thousand people to our cause.I add: At least for now they are getting away with it because the Department formerly known as Justice has no intention of prosecuting them.
Laura Rozen tweeted:
Think it would be a service to the American public to use more accurate language to describe the extreme role Bill Barr has adopted for himself: He is the Interior Minister.
The several thousand federal armed prison riot squad, DEA, ICE etc forces Interior Minister Barr has brought to suppress protests in the American capital are not “law enforcement.” The US does not have a language for it. Interior Ministry forces? There is no “law” about it.
Deborah Roseman responded:
Plus, between the unmarked officers patrolling DC and the self-appointed "anti antifa" guys patrolling their towns, how are any of us to know who are legit law enforcement, who are paranoid white supremacist vigilantes and who's both?From the nasty guy point of view this sounds like the point.
Jason Slotkin and Adrian Florido reported on NPR’s Morning Edition that the Minneapolis City Council has announced they intend to “dismantle” the city’s police department. They have enough votes they could override a veto. What replaces the police is still to be worked out.
Mayor Jacob Frey doesn’t like the idea. However, when he said so at a rally he was roundly booed. However, he does want a structural shift in how the police function.
Rep. Ilhan Omar agrees with the dismantling and said:
We've all seen what happens when good people of good conscience say, 'Let's invest in diversity training.’ Let's try to explain our humanity and make them see us as dignified people. Maybe that will stop them from killing us.That sounds like diversity training has been tried and hasn’t made enough difference. George Floyd still died.
NPR Host Rachel Martin talked to Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender about how the city might work with a dismantled police department. Bender said there is already an Office of Violence Prevention and they have already made grants to community-based safety organizations. They’ve gotten lots of offers from around the world of expertise on how community safety works. Beyond that the will listen to their community. Many things the police are called to do don’t need to be handled by an armed police officer.
Bender says that Minneapolis already has a black police chief. This chief has done a lot, including expanding diversity. But the union continues to be resistant to change and it is a political organization.
Meteor Blades of Kos says the protests continue across the country. But that’s the easy part. The hard part is doing the work in coalition. He quoted fellow Kos contributor Denise Oliver-Velez, “If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition.” The he wrote:
Working in coalition in this instance requires listening to, respecting, and following Black leadership, which many Americans who aren’t Black have typically not been willing to do. Which is one big reason our policing is so messed up.
Transforming the system, rooting out the racism, fixing the police, healing the wounds cannot be achieved with a few new procedures, a few packages of legislation, a few changes of personnel at the top although it will require all these things. For people who aren’t Black, it will require intense reflection, self-education, action, and undoubtedly lots of squirmy moments for participants in that uncomfortable coalition. Nobody, especially people who consider themselves staunch allies, likes to be called on their s***. But if the transformation being demanded—the institutionalizing of “Black Lives Matter” as guiding policy and national morality—is really going to happen, then there will be plenty of those call-out moments.
The tendency for many people is to walk away in such circumstances. They want, as Frederick Douglass would put it, progress without struggle. They want to step over the hard parts of transformation. They want to get to the healing without the surgery. But, you can’t have reconciliation without first having the truth.
Laura Clawson of Kos looks at the calls to defund the police and what that might look like. A big part is assessing when someone other than police should handle a situation. Homeless and mentally ill people should be seeing people other than police. There shouldn’t be so many police in schools. The money should go instead to “social workers, healthcare emergency responders, violence interrupters, restorative justice, and more.” Even the response to burglary should be reconsidered. Most of that is driven by drug use and the response to that also needs to be rethought. As that is going on there are reforms that need to happen, such as banning chokeholds. Police are to be guardians, not warriors.
Joan McCarter of Kos reports Democrats in both the House and Senate are writing a Justice in Policing Act to significantly change federal law. Some of the things in it are “mandatory bias training, a national registry documenting police misconduct, required reporting on use of force, and a ban on practices like the chokeholds that killed Eric Garner and George Floyd.”
Something like this didn’t happen when Eric Garner died. However, public opinion is turning and a majority supports Black Lives Matter and condemns police brutality. So maybe enough GOP senators can be convinced. Alas, there is Moscow Mitch. And the nasty guy.
Because “Black Lives Matter” was painted on 16th St. in DC and the mayor erected a sign with a new intersection designation the nasty guy now has a new address: 1600 Black Lives Matter Plaza.
No comments:
Post a Comment