Black Lives Matter

[sophie10130]

52 minutes ago, Sabal said:

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https://beyondtheglasswall.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/why-im-a-racist/

Someone shared this blog post on Facebook this morning. I enjoyed reading it. 

 

 

DAMN that was good! 

And some of the comments are funny. Rosie said that race doesn't matter, but knowing that you'll be in heaven matters, so believe in God y'all! And then the commenter below, Vanessa, said that's cool and all but that doesn't mean you can wash over the suffering of people and then at the end she said "Shut your mouth please, Rosie." 

[louisa05]

Speaking of people not wanting to acknowledge racism in our culture, my nephew's 21 year old very sheltered white GF posted this meme (below) on Facebook today. 

She included this thought: "The media aren't the only ones, but from what I've seen they're not helping. There have been race problems for years upon years all over the world, and people keep poking the beast with a stick. People just need to calm down and treat each other with respect."

I don't even know how to respond to that. We can't fix a problem that we refuse to acknowledge. This attitude, in my mind, is just another example of white privilege. She and I and every other white person--we are all perfectly free to stick our heads in the sand and ignore the problem. White privilege lets us do that. 

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by louisa05

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, louisa05 said:

Speaking of people not wanting to acknowledge racism in our culture, my nephew's 21 year old very sheltered white GF posted this meme (below) on Facebook today. 

She included this thought: "The media aren't the only ones, but from what I've seen they're not helping. There have been race problems for years upon years all over the world, and people keep poking the beast with a stick. People just need to calm down and treat each other with respect."

I don't even know how to respond to that. We can't fix a problem that we refuse to acknowledge. This attitude, in my mind, is just another example of white privilege. She and I and every other white person--we are all perfectly free to stick our heads in the sand and ignore the problem. White privilege lets us do that. 

 

Maybe the best approach to this is to simply point out that she's correct - these serious problems have existed for a very long time and the media has only just begun to give a shit.

But that doesn't mean the media is solely to blame - they aren't. The media has actually helped a great deal in shedding light on what's been happening for those of us not directly involved. If they don't report what's happening then, as you said, we can simply continue ignoring the problem which is a luxury the black community can't afford.

Consider the Vietnam War for instance. Before it was really televised there wasn't a ton of opposition - but the second people understood what their young men were being drafted for that changed really fast. People simply couldn't keep ignoring what was happening because the media coverage did not allow them to. Yes, it led to a great deal of turmoil and a horribly difficult period in our country's history (combined with many other factors, including the Civil Rights movement) - but it was also a period of time where our country had to grow up and confront what we really thought about armed conflict and the price of war.

I see some similarities between that and what's happening now - our nation is being forced to grow up and figure out what we really think about racial equality right now. It is far from pretty or easy, but nothing worthwhile is either of those things.

This isn't really well worded at all. Someone else can probably help you out more than I can, but I thought I'd give it a try.

 

[louisa05]

15 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

Maybe the best approach to this is to simply point out that she's correct - these serious problems have existed for a very long time and the media has only just begun to give a shit.

But that doesn't mean the media is solely to blame - they aren't. The media has actually helped a great deal in shedding light on what's been happening for those of us not directly involved. If they don't report what's happening then, as you said, we can simply continue ignoring the problem which is a luxury the black community can't afford.

Consider the Vietnam War for instance. Before it was really televised there wasn't a ton of opposition - but the second people understood what their young men were being drafted for that changed really fast. People simply couldn't keep ignoring what was happening because the media coverage did not allow them to. Yes, it led to a great deal of turmoil and a horribly difficult period in our country's history (combined with many other factors, including the Civil Rights movement) - but it was also a period of time where our country had to grow up and confront what we really thought about armed conflict and the price of war.

I see some similarities between that and what's happening now - our nation is being forced to grow up and figure out what we really think about racial equality right now. It is far from pretty or easy, but nothing worthwhile is either of those things.

This isn't really well worded at all. Someone else can probably help you out more than I can, but I thought I'd give it a try.

 

Considering that nephew is tangentially angry with me all the time now (long story short, I'm the one that screws up all the lies he tells his dad because I know how his major/intended profession really works), part of me doesn't want to rock the boat with her. I also am waiting patiently for the one black person in their circle of friends to weigh in; she can certainly speak more persuasively than me. 

If only calming down and treating each other with respect would fix it all. But systemic racism is not that easily solved. I am also saddened that our education system does such a piss poor job making students see the systemic nature of racism in this culture. 

[bingbangboom]

I locked eyes with a white teen today,

she had on a shirt that said "My skin color doesn't make me better or more deserving of life."

As a white lady , I have been listening and learning and speaking up to racist family members, but haven't known how to support POC in all of this.

I am sorry to all who have suffered. I don't know what else to say.

[Cleopatra7]

To show how the more things change, the more they stay the same, check out some of the hate mail that MLK received and see how closely it resembles the hate directed towards BLM:

http://fusion.net/story/184032/black-lives-matter-martin-luther-king-hate-mail/

The fact of the matter is that any attempts at addressing racism have always been accompanied with tremendous pushback from "mainstream America." When Brown v. Board of Education was happening, many Southern whites thought that they were being victimized by another "War of Northern Aggression." Mississippi, a state which never seems to have money to spend on education, healthcare, or infrastructure even created an entire shadow government, euphemistically called the "Mississippi Sovereignty Committee" to fight against civil rights:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_State_Sovereignty_Commission

Among the activities of the MSC included investigating Elvis and the Rolling Stones for possible subversive activity. Now that's taxpayer money well spent!

None of the major mainstream conservatives during the Cold War era were in favor of civil rights for blacks. Not Ronald Reagan, not William F. Buckley (who famously purged the Birchers from "National Review" but let the segregationists stay), and not Barry Goldwater. Similarly, no major conservative figure that I know of today is even willing to admit that police brutality even exists. The conservatives who claim that MLK would have disapproved of the "Black Lives Matter" movement clearly haven't read anything King wrote or even read a basic history of the Civil Rights Movement (and all of King's books are back in print, so no one has an excuse for not reading them). When the Sixteen Street Baptist Church bombing happened, Buckley was more concerned about how the attack would affect the white people in Birmingham than the children who were killed or the people who were hurt:

Quote

Let us gently say the fiend who set off the bomb does not have the sympathy of the white population in the South; in fact, he set back the cause of the white people there so dramatically as to raise the question whether in fact the explosion was the act of a provocateur — of a Communist, or of a crazed Negro.

And let it be said that the convulsions that go on, and are bound to continue, have resulted from revolutionary assaults on the status quo, and a contempt for the law, which are traceable to the Supreme Court’s manifest contempt for the settled traditions of Constitutional practice. Certainly it now appears that Birmingham’s Negroes will never be content so long as the white population is free to be free.

(Since this is from an old National Review article there's obviously no direct link, but if you Google William F. Buckley and racism, the quote will invariably pop up)

If that's not a prime example of how black lives don't matter, I don't know what is. But I suppose from Buckley's perspective, those girls probably had it coming to them, going to their heretical Protestant church with its "jungle music" and suspicious political activities.

[louisa05]

If anyone here is ever in Birmingham, do not miss the Civil Rights Institute which is across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church. 

 

[RosyDaisy]

I agree@louisa05, the Civil Rights institute is a must see. That place is rich with history. I highly recommend visiting it.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

This is horrible. A behavioural therapist laying unarmed on the ground with his hands raised is shot three times by a cop. There's a footage of the episode. During it all the therapist's only concern is for his ward's safety. When asked "why?" the cop answered "I don't know". Guess what the man laying on the ground is black. 

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5790e715e4b0fc06ec5be7aa

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57903472e4b0bdddc4d32ad3?

[RosyDaisy]

OH HIAL NAW! This is straight up being shot while black. I wish Mr. Kinsey a speedy recovery.

[Mercer]

24 minutes ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

This is horrible. A behavioural therapist laying unarmed on the ground with his hands raised is shot three times by a cop. There's a footage of the episode. During it all the therapist's only concern is for his ward's safety. When asked "why?" the cop answered "I don't know". Guess what the man laying on the ground is black. 

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5790e715e4b0fc06ec5be7aa

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57903472e4b0bdddc4d32ad3?

That's absolutely awful!

And unfortunately, it proves me right about something I would rather have been wrong about. I work at a group home for teens with mental health and behavioral disorders. About a week ago we had a resident AWOL from the property during a shift I was leading, and the staff member I felt for various reasons would be best suited to handling the situation happened to be a black man. When it appeared that the situation was escalating toward police involvement, however, I swapped that staff out because I was afraid that the cops were going to see him pursuing a skinny white kid, assume he was the aggressor, and harm my staff member.

Some of my colleagues told me that I was being paranoid for that decision. Bull.

[myhobby]

Back after a blissfully internet free period.   I got back online to the RNC and shooting of the man in Miami.  Just absolutely unbelievable.  I don't know why I shot you should never be an answer to any question, ever.  

I found this last night https://m.facebook.com/whitenonsenseroundup/.  It seems like a good idea, but I haven't  followed them long enough to be sure they are helping not hindering.

[Terrie]

Apparently, the caretaker was shot by mistake. The officer was trying to shot the autistic man, on the grounds that he thought a disabled guy with a toy truck was a danger to the caregiver.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charles-kinsey-shooting-union-officer-shot-unarmed-caregiver-by-mistake/

I can't say it makes things worse, because, really, how does this story get any worse than shooting an unarmed man while he lays on the ground with his hands in the air? But it certainly doesn't make it better. "Oh, our trained officers not only can't aim, they also think people with disabilities are a threat to those around them."

[VelociRapture]

31 minutes ago, Terrie said:

Apparently, the caretaker was shot by mistake. The officer was trying to shot the autistic man, on the grounds that he thought a disabled guy with a toy truck was a danger to the caregiver.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charles-kinsey-shooting-union-officer-shot-unarmed-caregiver-by-mistake/

I can't say it makes things worse, because, really, how does this story get any worse than shooting an unarmed man while he lays on the ground with his hands in the air? But it certainly doesn't make it better. "Oh, our trained officers not only can't aim, they also think people with disabilities are a threat to those around them."

That has to be the worst excuse I've ever heard. Ever.

Seriously, the caretaker was trying to talk his patient into obeying orders and flat out said his patient was holding a toy, not a weapon. This man is trained to help deescalate situations like this - Cops should have exercised much better common sense and allowed him to do the damn job he was employed to do and only intervened with non-deadly force if necessary. If they had this likely would have been a much different story.

Situations like this can be dangerous (for all involved) and I appreciate that. But there was literally no reason why guns should have been drawn here. Just talk to the patient like a human being and treat the caretaker like the fully capable professional he is - he knows his patient better than any Cop and they should have allowed him time to deescalate the situation. 

Hoping he makes a full recovery and this asshat Cop is fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No one who is that scared going into a potentially dangerous situation has any business wearing a badge or wielding a gun.

9 hours ago, Mercer said:

That's absolutely awful!

And unfortunately, it proves me right about something I would rather have been wrong about. I work at a group home for teens with mental health and behavioral disorders. About a week ago we had a resident AWOL from the property during a shift I was leading, and the staff member I felt for various reasons would be best suited to handling the situation happened to be a black man. When it appeared that the situation was escalating toward police involvement, however, I swapped that staff out because I was afraid that the cops were going to see him pursuing a skinny white kid, assume he was the aggressor, and harm my staff member.

Some of my colleagues told me that I was being paranoid for that decision. Bull.

After seeing this story I feel like you absolutely made the right call. You have to protect your patients, but you also have to protect the staff as well. 

[Mercer]

I'm having trouble believing the "shot by mistake" angle. For one thing, there would be zero reason to use deadly force in that situation anyway. The resident had a toy truck and clearly had a major disability, and the police were told that in the video. For another... the officer just happened to fire multiple shots at a black man with his hands in the air while aiming for someone else? Just pure coincidence, with all the tensions that are going on and all the other police shootings? That excuse is majorly dinging my BS meter.

[Terrie]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

I'm having trouble believing the "shot by mistake" angle. For one thing, there would be zero reason to use deadly force in that situation anyway. The resident had a toy truck and clearly had a major disability, and the police were told that in the video. For another... the officer just happened to fire multiple shots at a black man with his hands in the air while aiming for someone else? Just pure coincidence, with all the tensions that are going on and all the other police shootings? That excuse is majorly dinging my BS meter.

As someone commented on this linked story, if they were trying to protect the caretaker, why did they then handcuff him and not give first aid? I'm just baffled that they released this statement as if it make sthe situation better.

[Mercer]

38 minutes ago, Terrie said:

As someone commented on this linked story, if they were trying to protect the caretaker, why did they then handcuff him and not give first aid? I'm just baffled that they released this statement as if it make sthe situation better.

Exactly! 

And as a caretaker myself, I assure you that we do not need or want the type of "protection" that involves shooting people in our care. We do this difficult and sometimes risky job because we want to make our residents' lives better. The last thing we want is to see them harmed.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Mercer

[laPapessaGiovanna]

1 hour ago, Terrie said:

I'm just baffled that they released this statement as if it make sthe situation better.

They probably thought that in the current climate it's better to shoot an autistic person than a black man. There are enough prejudices about mental illnesses that they thought people would believe that the autistic man was dangerous, since the black man clearly wasn't. 

I find this part equally horrifying

Quote

Police said officers responded after getting a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening to kill himself, and the officers arrived "with that threat in mind" 

Since when you help a possibly suicidal person shooting him first? 

And then this from an article on theguardian.com

Quote

Department spokeswoman Natalie Buissereth said in a statement that “arriving officers attempted to negotiate with the two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism … At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon”

It would be ridiculous if it wasn't sad.

[VelociRapture]

24 minutes ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

They probably thought that in the current climate it's better to shoot an autistic person than a black man. There are enough prejudices about mental illnesses that they thought people would believe that the autistic man was dangerous, since the black man clearly wasn't. 

I find this part equally horrifying

Since when you help a possibly suicidal person shooting him first? 

And then this from an article on theguardian.com

It would be ridiculous if it wasn't sad.

I could be wrong, but the reasoning behind responding that way is likely because you have no way of knowing if they only pose a threat to themselves or if they may harm others too. And in some cases, wounding a person can actually cause them to drop their weapon and provide an opportunity to restrain them before they harm themself. It's not the best method by any means.

But seriously. Even if you believe the Officer didn't intend to shoot anyone - intent means squat when it actually happens. This investigation better be as fair, thorough, and transparent as possible.

[Terrie]

People with disabilities, especially intellectual or psychological ones that impact their ability to understand what is happening, are vulnerable to the police. I count myself lucky that my own mental illness is of the type that is unlikely to lead me into a confrontation with police. And how messed up is that ? 

[sophie10130]

Officers have very little training on how to de-escalate situations. In my opinion, a police officer should NEVER be called in situations like this, especially if there is a care-giver onsite already. Especially because a lot of people have a visceral reaction to police officers. Especially because police officers seem to have this thing about holding their hands over their gun holster  (seriously, what is up with that? is that a training tactic or a nervous tic?) Screaming at a man with autism is not the way to de-escalate the situation. If you've ever interacted with an autistic person (or really any person, but especially so with those with sensory disorders) this is just common fucking sense! Also, what if that man was deaf or HOH and couldn't hear the officer's demands? It is just absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous isn't even a good word. It makes me sick, is what it does.

Social workers do this work every day without a gun. Care givers go to hostile living environments to check on clients all the time. 

This officer should never be able to have a gun again in his life. He should never be able to even get a private license. He obviously cannot handle the responsibility. He should be in jail, and when he gets out the only job he should be able to get it something that doesn't give him power over anyone else.

[nausicaa]

46 minutes ago, sophie10130 said:

Officers have very little training on how to de-escalate situations. In my opinion, a police officer should NEVER be called in situations like this, especially if there is a care-giver onsite already. Especially because a lot of people have a visceral reaction to police officers. Especially because police officers seem to have this thing about holding their hands over their gun holster  (seriously, what is up with that? is that a training tactic or a nervous tic?) Screaming at a man with autism is not the way to de-escalate the situation. If you've ever interacted with an autistic person (or really any person, but especially so with those with sensory disorders) this is just common fucking sense! Also, what if that man was deaf or HOH and couldn't hear the officer's demands? It is just absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous isn't even a good word. It makes me sick, is what it does.

I completely agree that an officer didn't need to be there in that situation. However, he was answering a 911 call from someone who just saw from a distance what looked like a very distraught man acting strangely (sitting in the middle of the street). Then he had something in his hands (the toy train) and I'm assuming the caller jumped to the conclusion that it was a gun and the man was suicidal or homicidal. I can sort of understand the confusion there, though I think it was an overreaction and the caller should have tried to observe for a bit longer before calling. 

But the cop who was standing a few feet away? How on earth did he not see that this was not a threat and that the man was holding a white toy train? And the therapist had his hands clearly in the air and was explaining what was happening and that his patient was autistic. Also, the autistic man clearly looks to be special needs; I don't know how the cop couldn't pick up on that.

If your skills are that bad at reading a situation, you should not be a police officer. And there absolutely needs to new training, nationwide. 

Edited July 22, 2016 by nausicaa

[iweartanktops]

On 7/21/2016 at 7:44 PM, Mercer said:

That's absolutely awful!

And unfortunately, it proves me right about something I would rather have been wrong about. I work at a group home for teens with mental health and behavioral disorders. About a week ago we had a resident AWOL from the property during a shift I was leading, and the staff member I felt for various reasons would be best suited to handling the situation happened to be a black man. When it appeared that the situation was escalating toward police involvement, however, I swapped that staff out because I was afraid that the cops were going to see him pursuing a skinny white kid, assume he was the aggressor, and harm my staff member.

Some of my colleagues told me that I was being paranoid for that decision. Bull.

All of these posts are worth repeating. You made the right decision. Hopefully someday choices like this won't be so important. 

On 7/22/2016 at 7:19 AM, Mercer said:

I'm having trouble believing the "shot by mistake" angle. For one thing, there would be zero reason to use deadly force in that situation anyway. The resident had a toy truck and clearly had a major disability, and the police were told that in the video. For another... the officer just happened to fire multiple shots at a black man with his hands in the air while aiming for someone else? Just pure coincidence, with all the tensions that are going on and all the other police shootings? That excuse is majorly dinging my BS meter.

 

23 hours ago, Mercer said:

Exactly! 

And as a caretaker myself, I assure you that we do not need or want the type of "protection" that involves shooting people in our care. We do this difficult and sometimes risky job because we want to make our residents' lives better. The last thing we want is to see them harmed.

I worked in a residential treatment center for troubled adolescents, right out of college. I completely agree with this and @sophie10130. I got the shit beat out of me by a client (on two different occasions). It sucked and I still suffer some of the trauma from those experiences. But I'm glad the police didn't show up until I was in the emergency room. As dangerous as those situations were, the last thing we needed was police pointing guns at an already very dangerous situation. Those attacks fucked me up for a long time after I was physically healed, but I still wouldn't have police there if I could go back. 

20 hours ago, sophie10130 said:

Officers have very little training on how to de-escalate situations. In my opinion, a police officer should NEVER be called in situations like this, especially if there is a care-giver onsite already. Especially because a lot of people have a visceral reaction to police officers. Especially because police officers seem to have this thing about holding their hands over their gun holster  (seriously, what is up with that? is that a training tactic or a nervous tic?) Screaming at a man with autism is not the way to de-escalate the situation. If you've ever interacted with an autistic person (or really any person, but especially so with those with sensory disorders) this is just common fucking sense! Also, what if that man was deaf or HOH and couldn't hear the officer's demands? It is just absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous isn't even a good word. It makes me sick, is what it does.

Social workers do this work every day without a gun. Care givers go to hostile living environments to check on clients all the time. 

This officer should never be able to have a gun again in his life. He should never be able to even get a private license. He obviously cannot handle the responsibility. He should be in jail, and when he gets out the only job he should be able to get it something that doesn't give him power over anyone else.

The officer involved in this shooting should be in jail right now. Full stop. He never should have had a badge in the first place. 

[treehugger]

I'm a little horrified by how little training and preparation American police seem to get.  That the first reaction of the officers in these cases seems to be shoot first because SCARY! is disturbing.  A police office should be under no illusions that his/her job will be a safe walk in the park - and if they are, then they really should have been vetted out before they completed officers training.  

Side rant - the people who are all over my facebook sharing "heartwarming" stories of officers doing their fucking jobs as though somehow that redeems everything pisses me off.  I worked in a group home for people with mental illness, a nursing home, and did homecare.  My entire work day consisted of heartwarming stories and good things I was doing for people because that was my job.  If I or my co-workers had been accused of abuse (of any kind, we were in a position of power above our residents), or misconduct or harassment, or anything really - no one would have started bringing up the heartwarming stories to detract from the investigation into the claims of abuse,  because they have nothing to do with each other.  It just irks me to no end that people seem to be so overwhelmed with warm feelings by police officers doing their jobs.  If nothing else, that speaks volumes about how low society's expectations of police really are.  

[SilverBeach]

The therapist said that the cop responded that he didn't know why he shot him, after the therapist asked him why. All the rest of this is BS from the PD, trying to cover their ass.