I'm wondering how many folks are there are just now realizing...

[MrScorpio]

That the bar for police "justifiably" shooting people to death (black people especially) is pretty damn low.

Not to mention the fact that escalation is actually a defensible police practice these days. Basically, there really aren't any reasons why police are justified to beat people into a pulp, other than some cop just wants to.

What really disturbing that many police seem to feel threatened by cameras in the hand of bystanders, simply because there will exist a record of their own actions. Which is really confusing, if they are IN FACT acting against people who are in the midst of criminal behavior themselves. How many times have we ever seen anyone being set upon by a bunch of cops, arms and feet a-flailing, lodge an objection to being photographed or videotaped?

It's usually the cops who do everything that they can to prevent THEIR actions from being recorded in situations where they're the ones who are escalating the use of force at the drop of a hat.

That escalation doesn't take much to happen. Merely instinctive actions become acts of "resistance" that must be beaten out of people. You see the combination of inflicting pain and justifying more infliction of pain as a natural response to that infliction.

Usually under the practiced mantra of "stop resisting, stop resisting." Cops charging the very people they've beaten to a pulp of assaulting them. Sometimes I think that they'll only be satisfied when people acknowledge their authority by falling on the ground like muted and limp rag dolls.

Our police forces are only justified whenever they catch criminals… What better way to stick around than to classify as many people as "criminals" as possible. What better way to justify a society with extreme levels of poverty and injustice making the police occupy and underserve such communities at the same time. We have a social caste system of racial and economic inequality in this country and we leave it to both the police and the courts to maintain it.

Rights are nothing more than whatever the police choose to either deny or acknowledge.

You wonder why the police are so scared… Because they do understand that they're the vanguard for an unjust system. Their actions are borne of guilt and fear. Fear that people will wake up and figure out what they're up to.

By the way, the people who hire the police to maintain the system of injustice are not going to go away quietly. They have the power and they mean to keep it.

For the rest of us who wish to reverse the power dynamic, merely to make living more tolerable… We should never forget that power concedes nothing without a struggle. In order to struggle, you need unity, you need solidarity.

Those who think that the police are working in THEIR behalf, when they're actually not… Then it's THEY who are part of the problem.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. I wonder how many folks

realize that we never see stories like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin taking place with white kids. People just have blinders on when it comes to institutionalized racism.

[MrScorpio]

3. Those who are accustomed to dehumanizing black people are never going to realize why

They have a very narrow definition of who's a proper "victim." They're quite tired of hearing about what's happening to black people in this country. That's not their bag, baby.

According to people like that, black people getting shot to death, even while unarmed, is perfectly justifiable.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

5. Many do seem to think

that once the Civil Rights Act passed racism was eliminated from the culture. People don't realize we need laws like that BECAUSE of racism. I would also venture to say that a great many white folks have never really ever known anyone of color. They can't make the connection that other people (those not white) love, cry, bleed, hope, want and work like they do.............

[Kalidurga]

2. Probably not very many...

If you live in a metro area you are going to see police brutality at least once I think. The first time I saw something that didn't look right was around 1988. A black guy on the ground face down surrounded by cops. It was my third year living in a metro area, but it was about the first time I had been out and about without my kids. I am glad they weren't with me. I don't know what happened, but I am pretty sure that it wasn't right. Something about the scene just seemed off to me. But, maybe he was doing something violent. Or maybe my gut feeling was right. I will never know because back then I still had a shred of the benefit of the doubt for LEOs.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Even a fake, wannabe got off in right/wrong part of the world, antebellum.

[Hekate]

6. Kick and Rec

[azmom]

7. Yes, yes. Yes.

El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈpweβlo uˈniðo xaˈmas seˈɾa βenˈsiðo]; English: "The people united will never be defeated&quot

[damnedifIknow]

8. Hopefully more and more are becoming aware

This is a national disgrace with the world watching this happen. How do we explain this to people outside the US?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. "How do we explain this to people outside the US?"

No need.

They know.

Which is why they don't ALLOW that stuff anymore. (Much to the distress of the Right Wing who THRIVES on that shit.)

[alfredo]

9. I remember a racial conflict erupted at a high school in Pontiac Michigan. The cops

shot tear gas at the black kids, but not at the white. .

[justiceischeap]

10. Most of these people think that as long as you do what the police say

you'll never, ever have to worry about getting hurt by them.

I've seen those posts right here on DU.

I'm sure these few folks find comfort in going about their lives and doing nothing wrong and still being abused by the police.

• Like those women that were pulled over by that police officer in Oklahoma and he raped them. Of course, if only they hadn't been speeding (or prostituting), they never would have gotten raped.
• Or Levar Jones that was pulled over for a seatbelt violation in South Carolina. The cop asks for his license and registration. So he does what the cop says and goes back into his vehicle to get the requested items and the cop shoots him.
• Or those women in California who had the audacity to be driving a car that looked nothing like the Christopher Dorner's vehicle but they put more than 100 bullets in it anyway.
• Or how about that baby who was sleeping in his crib (the nerve, right) when the Georgia SWAT team threw a flash bang grenade in the house... oops, wrong address.

[MrScorpio]

12. File this under the FPD:

[ProgressiveJarhead]

19. No Words

For that. Tears, but not words.

[seveneyes]

27. Needs more information and facts

The only reference to this is one instagram posting.

http://instagram.com/p/v32DAIMpNP/

[ProgressiveJarhead]

11. Must Be Hogwash

I listened to a diatribe from a Filipino coworker today about how he is tired of the political correctness. Newsflash! He is a conservative Christian. He said he came here in '78 and made it in the Navy and that there is plenty of opportunity if you work hard. Blacks sell drugs and fill the prisons, according to him because they are what they are. Being a white guy married to a black woman, that did not go down to well, but I tried reason.
Yes, Filipinos make it in the Navy because they work hard (some don't) and so do others-like my wife. I am not arguing against that, but that doesn't cancel American history. I simply told him that he is not African American, so he hasn't had the experience.
Another point, he watches Fox Noise and heard Giulliani's BS and totally agreed with it. He could not point to data backing up his claims. He said most blacks are killed by blacks. I respond that most whites are killed by whites, but more blacks are killed by the police than whites. He pointed to the prison population and the percentage of blacks vs the percentage of whites and asians. I explained the data to him, but it fell on deaf ears.
Note: This guy was very angry about black folks whining. There is no hope and no explaining to people.

[MrScorpio]

14. Correct me if I'm wrong...

Wasn't this Filipino serving as a steward in '78? That's the only job that they were hired to do? Didn't the Navy replace black stewards with Filipinos after the order to desegregate the Armed Services?

At least that's what I was told by some chief when I was stationed at the Pentagon my damn self and wondered why the Navy seemed have a lot of old guys from the Philippines around.

[ProgressiveJarhead]

17. Maybe

He said he came here in '78, but is retired Navy. Not a lot going into the USMC or Army. There is a relationship because of their suffering in WWII. There are still a lot on active duty. I was just amazed at the ignorance he showed.

[ProgressiveJarhead]

18. Plus

He was ranting and almost yelling at me for making points.

[Enthusiast]

25. The Filipino coworker is very poorly informed.

[Overseas]

13. K&R. Well said.

[99Forever]

15. Thanks for not being afraid to speak truth to power.

The battle is at hand, truth is on our side and we WILL prevail. The authoritarian monster will be sent back to Hell where it belongs.

Keep on doing what you do Mr Scorpio, this is a better place with you in it.

[mimi85]

20. A lot of cops are ex-military so

a lot of the blame is right at the government's feet for sending guys off to to serve in horrendous situations and come back with serious mental issues and used to throwing weapons around. And some cops are just assholes! I know two gals who were married to cops and had awful domestic abuse problems. Thank goodness they didn't hang around "for the kids."

My husband was arrested (and found not guilty since he truly wasn't - a huge waste of taxpayer and our money) and said he couldn't BELIEVE the shit the cops were saying in the next room as he sat handcuffed in the police station. Never a big fan of cops (both of us teens in the 60s) anyway, but the experience totally freaked him out. For years afterwards, he couldn't watch any TV or movie that had to do with cops.

[jillan]

21. I think people's eyes were opened watching the Trayvon Martin trial, and emotions never healed

from that.

And with every needless murder that emotion has been revisited.

Michael Brown was the straw the broke the proverbial camel's back where the country is finally saying
ENOUGH!!

There is no going back.

[Rex]

22. My guess - they most likely have never run into a need for cops.

Their neighborhood is well policed and crime is run out of the community. Golf courses are always close by too. Maybe their aunt or a cousin got robbed 10 years ago. They get warnings when cops pull them over, maybe a ticket for a seat belt violation. And they don't really go anywhere that is not like their own environment. Ever.

Having their expensive car breakdown in a real urban part of a big city would have them in a full panic. No doubt they keep the doors locked while waiting for the servicemen to come and change the tire.

They live on another planet.

So far away from destitution and institutionalized disenfranchisement - completely foreign subjects.

[Gothmog]

23. The system is broken

The deck is stacked against African Americans and the bar is indeed low here.

[heaven05]

24. If I may add

privilege to that unjust system that certain people will not relinquish quietly. And 100+ on your post and rec'd

[jtuck004]

26. A Mai Lai every month...

Not many people know the extent to which we killed innocent people to save them during Vietnam. It was almost institutionalized. Kinda like our drones killing children now, but smaller numbers of tragedies.

fyi - The Mai Lai massacre, US troops, an entire village burned, old men, women, infants, rape, mutilation, goats, whatever, horrific killing...one incident of many.

From Wiki...

...
"In May 1970, a sergeant who participated in Operation Speedy Express wrote a confidential letter to then Army Chief of Staff Westmoreland describing civilian killings he said were on the scale of the massacre occurring as "a My Lai each month for over a year" during 1968–1969. Two other letters to this effect from enlisted soldiers to military leaders in 1971, all signed "Concerned Sergeant", were uncovered within declassified National Archive documents. The letters describe common occurrences of civilian killings during population pacification operations. Army policy also stressed very high body counts and this resulted in dead civilians being marked down as combatants. Alluding to indiscriminate killings described as unavoidable, the commander of the 9th Division, then MG Julian Ewell in September 1969 submitted a confidential report to Westmoreland and other generals describing the countryside in some areas of Vietnam as resembling the battlefields of Verdun.[81][82]"
...

Here, and Here

Other than being somewhat more restrained because, well, we have to eat and shop, black folk kinda go through this every day.

And then a woman from Ferguson comes on tv to tell us how they are past all that racial stuff in Ferguson.

Except the black relatives can't visit for Thanksgiving because the cops might murder them, of course.

What is she so tied to that she can't acknowledge what is happening in front of her face? Is it that well hidden, or does she just choose not to look? Does she not realize that an injury to one is an injury to all, whether one wants to acknowledge it or not?

...
"If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro.
...

Here.

Malcom X, after he came back from South Africa, recognized that the divide was no longer between black and white, but between the few with wealthy and all the rest. Then he was murdered by people who profited from keeping things as they were, and are.

His words still illuminate the issue.

Thank you for that.

[stage left]

28. I knew it was bad, Mr. Scorpio

but I'm only now realizing how bad, seeing all the stories of police brutality. I've posted a few things about Ferguson and other incidents on facebook and, except for one or two people, I get how the man shot down or beaten within an inch of his life brought it all on himself. He shouldn't have walked down the street, he shouldn't have worn a hoodie, he shouldn't have played with that toy gun in Walmart, he shouldn't have run from the police because he was mentally ill and they scared him, he shouldn't have been out driving while Bipolar and let being roughly handled freak him out. He shouldn't have been selling a couple of cigarettes out of his pack. She shouldn't have been walking on the highway. And on and on and on until the horror of it imprints itself on your soul.

Maybe if we forced white people's eyes open, like they did to Alex in A Clockwork Orange, and showed them this carnage over and over, they would finally see. They would finally know.