Raptors players answer the absurd "these athletes are rich why are they complaining" argument:

[kpete]

https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/2017/09/25/racial-tension-hits-close-to-home-for-raptors-arthur.html

[kacekwl]

1. When your rich you need not think about the problems

of the losers who are not. So if you make a lot of $$$$ get with the program people .

[Moostache]

2. I want the police to answer for the worst among their ranks, period.

Why is the officer who pulled his weapon - with clear intent to intimidate and threaten, not protect and serve - still employed or at the very least not immediately disciplined and suspended?

Good police who protect or ignore the action of bad police are as much a part of the problem as those who are overtly guilty. Until they collectively recognize this and call it out among their ranks AND in public, loudly, openly and consistently, they do irreparable harm to police everywhere.

Some police officers are among the finest human beings I have ever met. They are self-less, caring, devoted and brave servants of the public good and the general peace and welfare of society. Others? Let's just say they have been weighed, they have been measured and they have been found wanting...

Call out the bad from within and the good police and the community together can clean up this tragedy and build a better tomorrow for all...continue to protect and hide the bad at the expense of the good, and all that happens is more division, more suspicion and more strife.

[underpants]

3. Driving While Dead

About the same time (80's to early 90's) we first started really hearing about Driving While Black there was also another group being targeted - Deadheads. The Grateful Dead were in full touring mode at the time and they had developed a huge following. Growing near "the mothership" (Hampton Va. Coliseum) a lot of people became deadheads including my brother. Lots of deadheads were being pulled over on the main drag for east coast tours, I95, mostly for having Dead bumper stickers. Pulling off the interstate often included an encounter with local law enforcement.

This was happening a lot. Yes there was a lot of drug use in that community but there was no probable cause.

What police started finding out was that many Deadheads weren't stupid broke kids who would plead or not fight charges. Many were already into their careers and others had family resources to have their day in court. Wrongful arrest claims were being paid by localities all over the place. The number of people being pulled over dropped to very very few.

[perdita9]

4. I overheard a colleague use this argument today

"Go, Trump, Go!" she said. "These athletes are overpaid and most of them aren't even educated."

She's supposed to be an educated person. I guess she's drunk the Trump Kool Aid along with the rest of Cult 45.

[IronLionZion]

5. The fact that people are coming up with any excuse to dismiss the protests

is very telling. A lot of people want to keep the status quo and benefit from it because they don't look like the people getting harassed for simply looking like someone else who might have done something bad.

If police were searching for white rural meth dealers and stopped and frisked people in their pickup trucks or used no knock warrants on the completely wrong houses because they got the address wrong, things might be different. When houses are far apart, it's easier to show up at the correct address than when they are next to each other in the poor neighborhood of a city.

Many rural people enjoy the benefit of dealing with the much better trained and more professional state police, not the local sheriff's deputies.

The outraged people are not having their lives affected in any way by some people peacefully quietly kneeling in protest. But plenty of Americans are affected by police violence and racism. It's disgusting that some people want to see the violence continue because they benefit somehow by keeping others in fear for their lives.

[Hekate]

6. Kick