BLM

[Cecil Harvey]

Are any of you actively participating in Black Lives Matters protests?

I am a massive introvert, but my heart, mind, and soul wants to participate.

Anyone?

[cliffs]

There was a protest about a week ago at one of our town commons (we have several) and all of 15 people showed up. The odds were against a large turnout as there are only 3 nonwhite families in my small town. I have lived through the race riots and war protests of the 60s up to now and have never felt the urge to gather with a group of people to make noise.

[AFCTUJacko]

I'm starting the over/under at 1.5 pages.....

Any bids?

[joegolferg]

BLM is being portrayed as a Marxist movement by conservatives. I sincerely hope it is true.

[ErixonStone]

Jun 30, 2020 12:18:32 GMT -5 joegolferg said:

BLM is being portrayed as a Marxist movement by conservatives. I sincerely hope it is true.

There's a huge overlap, as many of the people out in the streets are young, and the younger generations tend to be open towards Marxism. There isn't much explicitness tying the two together, but that seems to be growing.

[SweetTeeBag]

Seriously though...don't All Lives Matter?

[reebdoog]

*reads down the posts...oh...*

I'll take the under.

[reebdoog]

BLM is based in critical theory which has also been known as social marxism...so there will be overlap if that helps with the socialist question.

[nevadaballin]

Jun 30, 2020 13:51:30 GMT -5 SweetTeeBag said:

Seriously though...don't All Lives Matter?

They said black lives matter.
They did NOT say that ONLY black lives matter.
Because no one's lives matter until we ALL matter equally.

^^^ That is the point where white folk who do not understand need to start. 

Then next, they can understand that taking a knee in front of the flag during the anthem isn't a protest more than it is a plea to the country - equality is still missing and the cops are too heavy-handed. MUCH too heavy handed.

Anyone who thinks it is a sign of disrespect isn't dialed in to the problems at hand and most likely don't even care. That knee doesn't kill people like the knee of a cop on someone's neck for 9 minutes. It's a plea. A plea to the country to help right a wrong that's being going on for way, way, way, too long. That's what it means. It isn't about flag, anthem or a military that fights for us to have that right to begin with. It's a plea for equal justice. Period.

Anything associated with the Confederate traitors should be in a museum or destroyed. We don't fly the flags of our enemies around here. We certainly do not call the past of our enemies our own heritage. That's a defeated enemy. They left the USA to fight for their state's rights to own people as slaves. To own people. They wanted to keep owning people. Whip them. Beat them. Rape them. Impregnate them. Call me Master. Build the plantations up, pick the crops, make that "owner" rich while the slaves suffered in shacks and shackles.

That's not anything to be proud of. That's not heritage. That disgusting. F those traitors. Their Confederate sht doesn't belong here.

In the words of Neil Young:

"Southern man, better keep your head.
Don't forget what your good book said.
Southern change gonna come at last.
Now your crosses are burning fast.

Southern man.

I saw cotton and I saw black.
Tall white mansions and little shacks.
Southern man, when will you pay them back?

I heard screamin' and bullwhips cracking.
How long? How long?"



................. And the Redskins need to change their team name while we're at it.



.

[nevadaballin]

Jun 18, 2020 3:22:38 GMT -5 Cecil Harvey said:

Are any of you actively participating in Black Lives Matters protests?

I am a massive introvert, but my heart, mind, and soul wants to participate.

Anyone?

I wear my University of Nevada #10 Kaepernick jersey everywhere. But I've done that long before the recent unrest. I've had the jersey since he was the QB here for the Wolf Pack. This is Kaep's college town and the majority of us already knew he was on that equal justice train. I have always understood and believed the cause was just and worthwhile. 

No protest attendance for me yet since I've been dealing with moving and the other health stuff. I'm sure there will be more opportunities soon though since Congress can't get moving on a damn thing regarding this. And there will be another video of a non-threatening black man or woman being killed by a cop. The next video may be the last straw when all of hell breaks loose, not just a twig of it.

Police departments need reform. They need to become part of their communities instead of enemies against it. Cops always assume a person is guilty no matter what. They get way too hands-on with people. I saw a video of a black guy in Florida who was talking to an officer, gave him his ID and answering questions. Cops were looking for someone with a warrant. Then, out of no where, another cop comes up behind him, puts the dude in a bear hug AND tells him to put his hands behind his back. Clearly he could not do anything with his hands because the bully cop had him in a bear hug from behind. Cop told him to put his hands behind his back again and then proceeded to body slam the dude to the ground, breaking the black dude's wrist.

Turned out the dude was not the warranted person they were looking for. Wasn't even the right guy. Imagine if that cop had cracked dude's skull open on the sidewalk and killed him with that slam?

I have a lot of respect for law enforcement and understand their job is stressful but they need to stop being so grabby-pushy with people. It takes a special breed of person to be a good cop.  If one cannot handle this level of responsibility then go be a security guard somewhere. Unless I'm under arrest, keep your freakin' hands off me. You can check me for weapons and drugs, but you do not get to grab, push, punch, shove, slam people, etc if they are not a threat.

[FRSTDWN]

What happened was horrible. No one is going to debate that. But didn't we have a black president for 8 years? I'm confused. I guess he failed?

Where is he and BLM when children are getting murdered on his streets? Where is Al? Must be no money in it.

Hopefully the old white guy wins and solves all these problems.

Marxism... lmao. What has happened lately is just a glimpse of what life would be like if people like Joegolfer had their way and remember Marxism is not for the people in charge. It's just for you.

[FRSTDWN]

And let me say one thing. I'm no fan of the popo. I have had some run ins with them in my life. A lot of power hungry clowns who have way too much power at people's most vulnerable moments. I don't agree with a lot of the liberties they can take and entrap people. Especially young poor people . The justice system also destroys a lot of these people's life's because they don't have any representation.

If BLM was serious making drugs legal would be on the top of their list. That would defund the police by reducing crime ten fold. Not to mention the reduction of interaction with police. We all know why cops pull you over. It's not because of the moving infraction or expired tags. It in hope of something more. Especially if you are black or brown.

Imagine the government loss if drugs were legal. They might actually spend their time on sh%$ that matters.

[cliffs]

I wasn't aware the government spends all their time on the war on drugs.

Imagine the government loss if drugs were legal. - Just what loss are you going on about now? If anything, the taxes raised would help knock down donnie's deficit crisis.

I can't imagine how many horrific accidents we would have on our highways if heroin and cocaine or the trending drugs meth or fentanyl were legal. Bad enough alcohol does it's damage but yeah let's get all these illegal substances out there for anybody to use.

How many black men killed by the popo were NOT resisting or pushing back against a LAWFUL request by the popo? I agree what happened was terrible but I have been stopped by the popo a few times in my long life and NEVER did I get cuffed, beaten, pushed, or in actuality, addressed in any way but respectfully...you know why, because i respected the popo who pulled me over or stopped me in the street to ask what I was doing, etc.

[ErixonStone]

Jul 1, 2020 7:57:06 GMT -5 cliffs said:

How many black men killed by the popo were NOT resisting or pushing back against a LAWFUL request by the popo? I agree what happened was terrible but I have been stopped by the popo a few times in my long life and NEVER did I get cuffed, beaten, pushed, or in actuality, addressed in any way but respectfully...you know why, because i respected the popo who pulled me over or stopped me in the street to ask what I was doing, etc.

This exact sentiment is the problem. The answer to your question is, "a lot."

George Floyd was not resisting.
Breonna Taylor was asleep in her own home.
Walter Scott was running away.

The idea that "the bad guy must have done something wrong or else the cop wouldn't have done that" is completely divorced from truth. The fact that you're willing to assume this is why cops get away with it and the entire reason behind Kaepernick's protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The police in America are treated as infallible. They are, by definition, "the good guys," so whatever they do therefore is, by definition, good.

Police officers are human and they're susceptible to the same bad decision making and biases anyone else would be. Police units breed a cult-like mentality: "we are one unit; everyone is a threat; we must stand together at all times."

For a long time, citizens have gone along with the idea that, like any large group of people, most of the cops are good, and there are a few bad apples. But watch the videos. Watch George Floyd's murder. Watch the Buffalo PD steamroll an elderly protester and proceed to march right past him. Watch one cop temporarily show concern only to be corrected by all the other cops. See the police report say that he "tripped and fell." Watch the videos. Read the stories of cops faking getting poisoned at Shake Shack, or being called "pigs" at McDonald's and Starbucks. They lie. All the time.

Tell me: where are all the good cops? They're silenced. Crossing the line - ratting on a cop - is considered an act of treason. Doing so will end your career. The effect is that there are no good cops.

Policing in America needs to be completely reinvented and reimagined.

[LKeet6]

Jun 30, 2020 13:51:30 GMT -5 SweetTeeBag said:

Seriously though...don't All Lives Matter?

White lives already matter, that's the point. Until the issue black people are trying to draw your attention to is solved then all lives do NOT matter.

Here's a longer response from a white Unitarian believer (actually from 2016, the last time this flared up) that I really like:

Of course all lives matter. Central to Unitarian Universalism is the affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Sadly, our society has a long history of treating some people as less valuable than others. Study after study has confirmed that in equivalent situations, African Americans and Latinos are treated with deadly force far more often than White people, and authorities held less accountable. Unfortunately, racial bias continues to exist even when it is no longer conscious—this too is confirmed by multiple studies. A lack of accountability in the use of force combined with unconscious bias is too often a deadly combination – and one that could place police officers, as well as the public, in great danger.

To say that Black lives matter is not to say that other lives do not; indeed, it is quite the reverse—it is to recognize that all lives do matter, and to acknowledge that African Americans are often targeted unfairly (witness the number of African Americans accosted daily for no reason other than walking through a White neighborhood—including some, like young Trayvon Martin, who lost their lives) and that our society is not yet so advanced as to have become truly color blind. This means that many people of goodwill face the hard task of recognizing that these societal ills continue to exist, and that White privilege continues to exist, even though we wish it didn’t and would not have asked for it. I certainly agree that no loving God would judge anyone by skin color.

As a White man, I have never been followed by security in a department store, or been stopped by police for driving through a neighborhood in which I didn’t live. My African American friends have, almost to a person, had these experiences. Some have been through incidents that were far worse. I owe it to the ideal that we share, the ideal that all lives matter, to take their experiences seriously and listen to what they are saying. To deny the truth of these experiences because they make me uncomfortable would be to place my comfort above the safety of others, and I cannot do that.

I very much appreciate you writing to me, and am glad that we share the goal of coming to a day when people will not be judged, consciously or unconsciously, on the basis of their race. I believe that day is possible, too, but that it will take a great deal of work to get there. That work begins by listening to one another, and listening especially to the voices of those who have the least power in society. If nothing else is clear from the past few weeks, it is painfully evident that a great many people do not believe that they are treated fairly. Healing begins by listening to those voices and stories.