Posted on 09/21/2016 7:52:58 PM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff
If America were a song, the killing of unarmed black people by the police would be a standard chord progression or rhythm, the sort of indistinguishable background noise that you hear so often you might not even notice it anymore.
On Friday, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a 40-year-old black man named Terence Crutcher had car troubles. The police approached him. Crutcher responded by putting his hands in the air. The Tulsa police used a Taser on Crutcher. A Tulsa police officer, Betty Shelby, then shot him dead. They left him bleeding in the street for almost a minute before rendering any aid. The incident was recorded on video.
Crutcher had committed no crime. He was unarmed. He was a motorist in distress. He was driving home from a music-appreciation class at a local college. This street execution took less than 30 seconds.
Several months ago, I decided that I would no longer watch videos of black people being killed by America’s police. These images have become a type of pornographic violence, a new digital-era version of lynching postcards. I know all too well what dead black bodies look like. To be repeatedly exposed to such images is psychologically unhealthy.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Actually, a cop is 18 times more likely to be killed by a black man than a black man is likely to be killed by a cop, so no to both of your purportings!
We live in a very diverse society, and the idea that a brown person is routinely hassled by dint of him being a brown person is not plausible.
It would mean statistically all brown people are also routinely hassled because they are also brown.
The best music-appreciation classes are the ones where I'm on PCP, except of course when the sounds get angry and threaten to rip out my soul.
Swarthy people get harassed!
Life is unfair!
I'm 47. I just crap my pants as policy.
I don’t care if his hands were up or not. The cop did not ask him to put his hands up. And he was not stopped for anything dangerous. The female cop said he just put his hands up. And she just shot him through the heart because he did something unexpected.
You get car trouble. A cop stops and starts asking you a bunch of questions. You are not under arrest. You have no reason to believe you are under arrest. The cop has seen nothing to presume you are a danger. And still if you make one wrong move you are a corpse. That is not America.
This man was presumed to be deadly dangerous to this cop. She presumed her life was in danger. Even though he did not show any deadly force or anger (ability or motive to hurt her).
These two are not equals here. She is a professional. He is a random citizen. In Rural North Carolina a black man has a well below national average IQ. Her job is to efficiently resolve the issue without harm to any persons or property. The issue in this case is a disabled car in the middle of a highway. She let the situation escalate to the point where she was afraid and shot to kill the guy. That is bad policing no matter how you look at it.
The guy is dead, I can’t say he deserved to die but he clearly was killed because of the danger he presented.
The guy is a danger because he is a black man. He had no weapon. He did not do anything to suggest he was mad or wanted to hurt her. She had three backups around her.
The reason black men are angry is that because they are black men they are presumed to be deadly and want to kill cops. A cop always gives me the benefit of the doubt even when he can’t see my hands. And even when I do not do exactly what he says. Or I argue with him. But then again, I have been stopped several times and I have never had a gun pointed at me. I am white so cops treat me better.
“...And black men are not by nature dangerous. But if you are a black man clearly cops are very dangerous....”
Actually, a cop is 18 times more likely to be killed by a black man than a black man is likely to be killed by a cop, so no to both of your purportings!
I understand and sympathize with your plight, I really do, and agree with your overarching thesis.
However, your factual errors scream out for correction.
I figured out a long, long time ago that getting into an argument with a police officer is never a good idea. You can’t seriously hope to win.
Not complying is even dumber. They’ll just get more cops and use more force. You can’t win. You have to do something really stupid to get yourself shot by a cop. Do people really believe that when someone pulls a gun on a cop, the cop thinks *oh wait, that’s a white dude pulling that gun on me. I’ll hold my fire*.
You’re right. If a citizen feels abused by an officer, there are legal avenues of redress, but it’s not on the street, escalating a confrontation into a tragedy.
The guy had a gun.
We are talking here about the police shooting in Tulsa. He did not have a gun. Nobody thought he had a gun. The police had a gun and a taser. The guy with the taser shot. So why did the women with the gun shoot?
Why because she was afraid of black males. That’s why she should not be a policewomen.
“Really,
what kind of clothes is the BF wearing when being hassled?
I know lots of whites who get hassled in stores when they show up looking like the local branch of the Crips.”
Sorry to disappoint you. He’s always well-dressed and very soft-spoken.
Your problem...might be what you said...........
“It would mean statistically all brown people are also routinely hassled because they are also brown.”
Not ALL, but a goodly number are. Many deservedly so, others simply by extension.
In Tulsa? No he didn't. Not on him. Not in his car.
Your problem...might be what you said...........
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What? Sorry but I don’t understand your meaning.
Think about it.........
He gets hassled by the cops and merchants all the time.
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Osage, if this is the sentence you’re referring to, it wasn’t posted by me. A poster I was responding to stated that her daughter’s BF gets hassled all the time by cops and merchants, and I responded that, for the reasons I stated, I found that hard to believe.
"All the time.."""?????????
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