Politics Minneapolis Police Incident and Protests

Okay maybe I'm a little confused maybe I'm a little ignorant maybe it's some of both. I understand and I get it with that being said Can someone please explain to me what the point of destroying national monuments such as Christopher Columbus and thanks to that nature has to do with what is going on. I have seen where they have defaced and when I say they I mean the protestors not the black people not the white people the protestors because the protesters are a mixture of all Races so please do not think I am being racist when I ask these questions. But what is the meaning of defacing Confederate monuments? I understand that some people in the world think that when they see a Confederate Memorial or a Confederate flag that some people think that it automatically means racism and to some people that's what it means and to some people it does not. But let's just use a Confederate Cemetery for example I saw on the news where one here in Atlanta was defaced and they had broken a lot of the headstones and memorials I really don't understand that that is a heritage thing or it can be considered a war memorial. I don't understand why it has gotten as far as it has. We all know I am a big Nascar fan and I saw yesterday before I watch the race last night that Nascar has banned the Confederate flag from all bracing sanctioned events okay I get it I understand but there's going to be a lot of people who will stop watching it because they are ignorant and do not understand they will think that because NASCAR did that that they are starting to go away from the routes of what Nascar was founded on to me it matters not. I just personally think that things have started to get out of hand and have started to go awry. But like I said maybe I'm ignorant maybe I'm stupid so maybe someone can enlighten me

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Somewhere here at TFP there is a thread on the Confederate flag & monuments. Many answers to your questions are in that thread.

One brief, and incomplete, answer: Many confederate monuments were created in response to the Civil Rights movement and subsequent legislation, and were intentionally placed in areas where they would been seen by many blacks. As I said, this is an incomplete answer, and it deserves more research.

 

There is a lot of built up anger as so many protests from MLK, Malcolm X, and BLM 1 didn't really accomplish the end goal. Part of it is that the Union didn't punish, implement laws, and modernize the Southern states enough, especially after they attacked the leaders after the cease fire, which led to later generations picking up the cause. The other part is that the far left is pissed off and has nothing else to do. They know that Biden won't get much done, so here is an opportunity to push exposing Columbus as the guy who discovered the Caribbean first, not the US, but also chose to rape kids when he got to North America. The confederate statues were of guys who owned slaves and were placed in locations to try and build support against Civil Rights by saying that these are the great leaders.

But, at the same time, it doesn't really help the current movement to reform the police and get the general public on your side. Especially if the police have to be called in to prevent damage to the government property.

 

so he was just their and asked to talk??

i watched it. very touching. but like i said i get it. and ok....maybe i have a better understanding now. i know that just talking will do nothing but action will. but i think it was rapper Killer Mike that said dont burn your own house down..

 

and yes i have talked to my daughter about everyting. i dont shelter her from it beause it is something that she will have to deal with, hear about, protest about or whatever during her life. The think that pissess me off is the people who shelter their kids from it. What is the point in that? be open and honest with your kids about everything. sheltering them can make it worse. Am i wrong?

 

Well I guess by now everybody knows about the incident here in Atlanta kind of crazy. From what I understand and all of the things that I have read and seen the guy was passed out drunk in his car in the Drive-Thru line at Wendy's and people were going around him someone called the police the police show up they get him out of the car they give him a field sobriety test which he fails and then he proceeded to resist arrest and evade and elude police and in the process of resisting arrest he stole one of the officers tasers and took off running. After about 40 ft he turned around and fired the taser at one of the two police officers and they shot him. I have seen all of the video I have seen the body cam video so that's pretty much what happened. And then roughly 12 hours later the Atlanta police chief Erika Shields who was the first openly gay police chief in Atlanta resigned

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Police work is messy business. There were many mistakes made in that case. I can understand the instinct to shoot, but the police should have used some basic thinking about the situation. This would be as if the police would open fire on cars that are trying to get away during a high speed pursuit. If the suspect had just shot and killed a bunch of people, that might be justified to prevent them from getting away and harming others. If you have a guy who is going to get a DUI, you left his car, and gave his name and address, either calling for other cars to help track him, or just letting him run until he turns himself in would have been the better option in a non-violent arrest. The police have his car and can surround his house.

But I'm not sure what having the police chief resigning accomplishes.

 

Agreed.

A pastor confronted Vice President Mike Pence on systemic racism during a roundtable in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday.

“Vice president, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and listen. I think the listening part is very important. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do after you listen,” declared Pastor Ross Owens. “You asked to share what’s on our hearts, so I’m going to do exactly that. It’s a mix of emotions, but the one that’s at the top is I’m tired. I am mentally, physically, and spiritually tired.”

“God took me from the projects of the Hill District and really set me on a path to success, but even where I am now, I’m still tired because of all the racism I see,” Owens continued. “I’m tired that people still do not acknowledge that systemic racism is real, and they ignore the billions of voices that exist and they say, ‘No that’s not true,’ because of the comfort of their own bubble. I’m tired because when my children were in middle school, they saw so much racism at the age of 13 and 15 that I had to comfort them when they came home on a daily basis because children that were once their friends were now targeting them openly, and there were no repercussions by the parents.”

Pastor Owens said, “It’s exhausting to continue to talk to my children and try to educate my son as I’m teaching him how to drive, how to respond when he’s been pulled over by police. Based off of what we see, it’s no longer ‘Son, say yes sir, no sir. Keep your hand on the steering wheel, put your hands on the dashboard.’ We fear for his life, just by being pulled over, so those things make me extremely tired.”... (more)​

There is nothing new about black pastors explaining the facts of systemic racism to white public officials.

What is new is the response from the public this time.

The vast majority of white America across party lines have broken out of the bubble and have acknowledged that racism resulting in the deaths of black men at the hands of police is a persistent problem and are now joining the demands for a federal government response.

As black Republican Senator Tim Scott noted last week,...

“Without question, this is different. It feels different. It sounds different. The protesters are different. … I look out my window in Washington and see 10 protesters. Seven of them are white, and three of them are black."
​

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll last week shows that support for Black Lives Matter has doubled since 2016. Fifty-seven percent of American adults said they have a favorable opinion of Black Lives Matter, a higher favorable public opinion, by double digits, than public opinion of Trump.

Support for banning choke holds is above 75%, including a majority of Republicans.

Support for sweeping police reform is above 80%.

There is a new momentum that Trump and the Republican Party ignore at their own political peril. It is a site to behold.

 

My work is honoring Juneteenth by closing at 1p on Friday for the first time ever. Even with all the disruptions to business with the ongoing global pandemic and the fact that Fridays tend to be busy, we are still honoring that day. For a bit. Not much, but it's a start.

 

We had quite a few Atlanta police officers "walk off the job" the last few days, the media downplays it saying that they have a higher than normal call out percentage than normal. but i have some friends that are cops in surrounding areas and they told me that the officers that were at work just quit answering calls. and he said that yes they had ALOT of people call out sick. he said at one point their were 125 calls in the list to be answered and no one answered any of them.

the APD called surrounding law enforcement agencies to see if they could get some assistance and not one agency responded with help. i do not know if it was because they were short handed also, or it they were like fuck it. i dont know the answer to that.

the city has said that it is giving each officer that is employed by the APD a $500 bonus. i assume it is to get them to come to work. but we all know what assume means. And not having a permanent Chief of Police does not help matters at all.


The mayor of atlanta was getting alot of flack because the first day that the protests/riots happened she was asked what the first thing she did was and her response was "I called my kids to see where they were and to make sure they were ok". Some people think she should have responded to what was happening in the city first, But as a mother she was checking on her kids first. I cant say i blame her, but lots of people do.

 

Just watched this again and was going to post it, but I see you already did. Love that woman and her speech.

 

Hmm...factual?

Edit: I ask because here a photo circulated showing of our mayor and police chief walking side by side without masks. Supposedly at a recent protest rally.
The image was not altered, but it was taken at an event many months back, way before Corona Virus, much less COVID-19, was around.

 

Can’t say, honestly. This was one of dozens of similar meme images that have come out in response to this year’s events, whether factually or contextually accurate or not. It did catch my eye.

 

Man after watching the body cam of Dante Write getting killed I'm like...I've been pulled over for bad tabs, I can't conceive of it getting anywhere near this out of control...
Weed here is an essential business for one thing and OMG those cops were freaking out like 3 barny fife's on brown acid. It was so fucking crazy.
It makes me feel shame for being white.

 

Ralphie250
"The think that pissess me off is the people who shelter their kids from it. What is the point in that? be open and honest with your kids about everything. sheltering them can make it worse. Am i wrong?"

No I think your right. If it hasn't been mentioned, sheltering and (more accurately I think) hiding the history has been institutionalized in the schools. I've read the Daughters of the Confederacy were a political force in the south that dictated the "spin" on the war, slavery etc. for many years, decades and so the face of all that is distorted (again so I have read and it was a couple months ago I don't have a link) relatively to the north or northwestern states.
Embarrassing as it is I only learned what Juneteenth was all about this past year, that Texas didn't tell slaves they were free for several years...I don't remember how many after the rest of the country was emancipated.
Family generations who came here as slaves lived as slaves for more years than there descendants have been free people still.
Just think if over 50 % of your families history was in a state of ownership as slaves. Like animals. Now think of how we abuse ourselves illegally now ? But as a slave no treatment is illegal so I'm sure there are family stories.

I just the body cam footage again and those cops were just totally panicked by a 20 yo kid when there's 3 of them all with deadly weapons. Why are they so damn scared ?

In recent past Christmases I've met a couple of young teens from Oregon and one from Texas who hadn't learned about slavery or the Nazis and the holocaust. They were all kids 13-14 or so but no drivers license yet, so I think some schools arent strongly addressing it like they should. But I'm shure also not a lot of people want to teach such an unpleasant time.

 

I do wonder about some of these traffic stops for frivolous reasons. I wonder if there are quotas or they have to show that they are working by finding people to pull over everyday.

They made quite a few rookie mistakes in that interaction too. Although I do wonder how many times she has ever had to shoot someone that pulled a gun on her before. But they should have prevented him from fleeing back into the car in the first place if they made him exit it for some reason.

As for what is taught in schools (8th grade for me,~14 yo), I wonder how other places around the world teach it. I can see that if slavery is taught in white schools, it could be seen as teaching that whites are the master race. They have no other experience with black culture, friends who are a different race, or history. And the black experience in the North US/Canada where I grew up might not have been great, but it wasn't exactly slavery either in the past. Yet, there are stereotypes of inner cities and what you hear about currently that influences how the students will think about past events 170+ years ago.