Discussion: Buttigieg Struggles With Response To Police Brutality Outcry Back Home

Doesn’t every mayor struggle with the dynamics between minorities and their police force? Suggesting Buttigieg is somehow unique in this dilemma infers he is especially inept at managing it as contrasted with other mayors.

THEY ALL STRUGGLE WITH IT.

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More on the Boykins case here. Not a good look for Mayor Pete.

Sounds like white cops were caught saying racist stuff, who then tried to say their rights were violated.

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I suppose mayors could be proactive and terminate all the white racist police officers on their forces. Of course that would essentially gut the majority of police forces in the nation.

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Ba-dum. :joy:

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This!
Always a Loose - Loose scenario
White People - All lives matter - you’re persecuting the cops
Black People - Black Lives Matter- racist cops murdering people of color

You win the prize Pete - Everybody hates you

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And both parts can be and apparently were true. It’s illegal to tape phone calls there without consent, and they were saying racist shit.

Generally speaking, one crime doesn’t justify or excuse another crime.

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I don’t understand what’s so mystifying to Buttigieg and other mayors and governors that struggle with this.

All we need is accountability. Police officers that engage in misconduct must be punished, not protected. That’s it.

Say it with me: Punishment, not protection. Punishment not protection. Punishment not protection.

Maybe if you say it three times like that, the magic fairy of accountability will show up.

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I think this will sink his run for POTUS. It is a no win situation. Watching him try to have a conversation with hysterical family members shouting and not listening is a waste of time. How do we get folks to the table to discuss the situation beyond the current family’s fury? I am an old white man and can not walk in the shoes of a black man so I have nothing to say. I just know it will take more than screaming and yelling to change hundreds of years of institutional racism and the current militarization of local police.

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Several police officers around the nation have been convicted of crimes related to the abuse or killing of minorities. Not enough to be sure, but it’s not as if their prosecution is unheard of.

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The irony of racist cops complaining about privacy and “unreasonable searches and seizures.” is simply too much.
But yeah, there’s totally “two sides” to this. :unamused:

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Hell yes it’s a struggle when there’s a well entrenched pattern of racism on the SB police force (and regionally) that goes waaay back. There’s no question that this will be a challenge for Mayor Pete.

Somebody said that IN is “the middle finger of the South”. I live in Bloomington, which is a lovely, progressive college town, but that ain’t what’s happening 5 miles outside of town. You may have noticed that white supremacist moron Matthew Heimbach is a Hoosier:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/14/matthew-heimbach-neo-nazi-white-nationalism-arrest-domestic-violence
He’s from Paoli which is ~50 miles south of here.

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Not unheard of, just entirely too rare.

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He’s also got this baggage:

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Police face no-win situations.

For example, in my neighborhood of mixed race residents a car full of young black men were parked on the street in a residential area, around 11:30 on a Sunday night. So, people work in the morning. They go to bed and try to sleep. Well, these young men were blaring that booming, heavy bass rap out of the car, windows open. Speakers in the trunk, rattling the entire vehicle. The windows on nearby homes are actually vibrating. The police get called.

The next day it’s the talk of the neighborhood about how the damned cops have it in for a bunch of young black guys just trying to get together and have a good time. Hassled them for nothing more than sitting in a car on the street.

Sure, many cops are racist. And many people, regardless their race, do things that unnecessarily invite the scrutiny of the police. Sometimes when you ask for trouble it accepts the invitation and comes to visit you.

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Easy to suggest as a remedy, hard as hell to implement.

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I do wonder, though, what Buttigieg’s argument for why he’s running for president is anymore: “I can’t even solve the problems that plague my little shitburg middle-American city, but please, allow me to be unable to solve the problems that plague America itself.”

Damn, right on. We’re with ya, Pete.

If he had any integrity, he’d withdraw from the race and focus on South Bend. He’s still young. Still plenty of time to be president.

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I guess it’s open season on Mayor Pete. I’m still an admirer. But, before running for president, he should have won trust from African-American leadership in his own community – or at least found a way to firm up support. Then, he might not have been the main focus of the rage.

There are more positive undercurrents that run against the Poltico’s predictably dire narrative. The NYTimes begins its article with a similarly negative summation, but several individuals quoted commend Buttigieg. Among them were African-American councilman, who’s described as a “sharp critic” of the mayor:

Mr. Davis said he admired the mayor for wading into a crowd of protesters and Mr. Logan’s grieving relatives on Friday night. “Very few people could have withstood what he went through without completely losing it,” he said.

Still, given that winning black votes is such a crucial challenge for Buttigieg to rise up to a top-tier candidate, it’s difficult to see how he’ll ever break through at this point.

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How is it so hard to punish people for misconduct? We do it all the time with everyone else in the country. Hell, people of color are punished regularly for imaginary misconduct.

Honestly, it isn’t that hard.

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That’s some magical thinking. And that a mere Mayor can just snap his fingers and make that happen.

He can’t personally change the State and Federal laws and Supreme Court Decisions which give extremely broad latitude and deference to cops who kill people while on duty any more than you or I can.

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