Discussion for article #235803
Oh good an articulate and helpful commentator. This riot is more than likely the beginning of what the conservatives have been working to incite for several years now. The media echo chamber has done nothing but judge, jury and condemn and people of color, poverty or disadvantage when they complain of their conditions. The Fox news crew has set a standard the rest of the media is trying gamely to live down to.
We are reaping what we have sown for years, hate, unrest and judgement against the helpless.
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The blood thirsty bastards sit back and glorify the violence after ignoring the protests. Fox entertainers should be very careful about whom they call thugs.
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Has anyone noticed that the days where the media were busy either with their gala on Saturday or recovering from a hangover on Sunday there werenât any riots, but the moment they showed up to pay attention to the whole thing suddenly the violence explodes?
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Working to incite for several years now? Today is the 23rd anniversary of the LA Riots, something Iâll never forget having lived there during them. I canât imagine how much bigger they would have been had there been cell phone cameras, and blanket coverage. As it was, it was much bigger and MUCH more violent than the Baltimore one. But the cause was the same: White cops getting away with the beating of a black man with impunity (well 2 of them eventually saw jail time). But Iâm amazed that none of the news that Iâve seen are putting this into context as not being a new issue in America. Itâs just the police are getting caught much more frequently thanks to camera phones being ubiquitous and the news cycle being much more rapid. The big difference in the LA riots is Chief Darryl Gates pulled ALL the police off the streets to let the city burn and the local media reported there are no police out at all. That made the riot turn from a limited area at Florence and Normandie to go citywide quickly. I remember being at work and watch the fires get closer and closer. Eventually there were 1200+ fires burning and the city, from up on Mulholland Drive looked like Kuwait burning, which was going on at that time.
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Real backlash would be a massive voter registration project nationwide.
In WWII, young men regularly committed suicide if found unfit for military service. For those who served, something had to convince those young men to do what they did.
Passion can exist in young people. Itâs just that those of us who are older have failed mightily to get them to connect the idea of politics to action.
In most of what I have seen from those who should know better, the talking has been more about dramatization than constructive action going forward. As much as I despised the Soviet system and as much as people in China have suffered through the years, (young) people in those countries have achieved feats unmentionable in these parts, like carrying heavy equipment over roads for hundreds of miles on foot or this one by the Soviets:
In 1941-42, Stalin, aware that the Germans might capture Russian industry (which was in the western part of the country), sent (by train) a substantial amount of Soviet HEAVY INDUSTRY to the east.
In months.
If the Democratic Party and all of these groups I get on my email EVERY DAY cannot figure out how to motivate young people to vote, the untimate fault may have been OURS (their parents and elders), for giving them a nearly ZERO conception of civic duty while raising them.
Or it may be just ineptness of all of these bumbling organizations.
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That would be really nice, but have you considered how powerless so many people feel right now when they canât vote because of certain peopleâs obstructionism? How about feeling powerless because the GOP has divided your cityâs districts in such a manner that the only people who get elected are racist white men? How about having your local DMV office shut down so that you have to spend a day without pay to hop onto a bus to take you somewhere where there is a DMV office so that you can get valid ID so you can then vote?
Voting is a really NICE idea, but with all the pushes to make it almost impossible for the poor to vote, do you see why people are getting tired of being shut out of any dialogue whatsoever.
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Short of the kind of revolution which occured in my country of origin, then I guess we are really screwed then.
There are really only two scenarios:
either people vote the oligarch-enablers out or not. There will no âAmerican Revolutionâ here. At least, not under the present system we have.
Itâs possible to fight back against it, but the problem is that we have been told for the last four decades that our votes really donât matter. Part of the problem is that our oligarchs donât understand what happens when you economically oppress a people for too long and take away their voice. You end up with situations like in any nation which has experienced economic revolutions. They fail to understand that the American Revolution was about a personâs rights as an Englishman and representation. It was a very rare political revolt. Most revolutions, including the majority in Latin America, have been about economics.
They fail to realize what Franklin Roosevelt did- a little bit of socialism and redistribution of wealth prevents a whole lot of Capitalist heads on spikes.
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Take a listen to Frank Zappaâs âTrouble every dayâ about the Watts riots from fifty years ago. That tune keeps playing in my head every time I see footage from the latest âriotâ.
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Iâm old enough to remember the Watts Riots. I had just graduated from High School and lived down the coast in Orange County.
Between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the riots over the course of six days, while about 70,000 people were âsympathetic, but not active.â[13] Over the six days, there were 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage. â Wikipedia
Almost always, the root causes of all these urban uprisings have been poverty, high unemployment, heavy-handed or even racist policing, poor community relations with the police in general and neglect by politicians and voters alike.
Almost always, there is a commission report that recommends measure to improve the conditions in these poor neighborhoods and the recommendations are almost always ignored by planners and politicians; because of laziness, indifference, or sheer hard-heartedness: something something, âbootstrapsâ; blah, blah, blah, âpersonal responsibilityâ; something something, âfamily values, where are the fathers?â, opine, opine, âAmerica is the land of opportunityâ, etc.
Things never seem to change, except superficially. And now, after having observed this cycling of urban upheavals since 1964, more often than not, I wonder. Given that so many of us in our society are intellectually shackled, as it were, by the myths and stories that the privileged tell to each other in order to make them; us?; feel good, I wonder if we are even capable of change.
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In one of the old videos I occasionally come across, I saw a WWII training film for combat pilots. The protagonist (e.g., the âaverage joeâ pilot who eventually learned how to recognize enemy aircraft) was played by Ronald Reagan (who I recognized at the last minute of the video). Ronnie came across as so âaw shucksâ likeable that this Chicano felt like entering into a Time Bubble and becoming a combat pilot myself.
Ronnie is the guy who came in like Gangbusters and started the weaning of the working class off the New Deal and its subsequent policies. He started the incredible logic of ordinary people ACTUALLY ELECTING POLITICIANS IN GOVERNMENT WHO HATED GOVERNMENT (as opposed to a narrow segment of the population believing this).
Since minorities in this country are in a vastly disadvantaged and reactive position on policy, imagine the intersection of (1) Oligarchic madness (2) âsmall governmentâ mania coupled with an acceptance of gigantic corporate and financial social structures (3) minority need (as artfully articulated by Artemisia above) and (4) an info-tainment rabble of clowns called the âMSMâ
I, too, wonder, given what is stacked against us, Ralph, âif we can changeâ.
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I had just arrived in Los Angeles when in two months the riots happened. I will never forget it either
Chief Gates was the nasty mother fucker and he learned well from his predecessor. LA cops have a terrible history
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The most destructive thing associated with Ronald Reaganâs political career, in my opinion at any rate, is that he was superbly successful at convincing large numbers of people, at least in the white community, that it was better to FEEL good than to DO good.
Stay skeptical, my friend.
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Ronald Reagan one of the worst presidents ever especially when it comes to âhuman rightsâ
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No discussion about Fox Newsâs coverage of the confrontations should ignore Geraldo Riveraâs and FOXâs roll in them last night.
While the local stations all where on location covering the a tense protest that had been turned peaceful by a huge community presence (and a few amazing marching bands) FOX was of course no where to be found. Then as the deadline for the curfew approached and all the peaceful protesters left along with many local press, with 30 minutes to go Geraldo and the FOX crew showed up and started to agitate every black person they could. They attracted a crowed on purpose and created a circus! Geraldo literally pushed his way into a large group of people (presumably to grab an interview) and started hurling insults loudly at all of them. Yes really he did that! He loudly yelled insults at people who threw bottles, and continually incited and inflamed the situation around him and was generally being confrontational towards people everyone else was trying to calm down. Heâd gone way fucking beyond any journalistic ethics and was now a participant. It was disgusting.
A bar I was at last night had Fox News on one of the big screen televisions; I thought the commentators were going to have an orgasm right there on screen, they were so excited to be showing a story that confirmed their misanthropic world view and would stir up their base. I told my wife that this has been going on for as long as I can remember. Detroit, Chicago, Watts, Birmingham, Mississippi, etc. Police brutality against African Americans is nothing new. This poor guy in Baltimore (who had a rap sheet of non-violent drug offenses so itâs understandable he would run) had done NOTHING wrong, and they damn near severed his spinal cord and crushed his larynx. And nobody knows nothing? Theyâre âinvestigatingâ. Right. Also, yesterday 10,000 people peacefully marched there, but you didnât hear a thing about that. Hell, if I was in their place, Iâd be burning things too. Something HAS to be done. I wish I knew what.
Oh look. A knuckle-dragging tone troll.
Freddy Grey is dead. Please tell some one at Fox.
Some of the best Larry Wilmore yet. Excellent piece.