Protests Over Death Of George Floyd Spread To Cities Around The Country | Talking Points Memo

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Developments across the United States in connection with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody:

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1311447
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Regrettably this all plays into the hands of the Fascists running the White House, fearful white middle class families will rally to the “Law & Order” President.

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And democrats began clutching their pearls in 5 4 3…

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There’s a reason that these protests turn violent. And it’s not the protesters.

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I suspect the pandemic is exacerbating this, too.

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Several cases of police abuse(*) and cover up in a row, lots o bored people out of work and money, warm weather arriving… throw in a braggart tweets and kaboom!!!

This should not be taken on isolation, the memory of the attempted coverup in the Arbery case is still fresh on everybody’s mind. The case of Breonna Taylor is also pretty jarring because the cops were automatically cleared.

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Then there’s the shitty white woman in central park…

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Not the pandemic, but guess who is over-represented in the new 36 million unemployed. Romans knew that the emperor had to provide the population with “bread and circus”. Under Emperor Dotardus we now have millions of hungry, bored people.

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Okay…the conditions that we are experiencing due to the pandemic.

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It is the convergence of many things, the ongoing pandemic being one of them. Have you seen the lines at the food pantries? People are desperate, all the while, the oligarchs got 1/2 trillion dollars richer.

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Why in the world would anyone choose to become a police officer in our society today

Why indeed? I’m sure that for some of them, it’s the idea they can kneel on a black man’s neck with the official backing of the government.

Oh, was the mayor not looking for a real answer? Was he instead trying to imply that we’ll have a shortage of police if we don’t let them kneel on necks with impunity?

We can only hope!

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Obviously some of them are racist fascist thugs who join up to satisfy their authoritarian and racist impulses to beat the shit out of and shoot people without consequence.

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So seven people shot in kentucky and it’s just a footnote?

(And how is it that when a police chief says no officer discharged their service weapon I’m immediately looking for the loopholes in that statement.)

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I said the same on another link, after I hit reply I notice it was an unrelated link. Has that been happening to others as I’ve notice same occurring for past few days.

Not just into their hands but with 40 million unemployed I am sure some of those in the name of feeding their families are willing to take players money to just go out into the wild, so to speak, and egg the crowds on. Soon we will be hearing “we’ve got to take our country back” and other memes all in the name of helping turnip get reelected and another step to dictatorship.

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There was a very small group that marched from U Street to the White House in DC. They had more police cruisers around them than people in the march. The optics were not that great in terms of police being so heavy handed.

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The Police Force is there not to “protect” the population, instead a repressive body to enforce the policy decisions of the ruling class, or worse yet like we have seen in the cases of New York or Baltimore, a corporation that 's unaccountable to elected officials and willing to sabotage the governance if a city official expresses the slightest criticism of them.

If we want a police force that is accountable to the taxpayer then you need to do away with the professional band of thugs, and substitute it with a force maned by citizens selected by a mandatory draft to serve for a period of time. There would be specialized roles that would still require pros, but the officer on the beat pickup up drunks and breaking up domestic fights should be your neighbors daughters and sons, people that belong to the community and to to some “fraternal order” .

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Usual case, with militarized police and even small towns creating SWAT units the PD must justify the expense etc to their taxpayers.

Number of years ago now I was in an auto accident, I hit a 6 year old running between parked cars. If it was not for the driver immediately in front of me I would have more than likely ended up in jail. 1st cop had me sit in squad car and started to question. Guy walked up and tapped the window, when cop lowered it, he mentioned that I should not say a thing as cop was a relative. Next 5 cops to show, including a Captain, all turned out to be relatives. Eventually the State Police tool over as even the County Mounties were relatives. Case was quickly dropped. Did not stop cops looking to pin something on me. Even used bolt cutters to open my garage to look at my car while I was sleeping. Anything that seemed to happen in the neighborhood for next 6 months was labeled as having me involved. Eventually I invited arrest by speeding in a 30 MPH zone, cop did nothing, I slowed down to under 5 MPH cop did nothing, I then sped up with cop on my bumper and slammed on the brakes. Cop rolled up over my car, when questioned I said I stopped for the rabbit that ran across the road. Got a new car out of that and judge who had previously told cops to cease and desists was pissed to say the least. But it took someone to say “that is wrong” to get me off the hook and of course 6 months of “blue” harassment. Police will do anything to blame anyone and to justify their actions, nothing new.

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I think I understand the violence against the police. As an old white/pink man, when I saw that video I was absolutely enraged. My fists were clenched and I was screaming at my monitor within the safety of my home. I might have either been shot or taken into custody if I had been there unless I were to receive a pass for my skin color.

We all witnessed a murder as it was ongoing. It was blatant and performed under the color of law. The execution involved torture and cruelty. Any feeling human being would be outraged. Now imagine seeing this and other overt or covert racist acts performed periodically throughout your life. I’d be violent as hell. BECAUSE NOTHING ELSE HAS WORKED TO ADDRESS THIS AND IT KEEPS HAPPENING.

Those four cops took various roles in murder. All of them should be found guilty for those various roles. The kneeler needs a needle but Minnesota has no capital punishment. For the kneeler, perhaps life without the possibility of parole and placement into the general prison population would barely suffice.

Sorry, but forgiveness is beyond the dark side of the moon right now.

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Also shots fired in Denver and cops say they heard nothing. However, when the tape was played it was very clear. Story quickly changed to we don’t know where they came from.

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