Why are so many US Kops Killers?


Ferguson PD

There are likely other reasons as well, especially psychological ones, including sociopathic levels of need for extreme control ‘the other’, even when ‘the other’ is the same color or ethnicity.  Of course black cops kill other blacks, including unarmed ones, and as an honest black Chief of Police had said a decade ago: ‘When a cop zips on the uniform of the security state, he becomes what the Police Chief demands’.  I wish I could remember his name; he’d not allowed his force to carry guns, and back then, it was working to cut down on actual  crime.

But I’d start with the use of billions of dollars worth of ‘excess’ military weapons of war given to police department all over the nation.  The 1033 Program given rise to The Warrior Kop:

Material donated’
From 1997 until 2014, $5.1 billion in military hardware were transferred from the Department of Defense to local American law enforcement agencies, according to DLA’s “Law Enforcement Support Office” (LESO) and material worth $449 million was transferred in 2013 alone. About a third of the equipment is new. The most commonly obtained item from the 1033 program is ammunition. Other most commonly requested items include cold weather clothing, sand bags, medical supplies, sleeping bags, flashlights and electrical wiring. The 1033 program also transfers office equipment such as fax machines, which many smaller police departments are unable to afford. The DLA also offers tactical armored vehicles, weapons, including grenade launchers, watercraft, and aircraft.It was not until media coverage of militarized police during August 2014 Ferguson unrest that the program drew nationwide public attention. President Obama ordered a multi-agency review and ultimately decided to keep the program. The ACLU has raised concerns about the militarization of police forces in the US.’

Second, many PDs give preferential hiring to returning vets who i) are familiar with the use of weapons of war, and ii) often reflexively see ‘the enemy’ in a kill-or-be-killed way, even of course. when a perceived ‘enemy’ is unarmed or otherwise compliant to police orders.  PTSD, anyone?

Third and very importantly, is that many police departments are trained by the Israeli IDF in counter-terrorism tactics.  The NYPD even has a branch office in Israel.

From the jewishvirtuallibrary.org: ‘U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation: Joint Police & Law Enforcement Training’, a few snippets:

‘With the United States on constant terror alert since the events of September 11, 2001, American police and law enforcement officials are taking advantage of Israel’s expertise in various facets of counter-terrorism and first response to better protect the American people.
[…]
In January 2003, thirty-three senior U.S. law enforcement officials – from Washington, Chicago, Kansas City, Boston and Philadelphia – traveled to Israel to attend a meeting on “Law Enforcement in the Era of Global Terror.”  The workshops helped build skills in identifying terrorist cells, enlisting public support for the fight against terrorism and coping with the aftermath of a terrorist attack.’

Also, in 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security established a special Office of International Affairs to institutionalize the relationship between Israeli and American security officials. “I think we can learn a lot from other countries, particularly Israel, which unfortunately has a long history of preparing for and responding to terrorist attacks,” said Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) about the special office.
[…]
In early September 2012, the New York Police Department (NYPD) opened an Israeli branch at the Sharon District Police Headquarters in the Israeli coastal city of Kfar Saba. The NYPD decision to open an Israeli branch rested on the fact that the Israeli police is one of the major police forces with which it must maintain close work relations and daily contact.’

The Library mentions the Department of Homeland Security, as well, and in 2015, funded by the Anti-Defamation League, boatloads of US ‘security’ agencies and PDs traveled to Israel to learn their ‘techniques’:  Officials from the U.S. Marshalls Service, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, as well as the Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin, Seattle, Oakland and Miami-Dade police departments.

In 2017 52 more ‘Law Enforcement Officers’ from 12 states took the training.  Perhaps the Minneapolis police chiefs were there then?

The Nature of Israeli Training of US Police Officers’, David Lange, [a creepy Hasbara site] May 31, 2020

‘So here’s what you need to know: the police officers receive counter-terrorism training, and the training even tackles the issue of whether law enforcement operations could violate civil rights.’

Lange’s link goes to:Minn. police learn from Israeli counter-terrorism conference’, June 26, 2012, mprnews.org

‘About 100 Minnesota law enforcement officers attended a counter-terrorism training conference in Minneapolis Monday.

The conference was put on by the Israeli consulate in Chicago, the FBI and Minnetonka police.

“Every year we are bringing top-notch professionals from the Israeli police to share some knowledge and know how about how to deal with the terrorism with our American friends,” Arieli said.’

‘U.S. Police are Being Trained by Israel—And Communities of Color Are Paying the Price, In recent years, Georgia has experienced troubling trends in fatal police shootings. As this has unfolded, the state continues to pursue a “police exchange” program with the state of Israel’, by Azadeh Shahshahani, Ilise Benshushan Cohen, October 7, 2019

‘In recent years, Georgia has experienced troubling trends in [increasing] fatal police shootings.

As this has unfolded, Georgia continues to pursue a “police exchange” program with the state of Israel. Run through Georgia State University, the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange arranges for American law enforcement officials, corporate security executives, and police officers to engage in trainings, briefings, and seminars with governments including that of China, Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the original and primary focus of the program, Israel.

For twenty-seven years, police departments in Georgia have received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice that subsidize these trainings. Since the program’s inception in 1992, it has trained at least 1,700 participants, including officers from the Atlanta Police Department.’

Law enforcement from other U.S. states have participated in the program, including those from Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Floria, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.’

How might it all get reversed?  Whoosh.  Especially given that this a Warrior Nation, Warrior Empire with a total need to be in Total Command and Control of the World, because: Amerikan Exceptionalism, ‘We Export Democracy’ not Terrorism.

Until it changes, why wouldn’t a protestor like Ferguson Edward Crawford (RIPower) protestor throw one of the po-po’s incendiary tear gas canisters back at them?

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

and it may be i won't be able to return tonight.

but two amazing things happened here in the past 24 hours:

at sunset, after hearing some bird near-death-sounding cacophony, i looked out the exterior bedroom door and saw a golden eagle being chased by what appeared to be a large hawk. the eagle's golden tail stripe was molten gold, and i sure do wish i knew what he/she had done to so harsh that hawk's mellow. something to do with guarding a nest?

second: we had 10 1/hundredths of an inch of rain at about 1:30 this a.m. first wet stuff in weeks; the la plata range is almost bare of snow already, not a good sign for water storage this year.

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wendy davis's picture

@Marie

and thank you for bringing it, marie (what a lovely name). RT reports that cops in portland did the same. i just looked up the police chief in ferguson and found:

Among the people in Ferguson as the sun started to set was Jason Armstrong, Ferguson’s police chief since last July. Ferguson “was a wake-up call to law enforcement,” Armstrong said. “It definitely got my attention. It forced me to look at what (police) were doing … it opened my eyes to be a leader, to build that change and build better relationships.”

good on him. sadly, the demonstrations went violent late last night; it's hard to know who is actually doing all the damage and looting.

there are of course calls afoot for national guardspeople to refuse to be deployed to cities, but i dunno if that will catch on or not. little seeds can grow into trees, though, and as ever: turning the massive amerikana security state away from depraved brutality is to be encouraged.

remember the old saw: "What if they gave a war...and nobody came"?

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Cassiodorus's picture

After all, someone had to train those Chicago cops so that the meritocracy could take the especially brutal ones and put them to work torturing Muslims at Guantanamo Bay.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

link to gitmo and homan square! you may also remember that the IDF had trained the mexican military, who then bombed and strafed the zapatistas in chiapas. i can't recall how many were killed.

but your comment had caused me to remember general geoffrey miller who'd been one of the driving forces behind torturing prisoners at Gitmo, and iirc, then went on to teach the same 'techniques' to guards at Abu Ghraib. about a year ago, jacob levitch and jeffrey kaye had noted that the torture photos were disappearing, so 'd stored their combine tweets and sources.

Barack Obomba: "Let me repeat! The US does NOT torture!" no, they outsourced torture in whistlestop tours to other black sites....

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RantingRooster's picture

As to your essay title's question, I can only speculate, but for me it boils down to 3 types of people join the police / military.

Those that are patriots and truly have a desire to "serve" the public good with integrity, those that needs jobs and those that actually like to kill, and just want the "legal" cover of their job to do it. Obviously that's a hyper-generalized point of view. (I like thing simple.)

Hell, taking a knee is just practice for another unarmed suspect no? They probably have specific exercises for it. (I am so cynical at this point, apologies...)

I'll "believe" there are good cops, when I see bad ones being perp walked in front of the cameras, and actually prosecuted, without the community having to set it's self on fire first. Crazy

These are "counter-terrorism" techniques being carried out on "citizens". Let that sink in...

If I pull a gun on you, and tell you to give me all your money, I have committed a crime.
If I pull a gun on you, and tell you to give me all your money, to overthrow our current corrupt government, I have committed an act of "terrorism", at least according to our government. But I'm sure you would be "terrified" in either case no?

If you commit a crime, like jay walking, with political motivations involved, then according to our government, LEO's, and just because you are a "citizen", you gave up those "civil rights", when you decided to become a "terrorist", ie act out in a criminal manner for political purposes, ie change a systemically racist government and culture. (How dare to petition your government for change, and jay walk!)

You see how that works? Heads I win, tails you lose. You're a terrorist, don't like it, vote me out!

Drinks

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mimi's picture

@RantingRooster
It helped me to think it through what happens right now
[video:https://youtu.be/v4amCfVbA_c]
Take care of yourself. We are all dominos now who are falling ...

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@mimi @mimi

The social contract in the United States is clearly broken, and has been for a very long time, especially for people of color. We are seeing now, in both black and white communities, how those in positions of power intend to honor their side of our social contract. They have made it very clear that they will not honor that contract. In fact, they have prepared police forces nationwide to respond with increasing violence to those who protest to keep us “in our place”.

The Police today are clearly tools of power, directed against the interests of those who are powerless. ‘Serve and Protect’ sadly does not apply to the powerless, with very few exceptions.

[edit:typo]

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

but i'll admit you lost me when you'd used the term 'patriots', and at last within the military, it's the US against the world nationalism. i'm not a patriot, but consider myself a World Citizen, which was the flag i'd always flown at war protests, to the ire of many 'patriots'.

small town cops i can see might have a desire to serve and protect, but in big cities? i dunno know. too many of the most brutal police commissioners/chiefs were circulated cyclically in and out of the big cities: bill bratton, bernie kerrick, ray kelly, i forget the others.

but 'broken windows policing' is still the rule of the day in most big city ghettos, to put it bluntly. bust em for small (alleged) crimes so they don't commit larger ones; no, all it does is piss em off, including those 'crimes' and failure to pay fines as part of the vast US private incarceration complex.

but who gets stopped and frisked disproportionately? or busted for driving while black? or yes: jaywalking with intent; i like that. we're hearing 'defund the police' again now, but whoosh, that's quite a pipedream.

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RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis however I think the term patriot and like socialism have been bastardized to the point nobody knows what anyone else thinks, which the CT in me believes, it is by design.

For me, a patriot is not about the "nation" but about their fellow citizens (ie humans). For me, a patriot protects their fellow citizens from all forms of tyranny, not just big gubberment. Who is a nation anyway but it's people. A nation with no people is just empty land.

What we see in America today that's called patriotism, imho, is really just "nationalism" which is just cosplay dress up with flag waving, fire works and jets streaking across the sky, look at our awesome fire power!

I think of people like Thomas Paine as a patriot. "The world is my country, it's people my brethren, to do good is my religion".

[video:https://youtu.be/jsc0UJxwELk]

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wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

thomas paine's version of patriotism...okey dokey, then. thank you; for me it's a trigger word, and has been for a long time. to say the truth, i do believe that DT was right about one thing: this IS a #ShitholeNation, and i hate it, although i love many of the people who live within its borders.

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RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis I think we are on the same page, and apologies, I do understand how "patriot" can trigger some people, it was not my intention. I too, hate this fucking country with a passion. There are some people that are totally cool, and if I had a island, country, or planet to go too, I would invite you all.

Scotty, set the pattern buffer to full spread and beam up everyone around me...

Drinks

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wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

especially after your longer explanation. ah...my mind images are back to the 'original civil rights' era, bull connor and all, prompted by a film i've been watching. then i traveled back in time to oakland and bart street station and the murder of oscar grant in 2009, on and on....then pinging nixon's and j edgar's war against the Black Panthers, and it jut keeps seeming like it's those eras Redux.

but i will say that i usually don't rant, as the more furious i get...the quieter i am. and right now, the Trumpeter has me fearing he may declare Martial Law soon (as he's already brought military police into DeeCee and threating the same...elsewhere.

ach, i should just STFU now, as i'm spinnning out and getting a coronoa migraine.

i thought you'd enjoy this as much as i do:

one wonders, of course, what they did later in the night against Riots! Looting!

and this made me cry:

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RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis @wendy davis Yeah, those officers that took a knee, fifteen minutes later attacked the crowd with peppery spray and the whole nine yards. It's just PR feel good moments / practice for when they do it on your neck.

Growing up, my family's home was robbed 3 times. I've been attacked twice in the past 3 yrs. Never, ever, has the cops "solved" any of these "crimes". Heck, one time I was attacked by a MAGA MF, they didn't even show up. The 2nd time, two and half hours later..."Sorry nothing we can do". Yeah, no shit sherlock...

I probably have PTSD from just watching all the police brutality videos on twitter.

*Drinks*
(edited "attacked the crow" to "attacked the crowd")

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I haven't read this very closely (yet), but if my skimming's any good...

...This is all the War on Terror's fault?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

wendy davis's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

before reducing it all to a one-liner.

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CB's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

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magiamma's picture

Was just telling a friend about the trainings in Isreal and here are the details. Just sent it to her. Thx.

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wendy davis's picture

@magiamma

and i'm glad this offers further illumination. the horrors that the IDF inflict on palestiians is almost too much to witness.

two paragraphs i hadn't brought from my progressive.org link are these, among many more:

Among other objections, activists point to Israel’s clear record of human rights abuses and state violence toward Palestinians, Jews of color, and African refugees. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2018 brought a 69 percent increase over the previous year in Israeli settler violence toward Palestinians, and a rise in Palestinian deaths and injuries in Gaza. In the year since 2018 Great March of Return demonstrations began, more than 190 Palestinians were killed and 28,000 were injured by Israeli Forces.
..................
This systematic repression of Palestinians by Israel warrants the U.S. public’s refusal to accept such training programs for their police departments. Racism and violence are endemic problems to police departments around the country, and the influence of Israeli military police trainings only threatens to exacerbates the problem.

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mimi's picture

I have to admit that I never liked Susan Collins. Like this Amy Cooper lady, just in a different outfit...

I posted a video in response to Ranting Roosters comment and what this whole affair with the US-Israeli police training etc. might mean in addition to what you mentioned in your essay.

Can't help thinking that we (the German Nazi regime) made the Jewish population emigrate from Germany to build their own nation, Israel. Those who survived the genocide and went through that whole process, were certainly highly interested in protecting their new homeland, ie Israel.

So scared to lose their new home land they were, that their police- and counterterrorism training programs seemed always justified. They carried their memories and cultural history with them to the point that they instigated same sufferings of losing one's homeland to others peoples. 'And the hamster continues to run to nowhere in his wheel' so to speak.

Now most of those who suffered are dead. But their kids and grandkide have memories of what their parents and grandparents told them (As very little that may have been. Who talks about ones own trauma, guilt and feelings easily?) And so, as Trevor Noah said, once a domino falls the next one does as well. And all those falling dominos build a circle, no end and no beginning.

Now blaming the Nazi regime is one thing, but then you can go back to WWI, and after that to colonialism, and after that to slave trade, and then to the poor white Europeans emigrating to the US back in the days to seek for a better life and fleeing from tyranny of the church etc.

But then they didn't expect to find out that they could not survive without the work of the 'negroes'. Somehow they knew that wasn't right and the feeling of guilt to exploit the negro work was one of the tightest kept secrets in their souls. But now the hamster escaped accidentically his wheel and the whole world want to catch him and to put hims back where he belongs ... Too bad, it seems to be not easy to do that.

Sigh, I am tired, are you too? Tell me what I get wrong, I always am scared now that I don't understand what is going on.

Peace.

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi

recommended the trevor noah video, video interviews are most sincerely not my allies. as in: they make me queasy, so without cliffs notes or a transcript, i have to pass them by. i did watch one of krystal ball's at snoopy dawg's behest, and another with an interview with the intrepid whitney webb that gulfgal had brought to my diary on the same subject. but i have to leave, go outside, take other breaks, and it's usualy just not worth it to me.

now as far as the nazi holocaust 'making german jews create israel' by occupying stolen palestinian land (as was turtle island)... but yes, they became their own foes in their zionist killing machine. as P, P & M sang so well in their chanukah song:

Light one candle for the strength that we need to never become our own foe. Light one candle for those who are suffering, pain we learned so long ago.

Light one candle for all we believe in, let anger not tear us apart. Light one candle to bind us together with peace as the song in our heart..."

your brief paragraphs on how far to go back are well said, but yes, this land was colonized by europeans, a stolen land already occupied by those godless indigenous barely human inhabitants, who must be either killed or assimilated! pogroms, 'nits make lice', then indian schools... and amerka's other founding in: yes, slavery.

and i do like your 'hamster wheel' metaphor. i guess i'm glad i can't see the future, but i am so very glad that so many have answered the call to protest george floyd's and breona taylor's murders, and many other murders by police in the US. from another time, but it suits these times perfectly, imo. natalie merchant, and i love the middle eastern sound of it:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxu0H42-hek]

i think you understand well, mimi, and there are sure things i'm tired of (that every headline over the past two months contained 'cornonavirus;, for one. but i will say that our black/azteca son is afraid for his life right now with po-po too ubiquitous even in NW colorado (wth?) given his past terrifying experiences with Mean Controlling Cops. (mama weeps, then rallies for him: okay, let's breathe, talk a bit more...)

peace to you, and to all of us as we're able to manage it, amgiga.

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mimi's picture

@wendy davis
I am sorry. I do understand the reasons for it. This was not an interview though, but someone, who self-reflected in a monologue and wanted to let the listener in on his thoughts. Rarely are transcripts available for such a format. Especially under the current lockdown working conditions.

I nevertheless post some of those monologues, when they catch my interest, while I start to listen and watch them. There are not that many that I manage to listen to til the end. I do not comment on the content, because I want to hear how those, who listen to it, react to the content. And I fear, if I would comment on the content myself first, I would massage possible responses.

But technologies have changed, you can not un-make a technology that makes it so easy for millions to communicate with each other in the public. People need to talk, especially in these last six months. The news gallop away in high speed and thousands of people want to talk about them. And I try to be selective in what I watch and listen to. It's hard enough to be selective.

Peace.

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi

videos, it's fine to bring them. and yes, it sounds as though i'd mistakenly called trevor's monologue an interview, but it's the same difference for me in terms of queasiness and lack of comprehension in audio format. what i do mind is that on one my recent threads some folks kept yelling at me to 'watch the interview!' or 'watch that iconic film', which really vexed me.

today's 'protests' news (ugly on both 'sides' for lack of a better differentiation) causes me to think it may not be long before martial law is declared nationwide.

mr. wd said that howie hawkins' black VP angela walker has a letter up, and he'd thought it was excellent. i might go find it.

i will note that in my off-the-boards communications the free-floating anxiety in the US has turned into dark thunderclouds this week, both over the virus and over the protests. i'm so glad that we live in a fairly peaceful oasis, a the wildlife, trees, and flowers offer such a balm to counter the amerikan and global zeitgeist.

peace to you as well, amiga.

on edit: here's angela's open letter: ‘The Minneapolis Uprising: An open letter to Black Americans’, May 28, 2020 (sadly i find her far more compelling than howie.)

she opens:

Dear Black Family and Co-Conspirators,

I will admit to you that I was doing all I could to avoid letting the lynching of George Floyd register in my mind and spirit. I have not watched the video of his murder, nor do I plan to. I can’t. This is a situation we as a people know all too well, and all of the feelings and questions that come with it. The helplessness and the deep sadness, the rage and the fear. The fact, as has been observed by folks more astute than myself, that we can’t even mourn our most recent losses before there is a new name to add to our calls for justice. We can’t even process the implications of these universes ended before we are abused all over again. Every day. No matter who we are, what we are doing, how “well-behaved” and “orderly” we are, we are still reminded that our lives on this continent mean nothing to the power structure.

We, who are able to look at each other and see human beings with names and families and histories, know this overarching fact. And for those who need to point out intra-community violence like it is somehow divorced from the state violence perpetuated on us, miss me with that today. As our ancestors lived with the knowledge that their family members, their lives, their work, their very peace could be taken from them at any time, so do we now. We are a remarkable people to be able to live with this and still retain our vibrancy and humanity in all of the ways we do.

i like that she used the term 'lynching', as his murder was quite similar to that. i kept hearing that song 'strange fruit', as well.

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travelerxxx's picture

@wendy davis

For someone who's always had black friends and thought I kinda had a clue, reading Angela Walker's letter made me realize I don't. I froze at the word "lynching." And yet it just sort of rolled off her tongue, so to speak. In a way, she was saying, almost nonchalantly, "Yes, another lynching," as if it's the most common thing in the world.

Because it is. Me – I saw a man murdered. Murder. That's the first word in my mind. Hell, that's bad enough. But it's worse, isn't it? Angela Walker, admittedly without even seeing a video of it, already had it correctly pegged. A lynching. And it was. And I'm ashamed that I didn't see that, too. But I didn't. Now I do.

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wendy davis's picture

@travelerxxx

no matter how far we extend ourselves in empathy and solidarity, we can't really know what it feels like to be black, and especially in the underclass. i'm about to post a diary featuring black voices, including black panther voices.

best to you, buster keaton.

strange fruit, billie holiday:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI]

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CB's picture

@mimi
In fact you have touched on the crux of the problem(s). Righting a wrong ends up doing a wrong to another which then needs to righted but then passes along another wrong.

As you say, it's an ever turning hamster wheel of creation and destruction. I think many forces in the world make profit from this cruel cycle and grease it's axle.

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Lookout's picture

...and has some insights.
These are just a few of his outraged rants from this week.

Just the 1st few minutes of this one will give you an idea of Jimmy's view
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rOSiYiRNQ (29 min)
among his many clips on topic...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJLzOW0eRAo (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOvTxt_bi20 (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWMkcyC04Mw (12 min w/ Chris Hedges)

Growing up in B'ham I've understood police brutality toward the poor and POC most of my life.

Seems like Deja vu all over again...

The Watts Riot, which raged for six days and resulted in more than forty million dollars worth of property damage, was both the largest and costliest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights era. The riot spurred from an incident on August 11, 1965 when Marquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white California Highway Patrolman, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. As a crowd on onlookers gathered at the scene of Frye's arrest, strained tensions between police officers and the crowd erupted in a violent exchange. The outbreak of violence that followed Frye's arrest immediately touched off a large-scale riot centered in the commercial section of Watts, a deeply impoverished African American neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. For several days, rioters overturned and burned automobiles and looted and damaged grocery stores, liquor stores, department stores, and pawnshops. Over the course of the six-day riot, over 14,000 California National Guard troops were mobilized in South Los Angeles and a curfew zone encompassing over forty-five miles was established in an attempt to restore public order. All told, the rioting claimed the lives of thirty-four people, resulted in more than one thousand reported injuries, and almost four thousand arrests before order was restored on August 17. Throughout the crisis, public officials advanced the argument that the riot was the work outside agitators; however, an official investigation, prompted by Governor Pat Brown, found that the riot was a result of the Watts community's longstanding grievances and growing discontentment with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Despite the reported findings of the gubernatorial commission, following the riot, city leaders and state officials failed to implement measures to improve the social and economic conditions of African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

i know most here love video interviews, as i've explained numerous times: they are not my allies. but i did click into the 3 short ones, and had seen those instagrams on twitter as i was adding Tweets on the mass protests to my initial 'George Floyd murdered by Derek Chauvin' post..

and with all due respect to pat brown's investigation's results: the Truth may be out there, but we'll never really know it. but yes, how tragic:

Despite the reported findings of the gubernatorial commission, following the riot, city leaders and state officials failed to implement measures to improve the social and economic conditions of African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood.

on the other hand, after the poor and people of color burned down the Hough Avenue district in cleveland (you could still smell the smoke in 68 when was in (arghh) shaker heights working for the summer), there were plenty of demands answered, which was very heartening. it's too much to bingle for again (beyond actual banks, not payday loans, actual grocery stores in heretofore food deserts, maybe some public transportaion), but i will offer that a new administration threw huge block parties now and again, and the number of blacks and whites were named, so as not to shy away from solidarity failures..

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mimi's picture

@Lookout
for the sanity and life of my son, watching it. He is a black person, but not with the typical Afro-American individual history. What I am not totally in agreement with is that Jimmy Dore seems to think, because someone has been in the military, that person has likely have the killer instinct and wants to enlists for that reason and then, once accepted, is trained to beat the frigging fuck out of civilians to serve their masters orders and not to serve the civilians safety and livelihood.

Dore forgets that there enough foreigners, young people, who end up enlistening and getting forced to fight in the US dirty wars without them ever expecting that would happen to them. Poverty and betrayal it was and is. I became aware of all of it only through the reactions the US had after 9/11. I was quite naive til 2000 as well.

Other than that, I agree with everything that was said in the videos.

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wendy davis's picture

caitlin johnstone's may 31: 'Nothing Is Certain But Death, Taxes, And Police Infiltration Of US Protests;, which we sure witnessed ten years ago in police state protests, and again during Occupy, which chris hedges had incorrectly labeled 'the cancer in occupy'

now you've likely seen 'Umbrella Man with gas mask smashing autozone windows' on twitter already, but she writes with many hyperlinks:

A video has been circulating of a white man casually smashing the windows of a Minneapolis shop with a hammer during protests against the police murder of George Floyd. The man is clearly trying to hide his identity by wearing a gas mask, carrying a large umbrella, and wearing full-length black clothing.

Protesters can be seen intervening to stop his destructive behavior in the video.

“Are you a fucking cop?” one asks.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=ERhMCeLr1bg&feature=emb_...

Protests have spread throughout the United States since the emergence of that footage. Local outlet KHOU 11 News was told by the Houston police department that protests over George Floyd’s murder would be attended by both “uniformed officers and plain-clothed officers”. This admission cannot be found in KHOU’s reporting any longer, but it has been screenshotted and still shows up on Google searches as of this writing.

In New York, protesters have conclusively worked out that cops posing as demonstrators are currently wearing white armbands to identify each other. Ways of identifying plain-clothes cops are being circulated by protesters on social media.

None of these people are paranoid or irrational For generations it has been a well-established fact that police will reliably infiltrate protests and political movements, and it remains so to this day.

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wendy davis's picture

(non-politically motivated autopsy) would show on my original essay 'kneeling on his george floyd's carotid artery would have cut off blood flow to his poor brain' (maybe given everything, that was for the best?):

via RT.com:

George Floyd, who died after being choked by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last Monday, succumbed to asphyxiation as a result of Chauvin’s actions, an independent autopsy ordered by his family has confirmed.

“Sustained pressure on the right side of Mr. Floyd's carotid artery impeded blood flow to the brain, and weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe,” an attorney for Floyd’s family said in a statement on Monday, after the autopsy report was released.

“The independent examiners found that weight on the back, handcuffs and positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Mr. Floyd's diaphragm to function,” he continued.

i'd add: it wasn't just a homicide, it was murder, and given two other cops (shown in a newish video cbs news had received) also held his legs down: they are murderers, as well.

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gulfgal98's picture

The last several days have been busy in real life.

An excellent statistical resource on cop violence is Samuel Sinyangwe. He has spent several years compiling and analyzing data on this subject. Here is one of his studies. It is a pdf file.

The rise of the warrior cop is probably one of the biggest reasons for why we are seeing so much gratuitous violence on the part of the police towards the citizens. Blacks, native Americans, and Latino males bear the disproportionate brunt of that violence. But the warrior cop sees everyone as a potential threat to himself. The mantra I have heard over and over is that the number one job for a cop today is to come home alive each day. No, cops are doing a dangerous job, but their job is not to ensure their own safety, but the safety of the citizens. This is very narcissistic way of thinking that permeates policing instead of prioritizing the citizens that they have been charged to serve and protect. And "protect" should include protection against violence instituted by the police upon citizens.

I have been so angry this last week that i can hardly write my thoughts coherently. However, today, I saw a ray of hope on Twitter where a member of the Minneapolis city council tweeted that he is trying to work with other council members to disband the Minneapolis police force and start over from the ground up. This is truly a revolutionary set of tweets by Council member Steve Fletcher. I am embedding the first in the series.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy