Co-optation by Kente Cloth
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn of S.C., right, and top Congressional Democrats, raise their hands during a news conference to unveil policing reform and equal justice legislation on Capitol Hill, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Washington.
‘Rebellion, Confusion and Kente Cloth: The Establishment Can’t Handle Black Lives Matter; Suddenly, workers are publicly criticizing their bosses. Politicians are backpedaling and newspapers face revolts when they are caught spreading propaganda. In Europe and the United States monuments to genocidaires are defaced and pulled down’, by Margaret Kimberley, mintpressnews.com and Black Agenda Report, June 10, 2020 (Creative Commons; my bolds)
“New York City (BAR) — Everything has changed since the world witnessed George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police. Suddenly, workers are publicly criticizing their bosses. Politicians are backpedaling and newspapers face revolts when they are caught spreading propaganda. In Europe and the United States monuments to genocidaires are defaced and pulled down.
But no one should think that the black misleaders have given up allegiance to their overlords among the Democratic Party donor class. The scoundrels are giving lip service to change but are committed to business as usual and they co-opt the language and imagery of the movement to do it.
In addition, the movement itself is sometimes a source of confusion. While well-meaning, proposals such as defunding the police are highly problematic. They do nothing to address the foundational nature of state violence and allow budgetary sleight of hand to create new methods of law enforcement. The demands for community control and abolition must remain at the top of the list.
While people of goodwill sincerely debate, the black political class does everything in its power to make sure that nothing much is accomplished at all. The Congressional Black Caucus pulled out their kente cloth prop and added taking a knee with Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer in one of the worst photo opportunities of all time.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
They are proposing reforms that will never be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate or Donald Trump. They are also keeping their police-empowering Protect and Serve Act in place. Protect and Serve makes assaulting a police officer a federal offense, and nearly every victim of police violence is again victimized by this spurious charge.
The chicanery must be pointed out, yet it must be acknowledged that changes are far-reaching and events are occurring which no one would have predicted just a few months ago. Kente cloth charlatans are not only the ones being exposed. When New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter was arrested at a protest the police union revealed her name to the press in an effort to embarrass him. In return, de Blasio defended cops who drove vehicles into a crowd, beat protesters and bystanders alike, and even arrested legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild.
In response, New York City employees signed an open letter to the mayor condemning his supine support of a police department that hates him. They broke every rule of politics and conventional wisdom given to employees anywhere. The dictum of never criticizing a boss has gone out the window along with everything else.
**********************************************************
In Europe, thousands of people have turned out to protest for Floyd and against the United States. In Athens, the U.S. embassy was the target of demonstrators. Europe has its own history of racism and condemnation of this country has inspired people to be brave about their own nations’ criminality.
Parisians marched but not just for George Floyd. Adam Traore was killed by French police in 2016 and the anger about his death never disappeared. That is why a crowd of thousands gathered to say both of their names.
Long dead criminals are also being taken to task. Belgium’s King Leopold presided over one of the world’s worst genocides in the Congo where up to 10 million people were killed in quest to maximize rubber production. In recent days monuments to Leopold have been defaced with graffiti and red paint representing the blood he spilled.
AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
In Britain, the statue of Edward Colston was pulled down and dumped into a river in the city of Bristol. Colston made a fortune selling 100,000 Africans to colonies in the Caribbean. His name is still present in his hometown in recognition of the philanthropy that came from selling people and working them to death.
No one is safe. New York Times editors, mayors of major cities, and even long-dead criminals are being called to account. People have lost their fear because they are desperate and angry. It is harder to convince them that all is well when their suffering was deliberately created and their pleas for redress were ignored.
The reaction to these acts of rebellion has been all too predictable. Politicians are running scared and dare to do what they would never have considered before. The Minneapolis city council voted to disband its police department. But the mayor has already expressed opposition and the state of Minnesota would also have to approve. Not only can the council not deliver on their vote, but they have done nothing to bring justice to those already killed by police in that city. The movement would do well not to be taken in by unworkable schemes meant to silence them.
While the well-meaning struggle with direction, the powerful see the handwriting on the wall and respond with their own kente cloth moments. The CEO of Chase, Jamie Dimon, photographed himself taking a knee, but outside of a bank vault, just in case anyone didn’t know whose side he was on. Corporations are claiming they will do better in their treatment of black employees and the NFL is making mealy-mouthed apologies to Colin Kaepernick. Nike says it will donate $40 million to as yet unnamed organizations serving black communities.
All of the opportunism is the result of a mass determination to see change that benefits the people. The moment was rife as kleptocracy enriched the already rich and a pandemic decimated already shaky economies. Now white people have themselves faced the wrath of police goon squads and are now accepting proposals they would have opposed or ignored not too long ago.
There is the possibility of advancement but also of reaction. The system knows how to defend itself and how to appeal to the public. This moment requires great vigilance. The people in movement can bring about great changes. But the kente cloth wearing rascals will not disappear anytime soon.”
Margaret Kimberley writes the Freedom Rider column which appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com
In related news:
‘Trump moves his Tulsa rally from Juneteenth to June 20 ‘out of respect’, this morning, msn.com
“Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents,” Trump tweeted Friday night. “I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests.”
Juneteenth is a day commemorating the end of slavery. For many black Americans, it is celebrated as an Independence Day.
Prior to Trump’s announcement, former Vice President Joe Biden joined a chorus of people criticizing the president’s rally, though he mistakenly said the wrong location.
“What in God’s name is this guy doing? And now did you hear what he just did? He’s having a rally on Juneteenth in…Arizona,” Biden said at teletown hall on Friday afternoon hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “And guess what, all the people coming to his rally have to sign a — they have to sign a piece of paper saying, if they get COVID in this, they will not sue the campaign. I mean c’mon man, what the hell is going on?”
‘In response to protests over police violence Sanders opposes “defunding” police, calls for increased pay for cops’, Genevieve Leigh, 13 June 2020, wsws.org
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
i'd tried to edit this into the html code,
but made a total hash of it. in this section she'd written:
she seems to have meant the long list of employess who hate his epically brutal NYPD, as not a cop was on the list, and their demands are many.
here's their Open Letter to bill, which opens:
So maybe a little kente cloth --
and a few proposals that will look nice but that are going nowhere (or are, if they come from Joe Biden, basically lies) -- will smooth over the fact that they are with the rest of those glorious clients of the super-rich in trying to secede from the rest of us.
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
amen to that!
but...but...kente cloth shows solidarity with the african americans who've been assassinated by the po-po! and their african history, too! (never mind that the black underclass is largely living as slaves still...)
but the elitist comprador Dems will save them, and as you note so well:
thanks, cass. ; )
Right now Kshama Sawant is blasting away at capitalism
and explaining that what appears as a crisis is actually a normal state of affairs for the capitalists, in which they monopolize all of the money, profit, and power while hundreds of millions of people have nothing.
I'm really tempted to try to make it to the Autonomous Zone in Seattle to see what is going on.
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
I wish she would run for the US Senate, giving Murray the boot
or Maria Cantwell. If not I wish she'd move to this area and run against slimy US Representative Rick Larsen, I quit voting for any of them years ago.
I'm on Kshama Sawant's email list even tho I'm 90 miles north of Seattle, just because I like to see what she is up to and it's like she never stops working for the 'people'.
I wish we could clone her.
my stars;
are you living near the water? i bingled, found both puget sound and lake washington.)
I live in downtown Bellingham across from the bay
So I am on the water.
I couldn't have gotten luckier when I got this apt. almost fifteen years ago when I moved here from Texas.
This building was City Hall from 1890 to 1895 and I look out on Bellingham Bay,and in another direction I'm looking at Maritime Heritage Park.
So it's a great location, and I'm here because I wanted to as close to BC as I can and other than driving thru Seattle on my way elsewhere.
I've only been there a few times and once to attend a Public hearing and join in a march thru town in opposition to the construction of Gateway Pacific Terminal. It was planned to be built app. ten miles north of Bellingham and it would've been the largest Coal terminal in North America, even bigger than the one right across the border, Roberts Bank by the Tsawwassen Ferry.
Fortunately the coal terminal didn't get built, no thanks to my so-called Representative to Congress.
oh, my, yes;
about as close to to the border as on can be and stil be in washington state. i'll need to read again to see what sinks into my swiss cheese brain. thanks ever so for the 411.
good on her;
RT's been waxing pretty 'fascist' on the protests, (save for today's menu), but they did feature the war of tweets between the mayor and the Trumpeter. as i recall it, she'd deemed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone: 'the summer of love'. gotta love that!
yes, if you go, please report back to us!
It's a six-and-a-half hour drive
and I should try to figure out what to do with two books I'm writing, probably by Wednesday.
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
what to do with the Two
book you're writing? ay yi yi! do you write one with each hand at the same time? just kidding... well, that's a bit of a drive, but if you go, stay safe! don't let the Antifa get you!
Well I was writing only one book.
I developed a completed draft, and sent it away to an editor in an arrangement that had been decided about nine months earlier with a friend of mine who is paying for the editor. The editor took her time on that book, and so while I was waiting I developed an outline for another book. So, yeah, two books. Similar themes for each book, though, so I might end up combining them into one volume.
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
hold on;
i'll go grab two links popular resistance sent to day on the CHAZ:
Welcome to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, where Seattle protesters gather without police' June 10, 2020, seatlle times
'Get In the Zone: A Report from the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle', june 9, it's going down (anarchist news) even a map!
thanks for the explanation on why and how two books.
Thank you so much for the links!
Ah Seattle. Too expensive, yet so fun.
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
welcome, cass.
Grateful to have supported Sawant twice
Seattle sends people "democracy dollars" that recipient can sign and forward to candidates of choice. Mine went to Sawant, and were part of a successful effort to block a nice $150K gift to the city from Bezos for a more pliable candidate.
Secede?
Secede from us behind walled communities for the rich only. That's what I see coming.
As in the favelas of Rio. Workers are admitted through doors in the am and leave when their work is done.
NYCVG
Nothing new under the sun(down)
They didn't invent that in Rio. It's been done in the USA clear back to the mid 1800s, at least. Here, there were Sunset Towns. Not necessarily rich, but certainly white.
A copy/paste from Wikipedia:
Yes.
I remember hearing something about that a few years ago.
NYCVG
Great book called
"Sundown Towns", can't remember the author's name but he had done a whole lot of research on just where they were. It took real effort as many sundown towns have hidden that history away and you can't really find many of the signs anymore, a lot of his documentation was based on interviews with residents' memories of those signs. Most of them were in the Midwest and Northeast, not many in the south as they liked to keep their "help" close by, although segregated into certain parts of town of course. Lots of sundown towns/cities in California, and I think almost every city I lived in there as a child was at some point a sundown town. Whittier. La Habra. Glendale. Palos Verdes if I have that right, although I never lived there. Pasadena maybe. Fascinating book. And the author didn't just stop his research when the book was published but encourages his readers to see if they can find out how many more sundown towns there really were.
That history has been literally white washed away, and most Americans still believe it was "only" in the South that such things happened. My parents both grew up in the Midwest and while my mother was not born in a sundown town my dad very well may have been. That book makes one hell of a case for reparations in many ways, he documents in particular the outright theft of black property through violence, particularly in the 20's or so, which really isn't all that long ago. Great book.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Everywhere
Thanks for the book tip! I'll do some looking and see what I can find.
You are correct about the whitewashing of the history of this. Tough to find much. I think it was actually a little easier to find info some years ago, before those making public records disappear got into the act. I was surprised to learn of how many of these towns were in the midwestern and northern states. A lot of my stereotypes had to go out the window when I learned that. Shoulda known....
cameras corrupt more than money /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
2020 political PR stunts
When Trump pulls out one of his lame PR stunts, Democrats, liberals, leftists denounce and occasionally mock it, but Trumpters cheer it on.
When DC Democrats pull out a lame PR stunt, Republicans mock and denigrate it, but Democrats, liberals, leftists cringe.
(Another day, another Biden blooper. How the hell can a former VP and presumed Democratic nominee mix up Kansas and Arizona?)
actually, his big rally
will be in tulsa, oklahoma, not far from the cinders of Black Wall Street. '99 years ago, one of America’s worst acts of racial violence took place in Tulsa', It was covered up for decades', Emily Stewart, may 31, 2020, vox.com
i'm not sure this i've bolded is true, though i may be uninformed:
depending who you mean by 'liberal', of course. thanks for reading and contributing, marie of the beautiful name.
I found the
kneeling Kente kabuki extremely cringe worthy. I could hardly stand to look at them all. They are as repugnant to me in their own way as Trump is in his. They really think they offer the better optics. If only they could see how increasingly ridiculous they look, but they will never understand their self-parody.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
i'm in total agreement with that,
and i love your use of 'self-parody'. i'd known earlier that the group had 'taken a knee' for nine minutes, but hadn't known they were wearing black caucus-loaned kinte cloth before ms. kimberly had reported it. to say the truth, i find it obscene.
do you suppose they know, or would care, that USian underclass blacks are dying of covid-19 at 2-3 times the rate per capita as their white counterparts (for four or five obvious reasons)? and that that's even being racialized now as 'genetically pre-determined'?
obscene
is the right word choice.
NYCVG
i'm glad to hear
that it works for you, as well. as the judges used to tell lenny bruce: 'you know obscenity when you see it' (in a different context, of course). but this is far more obscene than his 'dirty jokes' ever were.
zounds, it's raining. earlier today, after not having any more wet stuff for three months than 10/100ths of an inch...it hailed, jeebus. this is a hard, male rain, as the dineh would call it. dayum, it smells good! but with the driving wind, the damage might be equal to the hail's (as yet undetermined).
Semi related to your comment
HOW the F can this type of reporting be allowed by a major news org? Seriously I am seeing people linking to this article across lots of different websites and it is journalistic malpractice in my opinion. It is fear mongering propaganda and CNN should be shamed into oblivion. Especially since the wheels have come off everything related to Russia Gate. And even Ukraine Gate was founded to be a farce since not one person who said that Trump absolutely did the deed on TV and elsewhere told a different story when they were under oath in front of congress.
Trump's use of unidentified security forces echoes Putin's 'little green men'
I don't remember if the media got upset when BlackWater patrolled the streets of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina without badges or name tags. Or if they were upset with private mercenaries being dispatched to the Standing Rock peaceful protest again without badges or name tags who then used non lethal weapons, tear gas and police dawgs on Native Americans. But again I would like to point out to the empty headed media that history did not start in this country the day Trump became president and everything bad happening is all his fault. How is it that they didn't talk about Obama outdoing the things Bush did? And that there are still some categories of bad acts that Obama outdid Trump on?
Again see what happened after Katrina, what happened at Standing Rock and many other protests where private mercenaries were rolled out under Obama's consent. As always it is the effing hypocrisy that drives me nuts. But to now blame these actions on Putin?
Samantha you should be hanging your head in shame for pushing this propaganda on the country and instead of acknowledging that this is happening because of the push to militarize the police as a way for the power elite to get around posse comititas you instead blame it all on Putin and his supposed power over Trump. This is actually an outright lie and you know it as do your employer CNN.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
To me this is the proof we have an
intelligent virus that I thank for opening up the minds of the world to the injustices the people have been unable to comprehend until it made the world stop and pay attention.
Peace and love brothers and sisters!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
certainly the global protests
afoot (while some include their own local 'george floyds') prove that there's a hella lotta rage against the machine (oligarhical ownership class) and police state murders, i'd rather hope that it would be virus of wisdom, not intelligence (quite different to me), but i may miss your meaning.
as ms. kimberly has written so wisely:
i reckon time will tell how much of any of this will matter, given the ever-accelerating death of this once beautiful, blue-green planet.
peace and love to you, as well.
on a forced RL break here; mr. wd is vacuuming like the proverbial white tornado (including what we fondly refer to as 'my desk, 1/4 of the dining room table), and i need to prep some lunch.
This is a breaking story that needs lots of eyes on it
Before there was even an autopsy done the police decided that it was a suicide.
Black man found HANGED near city hall in California in alleged ‘suicide,’ but protesters suspect LYNCHING & demand full probe
Sure in the middle of massive protests a black man found hanging from a tree was immediately decided to be suicide? Umm how about doing the f'cking investigation and everything that needs to be done before deciding that?
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
ah, fuck. thank you;
i'd had one link to that alleged suicide' on this word document. might be the RT version, but what a nonsensical predetermination of 'suicide'. i'd said to mr wd: hope to fuck someone drew blood before the 'official autopsy results' are announced. i admit, given the location, and what his close kin had said, i heard 'strange fruit' playin' again in my head. goddam. what a beautiful boy he was..., may he rest in some sort of peace, and may his family find comfort one day years from now. goddam.
thanks for bringing it; it needed telling.
on edit: i'd almost put in 'related news', but i couldn't bear to, so i'm doubly glad you brought it.
OMG: rachelle's tweet! in the gazeebo, not the tree, homeless report.
i see you had the RT verion too, including this WTF?:
i'll be back, but i need a rest break.
i hadn't brought this in 'related news', either,
nor had i saved the link this time:
'Video of unarmed black man shot [3 times in back] by Atlanta police sparks massive outrage amidst George Floyd protests, 13 Jun, 2020, RT.com
i can't say why, but Tweeted videos (are they Instagrams?) don't play for me any longer. but this image was at the top: 'Officers wrestle with Rayshad Brooks in atlanta':
goddam them.
"Just do what cops tell you and you won’t get hurt"
If you’re White....
Remember cops took Dylan Roof to Burger King after he killed 9 black people while taking him to jail. They calmly arrested the Colorado movie theater shooter even though he was still carrying his gun. Just 2 of numerous examples of how cops treat people from different races. And classes. Anyone ever heard of people in rich white neighborhoods get stopped and frisked by undercover cops pulling up on them and throwing them up against fences or walls?
"Just obey all laws and don’t commit crimes."
Phewy!
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
'if you're white'....
thanks, snoop. words are failing me at the moment.
Anyone rember Willie McCoy
who was sleeping in his car at a Taco Bell and was shot 55 times after he moved his hand to scratch his shoulder. A cop investigator ruled that it was just fine for them to murder McCoy because they feared for their lives.
Police fired 55 times at Willie McCoy. An investigation called it 'reasonable'
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Is there something going on?
This seems troubling
Just watched a video of 3 cops dragging a 13 year old black child out of their car after arresting him and a friend for jaywalking in their own neighborhood that doesn’t have sidewalks. First off they should never have been arrested for a misdemeanor offense and secondly why the hell did they stop to pull one from their car? But seriously in this environment why even give them a ticket? I jaywalked all the time in my neighborhood. Reform this shit? How would they begin to do that when it’s a country wide problem? Defund the assholes and do it now.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Unbelieveable
Instead of showing one iota of self reflection, they double-down on their hatred and bullying. They could care less what "we" think.
Our society has swallowed hook, line and sinker the narrative that cops are "needed" to "fight crime" and our politicians "care" about us because they tell us what we want to hear. None of this is true. Talk about waking up in the Matrix?
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
I read an article written by a cop who was explaining why
he was leaving the force and it was so stunning that he could not see or admit even with every going on that cops are out of control. Let me know if you’re interested...
But then there was the police union snerd who was so angry about the way people were talking about cops and denying that they do need to change. A few people posted the tweet here so hopefully y’all saw it?
But the biggest tone deaf turd who is basically asking us "where else are you going to go?" who isn’t going to defund or reform the cops, but instead give them $300,000 million more money. This money should be a much higher amount and it should go into affordable housing and a long list of other things to address the bottom problems in the country. Of course that is a no brainer for anyone with a functioning brain.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
how funny;
we'd finally gotten the Matrix thru out inter-library loan, and it was a Bummer Copy. ah, we'll try again one day...
is something happening here?
the late great william blum's (may he rest in Power) friend would have called that 'a coincidence theory'.
arrested for jaywalking? did they go to jail? remember sandra bland was on her way from chicago to start a new job in TX, when she stopped by a Texas state trooper for 'failing to signal a lane change' [read: driving while black], then tased, thrown in the slammer where she 'hung herself'? dinnae even matter than she'd filmed the encounter with the Texas State Pig (and i use the term advisedly in so many cases).
remember when there was some sort of #Hashtag like: #whitePrivilege, and white folks would note which 'legal infractions' they'd been allowed, while their black and other POC did time for? don't trust me on this, but as i remember it, they didn't get into 'or were killed for'.
#WhiteSupremacy. fuck it.
Well look here’s another one
Waaaa....he says that like it’d be a bad thing and we’d object.
"It's Over, America": Tulsa Police Major Says Cops Across Country On Verge Of Quitting
Yes morale has been affected ever since Brown was killed because that was when we first started seeing militarized cops showing up at BLM protests and every one since. How many times have the protests been peaceful and then the cops turn up and lo and behold they became violent?
I see no reason why they get rolled out for people in distress instead of sending paramedics or others trained in social work except that there is no money for programs. Almost like it’s been rigged that way?
How can he be this divorced from what is happening across the country and has been for decades? Or as long as cops have been in control of others. Supervisors and attorney generals have been covering for them and judges have let them get away with perjury. Any cop that can’t admit that yes there are some very bad cops out there then they have my blessing to leave and hopefully the door does hit them in their buttocks.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
I’d love to call that bluff
No way are cops going to walk out en masse. Their benefits are too good and aside from joining private security companies, what else are they going to do?
Such a bunch of snowflakes. What do they always tell us? If you’re not a criminal, you shouldn’t be afraid of the cops? Well, gee. If you’re not one of the “bad apples” then you shouldn’t be afraid of the protests.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Well done
Yep. If you are not one of the bad apples then people are not protesting against you. And how many of them just spend their days driving around doing nothing but driving around? Of course we need cops to do things that we 'normal' people aren’t trained to do like break up bank robberies and other things in that vein.
But if you were one of the ones who took part in stop and frisk acts then you ARE part of the problem. And I’m betting that they know who they are. But how can any of them see what has been happening during the last 2 weeks and still deny that lots of their coworkers are bad cops?
And yes they get lots of great benefits. 20 years being one and then retire with a great pension and other perks that most of will never see.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Exactly
This Judge, Jury and Executioner mentality that to many police have needs to come to an end.
Speaking of this
This guy fell asleep in his car at a Wendy’s and for some reason someone thought that needed the cops to be called? I question whether they would have called them if it was a white person in a high end luxury car?
Lots of cop apologists in this thread as I have been pointing out for a damn long time.
Further details on this
Yes for some reason he did resist arrest, but how in hell could the cop say that he feared for his life?
This is what Shaun is talking about in the first tweet I posted above. The cops didn’t murder the white guy even though he attacked them with their 'weapon' but they did the guy who took the taser and ran AWAY FROM THEM.
Hey guy who is thinking of leaving the force. THIS is what people are protesting about.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Cops letting Wendy’s burn
I wonder who started the fire? I’m betting that it was a cop Insider whole did it.
One of the cops involved with the shooting has been fired. But don’t cheer this action on because when a cop is fired if they don’t get due process for it they will probably get their job back. This is an argument Jonathan Turley has been pointing out. I’ve seen it happen many times before.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
more at the end of
the thread.
Here is the start of the encounter with the cops at Wendy's
Again I am wondering if anyone even bothered to wake him up to see if he had a medical emergency or if they just assumed since he was black that he was under he influence? Would it have been handled differently if he was white and appeared rich? I read lots of comments saying that the manager couldn't take the risk of waking him up because what if he had a gun and woke up being belligerent. Well isn't that some racist type thinking right there? See black man in car and instead of giving the benefit of the doubt that things aren't as they appear immediately assume the worst of him? Again, what if he was white?
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
yeah, up yonder somewhere
i'd griped about how fascist police state RT.com had been for awhile. a plethora of op-eds supporting the police (and what disbanding would look like, and so on.), and police resignations en masse, with only one cop named.
but as we've seen, even black cops, oonce they zip on the uniforms, do their masters' bidding.
but Master of the Universe bill gates' microsoft's here to help! clicking into the pdf is a riot: how this will support victims', all that surreal bullshit.
A late friend of mine, who was a vet of both Korea & Vietnam
and was Black and a POW in both wars with a Purple Heart from each war.
Carl told me some the worst treatment he'd received from the Police over the years had been from Black officers. He said he felt they wanted to show White officers that he and and Carl had nothing in common, he said it seemed like they wanted the White officers to overhear them insulting and threatening him. Like they had something to prove.
He was born and raised in Arkansas and said he went to Korea because he couldn't find work (other than in the fields picking cotton or produce) and going to Vietnam was pretty much for the same reason.
He certainly had some cop stories, he said his wake up call about trusting Black officers happened when he was a teen hitchhiking and two cops,one Black, pulled up and started questioning him about some crime about which he knew nothing.
Carl said he addressed the Black officer first, hoping for some slack but right at the outset before he could say anything the Black officer warned him "don't you dare call me brother I ain't your damn brother, get that in your head right now" or he would give him a beating right there on the road "and haul his ass to jail for assault". (Carl told me that story several times but I didn't interrupt him)
Carl told me other stories about cops beating him but he talked the most about the Black officers that were part of it, or sometimes the only one beating him, it appears he expected it from White cops but still held a very tiny bit of hope the next Black officer would treat him better. As far as I know that never did happen.
I can't end this without saying that Carl was one of the kindest people I've ever known in my 69 years, hands down. A damn good person.
what a tragic tale,
and how very, terribly believable. you've created this small vignette so well that i can almost feel his pain through yours. years ago when i'd started writing about police state bullies and killers, i'd posted a video of a black policeman who told the world what i'd said above.
in whichever venue he worked, he'd disarmed his whole force, taught them ways to de-escalate every situation possible. and it seemed to work for his department. i was sincerely impressed.
thank you so much for sharing his story, and may Kind Carl be resting in peace and love on the other side. bless his heart, and yours.
Thank you very much for your own comment.
the pleaure was
mine, especially given how tenderly you'd told Kind Carl's tragic story; your own kindness, of course, shone through. and i'd forgotten to say how wonderful the water views must be from your flat. i'm envious in the way that many of us land-locked would be.
i'll add this 'breaking news':
'Atlanta police chief resigns after law enforcement fatally shoots black man ', wapo via msn.com the opening bits of a lengthy piece i haven't finished:
it's time for me to fold my tent, and thank you all for the brilliant conversation. this is Sweet Honey's 'Ella's Song', with words from Ella Baker herself. good night, sleep well, and dream well if you can.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Uus--gFrc]
Civil Rights 2020 !
i'd bingled 'why didn't the fire dept.'?
put the fire out, and the single hit i got was this Tweet on heavy.com's:
WATCH: Atlanta Protesters Light Wendy’s on Fire After Rayshard Brooks’ Death
but they have a longer version of the fox interviews w/brooks family's attorney, L. chris stewart who's been an attorney for many such cases. the text, a very partial transcript of the 30 mins:
(then videos of the scene or the crime)
Of course they let it burn.
Why interfere with dramatic images that will get media attention and confirm the racist biases of the white 'mushy middle.' It evened, possibly more than evened, the perceptual score within general public. Two wrongs -- the cop killing of an unarmed black man and protestors engaged in arson/property destruction -- that at best are given equal weight by whites. At best because white people like cops and Wendy's and don't much like AAs.
i'm sorry that this made me laugh
in my ultimate and total cynicism: "...the cop killing of an unarmed black man..."
cuz they're claiming he WAS armed .with whatshisname's (crawford's?) taser. Sigh, i just watched a couple of the shorter videos, and clearly Brooks was lying to the cop, but he did pass the 'walk heel to toe test', although one cochon said: he didn't take nine steps!' thank the gods he took nine on the way back. whew!
we haven't heard what the breathalyzer showed, but in any event, they refused to just drive him home (#Assholes) and were about to arrest him. hard to khow many times they'd tased him, but he was almost crying as he shrieked.
but you're exactly correct in your formula as to why they let it burn, imo, and i ate this with a spoon:
At best because white people like cops and Wendy's and don't much like AAs.
now if you have the time, and perhaps the desire, could you turn your investigative skills to my next comment on the burning of percinct 3 in minneapolis? i just checked again, and there is NO news on this alleged june 11 court appearance. on one court conservative news page page, someone said that brandon michael wolfe looks like 'one of them damned Antifas', and mueller would take care of him...or something.
i agree he's kinda spooky lookin'. ; )
I might post more on the killing of Brooks.
wrt anti-fa, I've done my best to ignore this/them. Clever branding as "anti-fascist," but what does that really mean to them? How do they differ from violent right-wing authoritarians? I should have paid more attention to what was labeled anarchists at the Seattle WTO protests. (In my defense, I had way too much on my plate in '99 to pay attention to any news.) They were right but were also a few years too late in getting out in the streets over what the Democratic neoliberals were doing. Occupy was more defined and coherent, but the Obama administration crushed them like little gnats. Sanders became the warm fuzzy version, but they crushed that effort as well. Do hope that anti-fa isn't all that's left.
ah, you were in seattle during
the WTO protests? sounds like they got pretty wild and woolly, depending on coverage. now
Antifa (to the degree they exist at all and anarchists are different, as far as i know, but it's like 'socialism' has multiple definitions. i dunno quite what i mean by it when i day i'm one, really, save the quick answer is all resources go to the people, and there's no top-down power structure, but grassroots, bottom up.
david graeber's (UK) a professed anarchist, and wrote a piece long ago whose title ended, in (iirc) 'you might be an anarchist'. some call themselves 'anarcho-syndicalists. but i've forgotten how that's parsed.
these folks at itsgoingdown.org fly under the banner of anarchists, as well. i've used their work a couple times.
ajamu baracka, a true socialist, wrote recently about Antifa, but i don't remember on which thread i'd stuck it. but yes, exploring that and george floyd would be great.
oh, and how weird is it that brandon michael wolfe's ('aiding and abetting arson') has disappeared down a deep dark badger hole already?
No, I wasn't in Seattle
and wasn't a protestor. I meant that I was barely aware of the protest but heard the complaints of property being trashed. I wasn't even keeping up to date on what the Clinton admin was doing to destroy the New Deal. Had opposed NAFTA and the capital gains tax reduction which before Clinton was the position of congressional democrats but they were wiped out in '94. Clinton wasn't a rat on NAFTA -- he supported it. I did recognize that 1998 merger of Citigroup and Travelers Insurance required major changes to Glass-Steagall or the merger would have to be undone. With Rubin then at Citigroup, the handwriting was on the wall, but I had neither the time nor expertise to follow and report on the developments. Of course energy deregulation blew up faster. The only front row seat I had on that was late in the process, early 2001, another bs proposal IMO which may have influenced a colleague's decision to pass.
Socialism doesn't have many definitions -- it's merely a matter of where a county decides to draw the lines between government operating, regulating, and propping up vital economic sectors and what sectors can operate well enough on its own. Single payer is further propping up of a dysfunctional healthcare system. If there was a point in time when it could have worked well enough, that was decades ago, but for another decade or more, we'll continue with the illusion that its possible to enact. Whether the system crumbles under its own weight before or after single payer is realized remains to be seen.
and the day Nafta took
effect (Jan. 1, 1994) was the day the Zapatistas came silently out of the jungle in objection, created their own socialist Zapatista democracy autonomous zones in Chiapas. they've survived, evolved, grown, since then, even though the IDF had trained the mexican military how to bomb and strafe their (then) encampments.
and yes: both clintons have a lot to answer for, but bill's destroying glass-steagall and endorsing/creating the 'modernization of the commodity futures act' were key evils.
the homeless shelter and the sofas: someone may have donated them, but in many cities, folks put things on the sidewalks for anyone to pick up.
well of course there are many many brands of socialism;, although my heart is with those in the south ('our backyard')
yes, the US, OAS, Nato, et.al. all believe that socialist governments are 'a direct threat to US national security' both under obomba and now trump), which is why the US has been so intent on reversing the Pink Tide: the overthrow of dilma, then Lula, morales in bolivia, endless attempts to kidnap, bomb by drone, and erase maduro, chavismo, in favor of CIA guaido.
and congressional progressives and democratic socialists have helped, of course. i was a bit shocked by this news from one of my favorite socialist on twitter:
to ballast my point:
i'd also bingled 'why didn't the FD put out the fire
in minneapolis precinct 3?
from police one (awesome website): Video: Minneapolis protesters set fire to police precinct; Livestream video showed protesters entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as blazes were set', May 29, 2020
now these were only still photos,and i saw little cheering, save maybe white arms. but my guess is that the 'white male arrested' was either a cop, but surely a wanna-be cop agent provocateur, no matter his protestations of Farcebook.
https://caucus99percent.com/content/white-male-arrested-burning-precinct-3
i hadn't included this photo of him in hennepin county jail, put to me: he looks like a cop or agent provocateur. he was supposed to have been in court on thursday the 11th, but i couldn't find any coverage of it. oh, and he'd been assigned a Federal Defense attorney.
I have no idea -- but my initial,
and unfortunately imperfect, gut reaction was that the police torched Precinct 3. Not enough photos and video on-line that tell much of any story. Abandoning the station to protect the staff sound reasonable but was it really warranted? After the little scaredy cats fled could they have been concerned about incriminating evidence against them that was left behind? Or was the prospect of a new station an appealing idea. That would be a twofer: new station and assigning blame to the protestors for burning the old one. Not clearing the way for the FD to put out the fire, adds weight to my suspicion,
OTOH -- I don't understand violence, vandalism, or out of control mobs. Also, there are enough violent rightwingers out there that one of them could be smart enough to figure out that torching that police station would be blamed on the protestors and lead to more police crackdowns and violence; so, can't eliminate that possibility.
As nobody was injured and determining the actual culprit(s) is near impossible, this event goes into my round file of unfortunate collateral damage.
heh; you've reminded me of
the theory that 9/11 was an inside job, the theory having arisen partially due to the fact that the records of the Pentagon's 'missing' $2.3 trillion announced by donald rumsfeld were said to be in one of those towers.
but i'm kinda with you, and my assumption was that the two white dudes on either side of (self-identified brendon wolfe in the photo) are his accomplices. i'm sure someone had archivved the livestream, without which we're pretty much in the dark. i just don't see any black protestors cheering, though one on the stoop at the right might be.
i feel you on creating havoc, but as l. chris brown said so well: i've been doing this defense work for 15 years, and nothing's changed. i'll go snag the kimberly jones video that magiamma had put up. hang on. oh, tiddly-pom; maybe you''ve seen it. she said it right, imo. not being black, we can only try to hear her.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go]
p.s. the wind's been wicked-bad here, and its dry, dry, dry. the small mountain to our west (menefee) just caught on fire for the Nth time...on the other side. one slurry bomber's been attacking the fire, and the smoke cloud is diminishing. a few years ago we were made by the sheriffs to bug out for a week. by now, there's little left to burn again, as the re-growth in such a dry climate as the 4-corners is slow.
Can't disagree with Kimberly Jones.
It's shouldn't be surprising that people with nothing will take what they can get because they have nothing to lose. (My neighbor asked me if I'd seen that the nearby homeless hangout now had two couches? She said, where do they get couches? I said, they're resourceful.) But they are the exception -- not so many with almost nothing view themselves as having nothing to lose.
There's never been any missing money at the Pentagon. It was all spent, squandered, misappropriated, etc. It's just really bad at maintaining good accounting records. The absolute worst socialist operation in the US.
wrt 9/11 - there's no good evidence that the events of that day didn't happen as we saw and were told it did. It was a high concept and low tech operation; American insiders do low concept and high tech. The evidence that it was OBL and his merry band of nutcases is too weak for my taste. However, it did mimic what an al Qaeda attack could look like and the four pilots believed that's what they were serving. That said, there had to have been an "insider" - possibly low level - that passed along the optimal day for the attack. It wasn't like Pearl Harbor when the optimal day and time could be calculated without an insider. I should probably stop there because I'm mostly speculating.
as in: 'socialism
for the oligarchs'? so you mean that rummy told that missing trillions story on camera just as a cover story? i mean sure, the pallets of hundreds sent to afghanistan, wherever, for bribes, 'defense contract over-runs', all that. back in the day, nick turse (Tom Dispatch) had combed thru related files, and discovered that the pentagon spent almost double the publicly stated budget.
but as far as the Official 9/11 Report, a hella lot of people ain't buyin' it, including here at C99%, as evidenced by the responses of two diaries i had posted as PSAs on the 'the Lawyers Committee for a 9/11 Inquiry'.
listening to what one (or two?) firefighters unions had to say recently was pretty convincing, but they have tabs of different evidence one can peruse.
i hope they can raise enough money to get their case/s into court as promised.
sorry for all my typos, not even my left hand know how to type any longer, and the print on a lot of keys has worn off. kinda need to order another new keyboard and wire it in.
Rummy knew exactly where the WMD were.
Government accounting -- local, state, and federal -- differs from standard accrual accounting as used by almost all businesses. It's a hybrid; a mix of cash and accrual.
An example: Businesses and the DOD often enter into multi-year contracts for a various equipment, services, etc. Accrual accounting requires businesses to include the total contract on its books. The associated assets and liabilities would appear on the balance sheet and the monthly/quarterly/annual related expenses appear on the income statement which also reduces the balance sheet accounts from the prior accounting period.
The Dept of Treasury maintains a balance sheet for financial assets and obligations (publicly available on-line), including the sum of the annual costs that exceed revenue (the national debt), but other departments mostly don't. (Shameful in the case of the Bureau of Indian Affairs that has never acted in accordance with its obligations as a trustee.) For a similar contract with the USG, only the required annual payments appear as an expense in the budget. If its a long-term fixed asset, such as an aircraft carrier that takes years to build, the ship will appear in an inventory of DOD equipment but not carried on a balance sheet and expensed through depreciation over the life of the asset. One valid reason for the differential accounting is that the USG has far superior cancellation rights to a contract than a business does.
There's also a major impediment to governments adopting accrual accounting. Assets are carried at historical cost - not fair market value. On that basis the USG is financially puny. As the US public is tax phobic, they could be easily persuaded by investors/developers to sell off federal lands, and if there's one thing the USG is particularly bad at, it's at selling USG surplus. Better that the USG holds onto its fixed assets and the public not have any awareness of the current value.
Mob violence -- could be local and
organic, as with the torching of the Wendy's. Borne of frustration probably, and safer to do that than confront the cops directly. It would also be seen as a way of sending out a message to the public that police brutality against blacks will result in consequences. One or two persons start the vandalism, then the mob mentality kicks in and the place goes up in flames.
There's also the staged violence of the agent provocateur type, which I usually associate with heavily black-attired and shielded types (so much that you can't determine whether they're white or black), which I sense may be more involved in hitting police precinct stations or cop cars. They are there to instigate and give the peaceful protesters a bad image, and to provoke that mob mentality of looting and further destruction. This tactic by the police authorities doesn't often get investigated by the MSM of course, at least traditionally.
i'm out for the night, and again,
thanks for the great conversation. the east canyon fire to the west of us has blown up, even at this time of the evening. but now they're attacking it in earnest with larger slurry bommbers every few minutes, helitack crews, and smoke jumpers.
we need to communicate with folks who may not know that travel on the highway to durango may be restricted, air quality issues afoot, and so on. wow, another slurry-bomber already.
good night.
more from wsws
on the hanging death of malcolm harsch: ‘Thousands protest over suspicious hanging deaths of two black men in southern California’, Rafael Azul, 15 June 2020, wsws.org
(apparently he doesn't know about fuller's boy in the gazebo.)
the fire west of us died down during the night, but a blanket of smoke hit the valley and our end of webber canyon. it's blown up again, even without much wind, and is moving north and east, and possibly higher up meneffee toward the communication towers on the top, or at least that's what the red at the bottom of the smoke loud shows. the slurry planes are almost constant by now. gonna be a long hot summer for firefighters. our son was a hotshot for four seasons.
the fire
East Canyon Fire in Montezuma County burns 1,000+ acres, Mon 9:16 AM, Jun 15, 2020, kktv.com
MANCOS, Colo. (KKTV) - A fire burning in southwest Colorado has scorched over 1,000 acres, according to new estimates as of late Sunday night.
The East Canyon Fire broke out Sunday near the town of Mancos in Montezuma County and quickly ballooned in size. The fire is burning in a remote area but close to a subdivision and a scattering of other homes; the Durango Herald reports as of Sunday night, 23 homes were evacuated.
No structures have been damaged. Firefighters are also working to protect communication towers. Air and ground resources have been attacking the fire.
Montezuma County officials say the fire is moving north along the Cherry Creek side of County Road 105.
The fire is burning about 20 miles from Durango.
https://www.kktv.com/content/news/East-Canyon-Fire-in-Montezuma-County-b...
koaa's coverage adds:
There are 60 firefighters working the fire Monday with more resources available as needed, including three helicopters, two air tankers [more than two] and ground support [smokejumpers].
Crews began working on the East Canyon Fire on Menefee Mountain just before 2 p.m. where it was initially estimated to be at 40 acres. Ground and air resources were ordered to help combat the fire as it continues moving north along the Cherry Creek side of Road 105.
A couple hours later, residents in the area of Road 46 and Road H were ordered to evacuate. Those in the Elk Springs Division, along Cherry Creek Road and Road 105 were also under the mandatory evacuation order.
on later edit: the fire must have hit duck panic level, and a few hours ago a JET, not turbo-prop slurry bomber came right over our hogan an headed to the fire. i'd never even heard of such a thing. woot! there are two such, and they seem to be getting a handle on it. they'd also added 2 helicopters with water bags (dunno where they're dipping the water up) and attacking at the north end, hoping, i assume, to be able to re-open the highway between here and hesperus, co to the west.
60 firefighters?
At its peak there were 5,345 firefighter on the Kincade Fire.
The front side of the small office building next door to my apartment burned a week ago Saturday. As we're only a minute from a fire station, the fire didn't make it to the back side, but probably will have to be torn down.
yes, vast difference
in the number of firefighters. it looks as though that many of them were structural firefighters though, as opposed to wildland firefighters. PG&E finally admitted that their equipment caused the fire? not the first time, nor the last, as i recall.
sonoma county is apparently experiencing the same fire danger already, according to InciWeb, inter-agency fire news.
unless it's changed, CA had its own wildland fire systems and equipment (CalFire), and the rest of the nation is divided into different regions. i can't even remember how much help the different areas offer other areas when fraught with too many fires. and again, some years the budgets run dry. but that fire may have been the first in which the full-jet slurry bombers wee used.
the BLM spokes people seem not to know shit about the fire, including which sorts of bombers, heavy equipment, whether or not the hotshots did or didn't do back-burns so 'the fire wouldn't cross hwy 160 (no way it would have).
but the new claim is that today a type Two incident team (a higher level that Three), that the fire's zero % contained, and who knows? it sure looks like they knocked the critter down. but red flag warnings again today, but round here the BLM and FS terrain is often steep, so fighting from the air is far more helpful than on the ground. keeping a fire contained and small is a big deal.
on the InciWeb page CA seems to already have 2 fires of about 37,000 acres, iirc.
Here's the info on the
2017 wildfires. 10,000 firefighters. CalFire predominately fights open space wildfires. Local fire departments are supplanted through mutual aid with fire departments of other jurisdictions. In all of these there was a mix of open space, agricultural, and structures.
I'm sure that there's a protocol for reporting containment percentages. They tend to be very conservative because fires can be unpredictable. Containment lines can be breached.
I live in a small pocket that didn't have to evacuate or lose power. (The Nuns fire came as close as three miles away.) Blaming PG&E omits why PG&E has become an irresponsible energy provider. Energy deregulation. The choice wrt public utilties is best limited to public ownership/operation or very well regulated by a public agency. (Not that the CA public utilities commission was ever great because it did tend to side with the regulated rather than the public.) So, first blame the idiot politicians that clearly don't get that capitalist businesses do what capitalists always do unless their kept in handcuffs.
got it, i think;
but second try, as my mouse lost my first response; still non-responsive to my answer to your comment: "60 firefighters?"
you'd also breezed my my link to 'the lawyers inquiry to 9/11'.
60 firefighters suggests that they'll mostly let
it burn.
wrt the 9/11 lawyers, looks like a version of the truthers. I don't actually find the collapse of those buildings to be mysterious. Perhaps living in fire and earthquake country and reading ENR (Engineering News Record) for several years made me more accepting as to one-off collapses.
as above,
when they hit duck panic, even the (likely) F18 jet bombers came in to help the copters, retrofitted ancient DC-10s, and smoke jumpers. this is mountainous country hard to find on the ground. there were a few tankers protecting some houses, though...
they intended to get it out! and it appears they've done so, albeit 2000 acres *still a small area; 375,000 acres burned in one of the recent Mesa Verde Natl. Park fires) burned.
there are all sorts of fires popping up, as it's dry, and no rain but plenty of dry lightning. the rocks to the west of of us on menefee mountain are full of some metal that attracts lightning. we had two horses we we were boarding struck and killed.
'truthers'; maybe they are, and maybe i'm gullible, but what evidence i've seen and heard so far, i'm glad they're so organized, and hope they raise enough money to continue further. i'd stayed away from the issue before then, much to the distress of some of the OT commenters on my diaries at my.FDL back in the day.