thank you Cybrestrike. I promoted this to the front page, because of the possibility that someone not familiar with cossposting may read this, I added one small edit where you reference "this site". If you have any problem with the edit, let me know and I'll remove it. Thanks again.

I have a black son and came once in a situation to call the police, because he "couldn't handle his life anymore". It was me who had to calm down the police outside the house literally begging the police officer to not enter my house with the gun pulled out, telling them he is unarmed but out of himself. It took a while. The young white police officer was very nervous and anxious. They called a "fire truck" and an "ambulance". Among them was one black police officer. When they entered the house they were able to calm my son and the black officer involved my son in a conversation. He got my son to calm and apparently my son started to talk and explain his situation and why he was completely out of himself and angry beyond reason. The black police officer came back to me and explained that my son's situation was understandably making him very angry and he offered me and him a solution that we both couldn't refuse. I think, myself and the black officer were able to handle this without damaging or hurting any of us or he himself. I doubt very much, it would have been resolved like this without the black officer's sensibility and experience.

My son came in a couple of situations before being followed by police because he drove a car with his white girlfriend somewhere in the midwest in a territory he didn't know. Quite scary. He got into a dispute with a white officer over his dog and the officer complained about him being and sent him to court. Three native Hawaiian officers were silent witness and they were afraid to say anything, just looked very sad to the ground, one shaking his head in disbelief. The dog was essential to my son's emotional well being at that time. Like a service dog for a Vet, just not recognized as such.

So, from that time on, my son reacts almost hyper-hysterically, if I drive in a way that could get a police car pulling me over and he takes speeding signs and stop signs and lane crossing religiously serious, so much so that it goes on my nerves, but that's what it is.

I consider the disputes I am not reading anymore on the gos as distracting from the real issues.

Kudos for these words:

Unfortunately I'm seeing a proxy war on this site and elsewhere that solves nothing. Everyone loses if that what this situation devolves into. I do not want to lose this. Because I, and millions of others like me, are still human targets every time we leave our homes--and in some cases when we're living in our homes.

We should be supporting Black Lives Matters without any asides, without any agenda save getting sweeping reforms in our law enforcement apparatus (from the cop on the beat, rigged grand jury processes, sentencing, the prison industrial complex, and judges), dealing with the rampant and systemic racism in our law enforcement apparatus, and most importantly...saving the lives of African Americans from the oppressive grip of corrupt law enforcement.

By the way, I'm a Sanders supporter. I'm glad that he gets BLM. Now let's get the rest of the country to get it without tearing at each others' throats. Because we all lose if that happens. I'm tired of reading news stories that make my blood boil to the point where I have to chain smoke to calm down.

Agree fully with your words. Now get outta here and do something ... swimming for example... to cool down your blood. Don't given the digital warriors the satisfaction of getting your blood into a "pressure cooker" mode.

Peace. And thanks for writing this.

I think we all support BlackLivesMatter.

I, for one, think the direction of the anger should start with the police and the government that allows the police to continually get away with murder.

It would make little sense to turn to your female friend and grill her about where she stands on the out-of-control police departments. To grill her, then shout at her if her comments didn't mirror what you were thinking, because she's not the real problem. I know Bernie's not your *best* friend but he's not the enemy, or at least not the biggest enemy.

I guess the NN thing was good practice for the confrontations with those who have the power to do something about it. I sincerely hope it was just the beginning.

your essay puts the issue in the proper context - we are in the midst of an emergency.

people's lives depend on our actions. the faster we can act, the more lives that can be saved. it is time for "our" politicians to respond to the urgency of the situation and do something about it. we all need to do more to pressure our "representatives" to take action.

of our respective lawmakers to take action.

But, regarding the question of "why" major politicians like the President, Holder, FSC, etc., have yet to have been directly confronted by BLM, it is my "guess" that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to do so.

(Short of a Netroots Nation type of scenario.)

Notice the Tweet, below, of members of the MSM national press corps being treated like cattle by FSC's campaign.

I know that I was absolutely aghast when this photo showed up on my Twitter Feed over the Fourth Of July weekend. Heck, I still can't believe that candidates/politicians can get away with this behavior.

I suppose they do it, because they can.

Mollie

Isn't the righteousness of the BLM cause.
Everyone agrees that too many blacks are shot and that cops profile blacks for harassment, and that this has to stop.

It's the tactics where the dispute occurs.
The problem is that while BLM people are hearing criticism of the tactics but jump to the conclusion that it as criticism of the cause.

Which explains why I haven't seen a single BLM person say, "Gee, maybe we didn't use the best tactics/didn't pick the best people to protest." Considering the sudden conflict with people who are sympathetic to cause, you would think that someone would pause to question tactics.
Instead the rhetoric has gotten even more strident. I've seen a lot of "doubling-down" by BLM people on DKos.

This is a big problem because its very rare for a political movement to never make tactical errors, and history is littered with righteous causes that failed due to poor tactics.

If BLM is simply unable to admit making a mistake, then BLM isn't long for this world.

Wingnut confession: for years, my default reaction was "should have followed the cops orders", "shouldn't have resisted", "just do what the cop says and nobody gets hurt" etc. The cop who swore he felt his "life was in danger" always got the benefit of the doubt. In recent years however, the ubiquitous camera has proven that there are a lot more racist asshole cops than I thought. There have been enough videos that we don't need more discussion - changes have to be made. FWIW - there's no pushback from the wingnut online world - even most rwnj's are tired of trying to defend gross racism and abuse of authority on film. This particular posting is more about the dkos meta re BLM, but I wanted to throw my 2 cents in. BTW, we're neighbors! (I'm in Deltona)
Black lives matter.

explain to Bernie supporters on the Gos why it might be considered racist to object to the BLM protestors, and of course I am taking a beating. It feels much more calm over here.

Here's a summary of my thoughts, FWIW. Feedback welcome (nicely please, I'm bruised!): Blacks feel the situation regarding police brutality is so bad that it's an emergency situation that needs to be the number one issue. Politicians have not made this the number one issue. When you ignore an emergency, don't take a dying person to the ER, and you are white and that person is black, they might think you ignore them because you're a racist. It's also possible you're clueless. But when called on your ignorance, it's up to you to explain how you're not a racist. This "How dare anyone think we're racists!?!" attitude is hurting Bernie, who I support too BTW. Why can't people just say, "We heard you, we're not racist but we overlooked something important, we're fixing it"? I don't know if people are secret Hillary supporters or just like pie fights, but I don't see how they seemingly can't understand why, regardless of underlying intentions or true character, it looks bad to ignore people dying.