Should the riots really be about racism or police brutality?

[Toni]

I believe there is bias in who police apprehend, but I also believe it would be more effective politically to focus on police brutality in general rather than on abuse against minorities. Police are unjustly abusing people of all races, as can been seen very plainly by their actions at the current protests.

One of the benefits of getting police to quit using brutality in their policing against black people is that they will also be less likely to use it against white people.

 

[Toni]

White people really need to repent for their original sin. Over and over. Who told you to stop?

Repenting ain't repenting until you stop doing what you are supposed to repent for.

Being White?

Racism.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Disclaimer: I have not seen the Floyd video because I do not watch television and it is censored by big brother on the internet. That being said, I have a pretty good idea what did happen. Namely that a bad cop put his leg on a black guys neck and needlessly killed him.

But according to this article here: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/minnesota-cops-trained-israeli-forces-restraint-techniques the Minnesota cops were trained at putting their legs on suspects necks. But not just black suspect necks....white suspects as well. Add to that fact that blacks are not picked on anymore than whites when it comes to police brutality: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

I'll I'm saying is this. That the protests themselves probably have merit. But not because of racism but because of police brutality. A police state that has become more and more the norm with present day America. Police that are currently groomed and trained to be brutal.

Well, many claim that the charges of racism are better understood as class problems. So, maybe that would be a better riot

 

[Trausti]

Being White?

Racism.

White people are the only group held responsible for the behavior of their ancestors. While other groups are not held responsible for their own behavior today.

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Yeah, your religion tells you that White people don’t matter.

No, my "religion" tells me white people like you don't matter.

I get it. Your religion teaches you to hate.

Interesting that you got "hate" from "don't matter."

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

White people are the only group held responsible for the behavior of their ancestors. While other groups are not held responsible for their own behavior today.

Confirmation bias horseshit.

 

[Derec]

See the Alabama case where a black male was corralled and summarily shot and killed, and the entire thing swept under the rug for a couple of months in an attempt to make it go away. Why? Because a couple white guys said the black guy was the aggressor.

Doesn't ring a bell. Do you have a link?

 

[Derec]

I tell you what. Let's go back in time just one generation--my parents' generation, if not yours--to the 1930s and I'll rape your mother

Why should people be blamed/punished for hypothetical/fictional rapes committed by people who have the same skin color?

In the here and now, blacks commit more violent crimes than whites. But that is not important as it doesn't fit into the narrative of the white brutes.

And then we can test whether or not your child--or your grandchild, who grew up in similar circumstances and maybe had to join a gang just to survive childhood

Way to dismiss personal responsibility!

or was one of the lucky few who was able against many odds to work his way through a college education,

It's nonsense to talk about "against many odds"? Racial preferences that greatly benefit blacks are alive and well in most states. It's especially egregious for medical school admissions. There are entire universities that are almost all black. UNCF and others provide black-only scholarships. Where are these odds you speak of?

but of course knows the story of his family's struggles,

Pretty much any family has a history of struggles. It should not be used as an excuse in perpetuity.

and still also grows up with the same imagery of cops beating or killing people who look like him--would be more or less prone toward a riot or a peaceful protest.

People of all races get killed or beaten by police. And most police killings are justified anyway.

Hell, I look like the cop who killed Floyd and grew up in a perfect childhood and easily made my way through to my Master's and I consider myself to be a pacifist and yet, every day of Trump's occupation has driven me to the point of rioting, so it's not exactly hard to empathize with the sentiment.

Trump Derangement Syndrome. Could the explanation for these riots be so simple?

 

[blastula]

I believe there is bias in who police apprehend, but I also believe it would be more effective politically to focus on police brutality in general rather than on abuse against minorities. Police are unjustly abusing people of all races, as can been seen very plainly by their actions at the current protests.

One of the benefits of getting police to quit using brutality in their policing against black people is that they will also be less likely to use it against white people.

I should have added that Floyd's murder has struck a very wide chord across many demographics, there are more protests in more disparate places than I can remember for anything comparable. The zeitgeist might have been moved this time on this issue.

 

[Playball40]

Well, how about no riots but peaceful protests?

that's what they were, until police started firing into the crowds and turned them violent.

Yeah, that’s not correct.

Yeah, actually it is. I was at at least one of them.

 

[ZiprHead]

Should the riots really be about racism or police brutality?

Why can't it be about both?

Well, how about no riots but peaceful protests?

Why are you afraid of riots? The flu kills many more every year.

 

[Trausti]

Well, how about no riots but peaceful protests?

Why are you afraid of riots? The flu kills many more every year.

And the flu kills more people than the police. What are you on about?

 

[Patooka]

White people storm government buildings with assault rifles when they aren't allowed to have a haircut for two months. I shudder to think what they would do if they had to endure a lifetime of profiling, oversentencing, being Karen'd, voter disenfranchisement and being outright fucking murdered with zero consequences. Looking at it through that lens, Black Americans are almost as serene as the Buddha.

But we are forgetting the true victims here. Trausti is uncomfortable.

 

[Trausti]

White people storm government buildings with assault rifles when they aren't allowed to have a haircut for two months. I shudder to think what they would do if they had to endure a lifetime of profiling, oversentencing, being Karen'd, voter disenfranchisement and being outright fucking murdered with zero consequences. Looking at it through that lens, Black Americans are almost as serene as the Buddha.

But we are forgetting the true victims here. Trausti is uncomfortable.

Weird how a week or so ago those horribly selfish White people were criticized for ignoring social distancing and gathering in large groups to protect their businesses and livelihoods. Now it’s okay to gather in large groups and destroy other people’s businesses and livelihoods. As Stalin said: who, whom?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What’s curious is that Asians have the lowest interactions with police. What’s with this Asian privilege?

Which has nothing to do with mistreatment.

 

[Deepak]

Not sure about everyone else, but I'll say that I'm still supporting the null hypothesis.

This guy who fired a bow and arrow at people (and was earlier spotted brandishing a knife) seemed to not have been brutalized by police. He's pictured standing in front of police screaming at a woman half his size. Perfectly race-neutral decision, right? A black man of his stature and demeanor would have been treated identically? https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/04/man-who-drew-bow-arrow/

*cut*

 

[blastula]

Whoa, Mormons gone wild.

 

[RVonse]

Should the riots really be about racism or police brutality?

Why can't it be about both?

In a better world it could and should be about both. But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in the real world. This is our world where 1/2 of the US population (the conservative half) believes we have identity politics gone wild. The same identity politics put in place by and for the militant democratic party of supremacists. Leaving aside for the moment whether identity politics has been overplayed by the democrats, these protests would surely be more effective reaching far more people with a simple message of police brutality which was very obviously displayed.

And as it turns out with Floyd, this was a first class example of police brutality on steroids. A police state is something that everyone from both parties and all races could and should be getting on board to fight against.

 

[Deepak]

Should the riots really be about racism or police brutality?

Why can't it be about both?

In a better world it could and should be about both. But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in the real world. This is our world where 1/2 of the US population (the conservative half) believes we have identity politics gone wild. The same identity politics put in place by and for the militant democratic party of supremacists. Leaving aside for the moment whether identity politics has been overplayed by the democrats, these protests would surely be more effective reaching far more people with a simple message of police brutality which was very obviously displayed.

And as it turns out with Floyd, this was a first class example of police brutality on steroids. A police state is something that everyone from both parties and all races could and should be getting on board to fight against.

No offense, but there have been a multitude of videos in various threads showing that the police are making the case for police brutality just fine.

The framing you're proposing is silly. It's not that the conservative half of the country needs convincing that police brutality is a bad thing, or even that it exists. Anyone who has watched the Floyd video, or the kid getting shot in the head in Austin, or the old man being pushed to the ground and needs convincing that police brutality is bad is, frankly, incorrigible.

I mean really, the proposed calculus: these things are all acceptable because of the potential affront of having to wash hands next to an individual in a dress with male genitalia is too much. If the right were insulated from that they'd be more willing to speak out against the events we're seeing? Or the identity politicians are just being too loose with accusations of racism, and as soon as we agree as a society to stop calling anyone racist these swing voters will speak out against the police?

You seriously believe this? You'd seriously have us believe it?

 

[ronburgundy]

Well, how about no riots but peaceful protests?

Why are you afraid of riots? The flu kills many more every year.

And the flu kills more people than the police. What are you on about?

He's not among the brainless idiots who compare lethal threats to other threats to discount them. Only those who make arguments that "Y kills more than X" are exposed as dishonest hypocrites by ever complaining about any somethings that is not the #1 threat.