Memphis police...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26...-thursday/index.html

Man's inhumanity to man.

Black on Black violence.

I found it at least a little strange that the race of the victim was identified in the lead paragraph of the story, while the race of the officers was not mentioned until about halfway through a very long story. It would be easy to jump to some unjustified conclusions.

Big Al

Agreed, Big Al - but what does it say that I also just assumed the police would be white?

Then I got into this spiral of thinking... thin blue line trumps race, but does it really? In this case yes, it appears to. But when push comes to shove in terms of pay, promotions, sticking up for each other in tough times, I'm wondering if that would still hold true.

What a world.

I just watched a little bit of the video footage that's been released. It's absolutely horrific.

What is wrong with our policing system that there are these kinds of officers on so many police forces around the country?

Why does this keep happening again and again?

Yes, the racial composition of the criminal police came as a surprise a few days ago when the story broke. That may keep a lid on the violence of the reaction.

But consider this: see how quickly these police were fired, and charged with murder. On the one hand, I feel like screaming IT'S ABOUT TIME. Then I wonder if that's BECAUSE of the racial composition of the murderous Memphis police mob. What if four of the five killer cops had been white southerners? Would the force (and the unions) have rallied round the blue for at least a bit longer?

They murdered him or they didn't. I'll wait and see.

It seems that police culture is the problem — who it attracts ad recruits, and why.

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:
It seems that police culture is the problem — who it attracts ad recruits, and why.

+1

I ******* hate the police. I hate what they do to black and young people in this country. They assault even young white men here. A friend of mine ran out her house in her bathrobe to confront a gang of police who were threatening a young neighbor kid. She lost all sense or fear and went after them full bore and shamed them until they backed off.

It's a culture of bullies. They are backward, criminal, violent.

A cop in NYC threatened to shoot my dog. He was barking from *inside my van* *with the windows rolled up* and could not do a thing to the officer. The cop kept screaming "i'm going to shoot your dog!" I screamed back at him, "are you ******* crazy?! The dog can't do a thing to you!" If I hadn't been a young white woman I know I could not have gotten away with that. I made sure all my doors were locked and I drove the hell out of there.

When police came to my house in Missoula, I put my dog inside my bedroom and shut the door before I would open the front door to them. They heard my dog barking from behind the bedroom door and demanded I let him out. No way in hell.

But worst of all is the terror black people live in in this country only because of the police. we live in a ******* police state, people.

If I wasn't isolated on top of a mountain in a blizzard at the moment I would be in the streets.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
They murdered him or they didn't. I'll wait and see.

they MURDERED him Daniel! Didn't you watch the video? That is cold blooded murder.

quote:

But consider this: see how quickly these police were fired, and charged with murder. On the one hand, I feel like screaming IT'S ABOUT TIME. Then I wonder if that's BECAUSE of the racial composition of the murderous Memphis police mob. What if four of the five killer cops had been white southerners? Would the force (and the unions) have rallied round the blue for at least a bit longer?

P*D, I agree with this take.

RP:

quote:

It seems that police culture is the problem — who it attracts ad recruits, and why.

I think it’s also what happens once someone is on the police force, so not just at the recruiting stage, but the culture of policing itself.

Lastly:

quote:

they MURDERED him Daniel! Didn't you watch the video? That is cold blooded murder.

This. I don’t see how anyone could watch the video and have an ounce of doubt about what happened.

They beat him with no provocation, and then let him lie there without providing medical assistance.

To get back to what RP said, I think there’s a culture of escalation and often the starting point of encounters seems to be based on violence (on the part of police) from the very first seconds of an encounter.

Piqué’s description of her encounters are a prime example of that.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
They murdered him or they didn't. I'll wait and see.

they MURDERED him Daniel! Didn't you watch the video? That is cold blooded murder.

Oh, I know. I was being rhetorical. My thought was they will have to be tried and hopefully they will be found guilty and have the book thrown at them.

And, no. I haven't watched the video. I did watch this interview with the Police Chief:

https://youtu.be/9aA1bTFu27M

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

quote:

But consider this: see how quickly these police were fired, and charged with murder. On the one hand, I feel like screaming IT'S ABOUT TIME. Then I wonder if that's BECAUSE of the racial composition of the murderous Memphis police mob. What if four of the five killer cops had been white southerners? Would the force (and the unions) have rallied round the blue for at least a bit longer?

P*D, I agree with this take.

The Blue Lives Matter crowd has basically gone silent. Shocking, I know ...

But much of that crowd is white supremacist using their blue support as a disingenuous prop.