Not each other.
The public.
Which means that 1) when they fuck up and shoot 12-year-olds, or people who aren’t armed or dangerous, or mentally ill people, or just plain fuck up and shoot someone by mistake - that they should expect to get a shit-ton of abuse from the public, whose protection-as-their-primary-responsibility-pooch they have clearly screwed like a Johhny Holmes-Seka all-night-porn-o-thon, and 2) they need to start grabbing a whole lot of humble when they GET that shit-ton of abuse.
Because they HAVE screwed up, the worst possibly screw-up they could screw up, and they need to STFU and go on about ensuring that the copper who screwed up is paying for his screw-up.
And, frankly, if the coppers had any sense they’d see that, too. It doesn’t help the occupiers if the occupied begin fearing the troops’ tendency for random shootings MORE than they fear the non-random consequences of defying the troops. If you’re gonna get shot anyway, why the hell NOT get shot taking a slap at one of “those bastards”, instead?
5 comments:
Protest, yes, not shooting point blank two officers sitting in a cruiser in the head. Sadly there will always deluded, insane or simply evil people who are tinder boxes ready to be set off.
Where are the Ghandi's and MLK's? Civil rights attorney John Doar died recently. He stood between police and a mob grown violent and showed the courage to advocate for non-escalation:
"My name is John Doar — D-O-A-R,” he shouted to the crowd. "I’m from the Justice Department, and anybody here knows what I stand for is right." He meant it.
The crowd slowly disbursed. Doar's fellow Justice attorney John Seigenthaler (who also died this year) was beaten unconscious by a white mob angered by an attempt to integrate bus station facilities in Alabama.
Seigenthaler commented later that he did not feel it possible that children could be exposed to race riots and grow up well, and fully human. The anger he had seen over the issue of integration was the most atavistic and animal behavior he had ever witnessed by men.
We still don't understand each other, but violence must never be excused as legitimate protest, IMHO.
So far as I can see, Lisa, the only thing "confusing" the actual violence and the anger that a lot of people - including me - feel about the degree to which our coppers have chosen to think and act more like occupation troops than "Officer Friendly" appears to be the usual wingnut Noise Machine that seems to be of the opinion that angry demonstrations against coppers killing black folks = shooting coppers.
As I recall very little of this sudden concern seems to follow the outbreak of violence against coppers when other white folks do it, as was the case when the couple went from the Bundy raree show to ambush-kill a couple of Utah coppers a little while ago.
The bottom line is that children can't be exposed to racism - never mind the "race riots" - and grow up well and fully human. I know that if I was a black man I'd be real tired of being treated as a probable criminal and a walking target here in the Rose City. Portland is something like 10% black, but something like 50-60% of our officer-involved shootings have had black targets. Can't just be coincidence.
And, more to the point...the bottom line is that the Mayor of New York (and the mayor of Portland, Oregon and every other civilian mayor and city council and plain citizen, period) are the "bosses" of their police force. The coppers' job is to do as their civilian bosses direct - including to STFU when their civilian bosses point out the justifiable fuckups that some of their "brother officers" have made that have left some of those bosses dead.
"To Protect and To Serve", right?
Aopparently, not so much.
Lisa: "Protest, yes, not shooting point blank two officers sitting in a cruiser in the head. Sadly there will always deluded, insane or simply evil people who are tinder boxes ready to be set off."
I'm not sure what your point is, but if it's to blame those murders on protestors, it's weak.
"Where are the Ghandi's and MLK's? Civil rights attorney John Doar died recently. He stood between police and a mob grown violent and showed the courage to advocate for non-escalation:"
Right-wingers always ask that question. It's for target acquisition, of course, and the right doesn't have any on their side.
BTW, have somebody explain who John Doar was. He was somebody from the federal government, which was frequently trying to restrain the local police.
You kind of make my point, Lisa; Why Doar COULD stop those riots?
Because in his day the Feds actually stood for some sort of alternative to the open racism of his time, and promised to beat down the uncivil "servants" that were enforcing Jim Crow.
Any Doar who tried that shit today would have every Republican official within a grid square raving for his firing as being soft on thugs and lawbreakers.
"Between the goddamn GOP torture-lovers and the goddamn CIA torturers and the goddamn NSA spooks and the goddamn NYPD hooligans it seems to me like there’s a whole lot of “civil servants” that need to be taken firmly by the stacking swivel and beaten back to an acceptable level of servitude with some dimension lumber."
This nails it. Thanks for writing that.
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