US Cops kill something like 1000 people per year. I’m going to blue-sky suppose that half of them are justifiable by a disinterested outside observer. That means that about 143 non-blacks and 357 blacks are unjustifiably killed by cops per year. Plus or minus a couple hundred: this is all just fiddling with numbers.
I’ve had experience with close relatives who were bad cops and it was scary what they did even in all-white communities, with the rest of the force either actively covering up or simply refusing to get involved. Theft, unjustified ticketing and arrests, and even kidnapping. More horrible things were implied. The judicial system played along as well. So yeah, white or not I get tense when cops are around or pull me over. Not because of guilt, but because I know that there is no real accountability for their actions and my life and well being may depend on the whims of a man with a gun and what kind of day he is having. Police you can’t trust is worse than no police. It’s just another version of the mob, maintaining enough order so they can go about their own business. Something is very wrong and needs to change.
This is from Shibli Zaman, a Texan guy on FB. I’ve had to trim his post a little to fit within the allowed message size.
How to get away with murder…and much worse.
…Treat them worse than your dogs, feed them garbage, and whip them like cattle, rape their women (and occasionally their men when you need to “break the buck”), and deprive them of all humanity. Erase their faith, their language, their culture, and their entire identity. Even their very names. Do this for 350 years.
Then, after you abolish slavery, among the last nations of the world to do so, and “free” them, start dragging them from trucks, hanging them from trees, and burning them to death in fire. Occasionally massacre entire cities’ populations of them when they get out of line. Do this for 100 years.
Then after depriving them of humanity, dignity, and any semblance of education under 350 years of slavery and 100 years of racial oppression, they will get unruly. So then you incarcerate them en masse disproportionately from your own race who get much lighter sentences when prosecuted for the same crimes. Do this until they, who are 10% of your population, make up nearly half of your prison population. Then demonize them as inherently criminal and barbaric and constantly refer to their crimes upon their own race using skewed statistics in order to portray THEM as the problem.
If at any point during any of the aforementioned circumstances they demand their rights, remain consistent in your response: Kill them. But be sure that it’s death by cop, and if not, then “stand your ground laws” should keep you safe. Just say he was big, mean, and scary…you know, how all of them are.
But be sure to let a few of them get rich by singing, dancing, throwing a ball, or performing in numerous other ways to entertain you so that you feel like you’ve been fair and you can boast that you’ve given them opportunity and a chance at a good life.
Do this, and to get away with it, you just have to be America.
First statistic is dubious. Moreover, the number of contacts with police vs. deaths is low so other parts of this cartoon are dubious. That doesn’t mean reforms aren’t warranted.
We have a defacto multitiered justice system that makes a crime of being poor or black or a minority … that runs counter to our amended Constitution. Many have moved to the suburbs leaving (effectively segregating) cities with low median incomes to fend for themselves.
As we have seen with peaceful protests greeted with tear gas, brutal beatings, riot gear, and tanks. Would have been nice to see that when heavily armed yahoos took over a STATE HOUSE…
@Jay Efbee: you are repeating a myth, carefully designed to demonize people of color and protect white people. Take a look at white-collar crime and the amount of money IT costs Americans – it’s VERY disproportionately white people, and far, far more money and impact. In addition, if you removed minor crimes (some of which were invented to bust black people) and drug crimes, the difference would go away. Remove the disproportionate arrests of black people, and it might even tilt the other way!
From the Office for National Statistics (Great Britain): “There were 671 victims of homicide in the year ending March 2019“. That’s total, not police-related, for a country of 66M.
America (and other countries) is/are getting more violent with the proliferation of guns. That interpretation of the 2nd Amendment has a lot to do with it. One can’t totally blame the police for being somewhat nervous when approaching.. anyone.
Police departments everywhere should de-escalate their military bearing and training. The vast majority of cops need to be policed themselves. They get power drunk on having all citizens cower and fear them. Blacks get it the worst (by far) but all cops like to showcase their power. It gives them their little emotional charge and lights up their adrenals.
Right from recruitment onwards, cops should have training in de-escalation, handling mentally ill persons, peaceful crowd control, and alternate methods of dispute resolution.
The Department of Defense military equipment should be returned to the DoD.
I do realize that there are good reasons to not shoot on sight the white “white collar” criminals I mention above. Tracing how they did their dirty work is important.
But I have thought of something that could be done with some but not all of them. Let them spend some time in prison - and I don’t mean the Club Fed kind. Then offer some of them an alternative. They go out into a poor community and use their financial smarts to raise up the local economy- legally, no drugs etc. See if they can help bring prosperity to others instead of stealing. Oh, and they have to live in that ghetto, or impoverished community, or whatever. Their job is not just to make some money for the community but to teach others how to lift themselves up.
Concretionist almost 4 years ago
US Cops kill something like 1000 people per year. I’m going to blue-sky suppose that half of them are justifiable by a disinterested outside observer. That means that about 143 non-blacks and 357 blacks are unjustifiably killed by cops per year. Plus or minus a couple hundred: this is all just fiddling with numbers.
sevaar777 almost 4 years ago
I’ve had experience with close relatives who were bad cops and it was scary what they did even in all-white communities, with the rest of the force either actively covering up or simply refusing to get involved. Theft, unjustified ticketing and arrests, and even kidnapping. More horrible things were implied. The judicial system played along as well. So yeah, white or not I get tense when cops are around or pull me over. Not because of guilt, but because I know that there is no real accountability for their actions and my life and well being may depend on the whims of a man with a gun and what kind of day he is having. Police you can’t trust is worse than no police. It’s just another version of the mob, maintaining enough order so they can go about their own business. Something is very wrong and needs to change.
sartre almost 4 years ago
This is from Shibli Zaman, a Texan guy on FB. I’ve had to trim his post a little to fit within the allowed message size.
How to get away with murder…and much worse.
…Treat them worse than your dogs, feed them garbage, and whip them like cattle, rape their women (and occasionally their men when you need to “break the buck”), and deprive them of all humanity. Erase their faith, their language, their culture, and their entire identity. Even their very names. Do this for 350 years.
Then, after you abolish slavery, among the last nations of the world to do so, and “free” them, start dragging them from trucks, hanging them from trees, and burning them to death in fire. Occasionally massacre entire cities’ populations of them when they get out of line. Do this for 100 years.
Then after depriving them of humanity, dignity, and any semblance of education under 350 years of slavery and 100 years of racial oppression, they will get unruly. So then you incarcerate them en masse disproportionately from your own race who get much lighter sentences when prosecuted for the same crimes. Do this until they, who are 10% of your population, make up nearly half of your prison population. Then demonize them as inherently criminal and barbaric and constantly refer to their crimes upon their own race using skewed statistics in order to portray THEM as the problem.
If at any point during any of the aforementioned circumstances they demand their rights, remain consistent in your response: Kill them. But be sure that it’s death by cop, and if not, then “stand your ground laws” should keep you safe. Just say he was big, mean, and scary…you know, how all of them are.
But be sure to let a few of them get rich by singing, dancing, throwing a ball, or performing in numerous other ways to entertain you so that you feel like you’ve been fair and you can boast that you’ve given them opportunity and a chance at a good life.
Do this, and to get away with it, you just have to be America.
Denver Reader Premium Member almost 4 years ago
First statistic is dubious. Moreover, the number of contacts with police vs. deaths is low so other parts of this cartoon are dubious. That doesn’t mean reforms aren’t warranted.
superposition almost 4 years ago
We have a defacto multitiered justice system that makes a crime of being poor or black or a minority … that runs counter to our amended Constitution. Many have moved to the suburbs leaving (effectively segregating) cities with low median incomes to fend for themselves.
https://thecrimereport.org/2018/12/07/rising-court-costs-leave-poor-at-mercy-of-a-two-tiered-justice-system-study/
https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/experience/america/2018/10/17/25-most-dangerous-cities-america/1669467002/
jgreathead almost 4 years ago
Watch it, bud.
Motivemagus almost 4 years ago
As we have seen with peaceful protests greeted with tear gas, brutal beatings, riot gear, and tanks. Would have been nice to see that when heavily armed yahoos took over a STATE HOUSE…
Motivemagus almost 4 years ago
@Jay Efbee: you are repeating a myth, carefully designed to demonize people of color and protect white people. Take a look at white-collar crime and the amount of money IT costs Americans – it’s VERY disproportionately white people, and far, far more money and impact. In addition, if you removed minor crimes (some of which were invented to bust black people) and drug crimes, the difference would go away. Remove the disproportionate arrests of black people, and it might even tilt the other way!
gopher gofer almost 4 years ago
it’s great to see how the racist yahoos stick together when you see who clicked ‘like’ on jay the rightwingnut’s comment above…
kv450 almost 4 years ago
From the Office for National Statistics (Great Britain): “There were 671 victims of homicide in the year ending March 2019“. That’s total, not police-related, for a country of 66M.
Alberta Oil Premium Member almost 4 years ago
America (and other countries) is/are getting more violent with the proliferation of guns. That interpretation of the 2nd Amendment has a lot to do with it. One can’t totally blame the police for being somewhat nervous when approaching.. anyone.
Radish the wordsmith almost 4 years ago
Demilitarize the police.
Radish the wordsmith almost 4 years ago
As long as racist Trump acts like the head of the Republican Klan and drags American progress backward, people are going to be offended.
Our only solution is to out vote every Republican which should be easy since they are the minority.
twclix almost 4 years ago
Police departments everywhere should de-escalate their military bearing and training. The vast majority of cops need to be policed themselves. They get power drunk on having all citizens cower and fear them. Blacks get it the worst (by far) but all cops like to showcase their power. It gives them their little emotional charge and lights up their adrenals.
Right from recruitment onwards, cops should have training in de-escalation, handling mentally ill persons, peaceful crowd control, and alternate methods of dispute resolution.
The Department of Defense military equipment should be returned to the DoD.
Citizen oversight is absolutely necessary.
Repeat after me:
THESE ARE COPS, NOT SOLDIERS!!
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member almost 4 years ago
“Looting leads to Shooting!”
Well, those folks stealing $2000 TVs, etc etc are just real pikers!
Bernie Madoff ripped off $50 billion! That’s a whole lotta TV sets!
Enron, Tyco, etc etc.
They all justify to themselves the looting of other peoples’ money.
Treat them like the looters they are — except shooting is too good for them.
pamela welch Premium Member almost 4 years ago
Don’t feed the Efbee troll!
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member almost 4 years ago
I do realize that there are good reasons to not shoot on sight the white “white collar” criminals I mention above. Tracing how they did their dirty work is important.
But I have thought of something that could be done with some but not all of them. Let them spend some time in prison - and I don’t mean the Club Fed kind. Then offer some of them an alternative. They go out into a poor community and use their financial smarts to raise up the local economy- legally, no drugs etc. See if they can help bring prosperity to others instead of stealing. Oh, and they have to live in that ghetto, or impoverished community, or whatever. Their job is not just to make some money for the community but to teach others how to lift themselves up.
Radish the wordsmith almost 4 years ago
Trump-friendly pollster gives him bad news as signs show some of his supporters are ‘exhausted’
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/trump-friendly-pollster-gives-him-bad-news-as-signs-show-some-of-his-supporters-are-exhausted/