Tuesday, April 28, 2015
What's up with the cops in this country?
If Eric Garner were a coyote roaming around one of the five boroughs of NYC he'd be alive today but professionally and humanely relocated - I wanted to work this thought into some kind of workable blogpost-title but it's somewhat unwieldy. Watching the coverage of the Baltimore protests/riots on the Today show this morning and a very conservative person said to me "you can understand their frustration" to which I nodded and said they (black folk/African-Americans) hardly ever get justice. These controversial cop cases involving unarmed black man who later die are mounting in this country and while I like to take them individually and analyze them at my own pace and I do have a fairly strong law-and-order bias cumulatively I find myself asking what's up with the cops in this country? Now practically everybody and their grandmother has a built-in video camera in their cell phones these days but the cops don't seem to care, they keep doing what they're doing whatever they're doing and it usually doesn't wind up good for the unarmed black man. WHY should 25-year old Freddie Gray have a broken spine while in police custody??? Now your typical conservative response will be but we don't know all the facts yet (tin ear on Race those conservatives) but ya wanna know something? What's up with the cops in this country?
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Sometimes, Z-Man, you sound sort of liberal .
ReplyDeleteInteresting. By the same token does a very very poor Finn not have to pay for a speeding infraction?
DeleteCop-wise, been seeing the Alaska State Trooper series on Nat'l Geographic. Considering the well-armed squatters and ornery natives, they seem to do pretty
ReplyDeletewell by simply treating suspects with courtesy. Whole different culture, I guess.
I'm guessing there aren't too many black folk there. Also most riots begin after sundown and those times when you got 24-hour daylight it gets a bit confusing.
DeleteBeen over 200 lbs for 25 years. So I started a sort of scientific diet .and am down 8 lbs in
ReplyDeletethe last three weeks. 4-5 years I should be able to put on my old army uniform.
I'm over 200 lbs. but less than 210 and am 6'2" and am stuck there. Not a bad place to be but can't seem to shed those few extra pounds for an even svelter figure.
DeleteOkay, so a month ago I was 6'1" and almost 200. Now I'm 6'1" and 180... How did i do it?
ReplyDelete11 days in the hospital NPO fighting an infection. I wouldn't recommend it, but it is effective in lowering the weight, if you live through the illness.
As for some of the conservatives regarding Baltimore, I've seen some saying that all this can be laid at the feet of parents who don;t care about their kids.
I am sure that's gonna win a lot of hearts, minds and votes...
Blame the parents, I mean do we blame Jeffrey Dahmer on the parents too? For me righties vastly prefer to talk about rioting and looting rather than police misconduct. In fact it's one of their favorite narratives.
DeleteSo, this Freddie guy had 20 arrests under his young belt and people seem to divide on whether he broke his neck banging his head against the transport van or was roughed up by the Baltimore police. Given that Baltimore has a black mayor and a
ReplyDeleteblack police chief, I'm thinking the brouhaha is more about economic opportunity,
respect, dignity and understanding of neighborhood issues.
--couple years back, some old local guy stuck up the bank. Cops chased him on
foot into a riverside park, he pulled a gun and they shot him seven times. Old guy
survived (!?) and went to trial. No riots. Last year a black transient raped and killed
an 80 year old lady walking in the same park. No riots. Native American woman,
drunk, ran head on into a car killing the occupants. No riots. IMO, its a cultural
thing born of frustration, sort of simmering and waiting for the next incidents...and
IMO, the Trayvon Martin affair was much more egregious.
Your comment seems somewhat dated considering the latest. I'd rather that lady Baltimore Att'y speak to the matter.
DeleteProbably so BB... that helps explain things, but does not excuse violent behavior. And yet I am conflicted. If you feel, or are justified, and the powers that be, or the authorities in charge will not hear you, or act justly, what options are there to get peoples attention to your cause? Especially a just cause?
ReplyDeleteZ-man, you're generally more conservative than me, you got any thoughts on that?
I have no answer Dave and I hear you. Many folks protested peacefully in NYC re the Garner verdict and nothing yet came of it. If anything the Obama DOJ seems to be taking their time about the matter.
DeleteWhat's up with the cops in this country? There is other side to the issue.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing though, unless it's my imagination conservative commentators tend to use these tragedies to kind of invalidate the whole police brutality/misconduct debate. Kind of makes you feel guilty about bringing up Eric Garner et al.
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