Politics And Current Events

[Freddy Rumsen]

It's not like Bull Conner has been in charge of Minnesota.

One would figure 60 years after the Civil Rights Act the good people of Minnesota Nice would have cleaned things up.

One would have hoped 100 years after the Civil War we wouldn't have needed a Voting Rights Act or A Civil Rights Act.

I mean we're talking about Minnesota here not south Alabama.

I know that they had Sundown towns and stuff in the Upper Midwest but you'd think that they'd have a better handle on it in a place like Minneapolis.

[AuthorTony]

This is one of the most absurd statements I have seen posted here.

I appreciate the Jeepers Creepers reference in your user name.

[tifosi77]

I don’t think it’s fair to 100% fault police officers. They’re certainly at fault a lot of times and especially in this particular incident (as well as the Breanna Taylor incident) but I doubt being a police is particularly easy; I wonder what percent of arrests or confrontations involve the suspect carrying a weapon

Like all conflicts, one side is rarely 100% at fault. Completely blaming police is unconstructive and unhelpful. This is a two way street.

The reason why police get - and deserve - much greater scrutiny is they are the ones with the training. They are the ones with the power of the State behind their credentials. They are the ones with the legal authority to use force to compel action. They are the ones that have statutory protections that qualify their liability for misconduct.

You do not have those luxuries.

Being a cop is hard. No one disputes that. But no one is forced to be a cop. And yet, if a cop decides I match a description of some criminal suspect, or he mis-IDs my car, or any number of other whoopsie mistakes lead him to my face, I am forced to interact with him.

Cops do not get enough scrutiny.

[Freddy Rumsen]

As I said it boggles the mind that people on the right or the left want to give the state more power.

Every law comes at the point of a gun.

Dude in New York was strangled to death because he was selling illegal cigarettes and the gentleman in Minneapolis because somebody suspected him of passing a bad check.

[tifosi77]

But how many times have we heard complaining (especially on this board) that peaceful protesters block traffic? It's something that completely ignores why the protest is happening just because it happens to be an inconvenience to others.

This is what I do not understand about the freeway things: You are not calling attention to your issue, you are getting between me and my family and creating a charged and potentially dangerous environment for a large number of people. If you want to do that, fine; I do not want to go along for that ride. You have made me actively root for your imminent demise, not shake my fist at The Man and reflect on what I can do to help effect change.

[tifosi77]

You have a group/class/race of people who basically have been subjected to being treated like garbage for 100+ years at this point. They have been shown over and over again that they are not equal based on the color of their skin. That their lives don't mean as much as the white guy next to them.

They get beaten, they get killed over and over and over and over again. They get treated like garbage over and over and over. Nothing happens. Nothing has gotten better over the course of time. What do we expect to happen at this point? They have been told from the top on down that they are basically to be viewed as a lesser race. No one has done anything, things have gotten worse. No one listens. In two weeks or so this will be just another footnote of some black guy getting killed by the cops. It's common place at this point and it's disgusting. Then it will happen again and the cycle will continue... over and over and over.

There isn't a person on this board (myself included) that can imagine what that feels like. We are all privileged. We haven't had 100+ years of being treated like garbage and being looked down upon as a lesser race. There is no fear of getting killed during a traffic stop, or while jogging. It's just awful.

This is well stated. Not a single one of us in the little band of misfit toys has any idea what it's like to have the security guard's eyes on you the entire time you are in a retail store. In every store you enter.

I have never worn a hoodie after evaluating the risk of alarming a shopkeeper.

My mother did not have a sit-down with me when I was a teenager briefing me on the proper etiquette of dealing with a police officer so as to not be provocative.

It's just a completely different reality.

[Freddy Rumsen]

There is no doubt about it.

[tifosi77]

I don't think we can assume that cops in these cases would have behaved differently is the victims were white. Race does play a role in this, but it's also a "cop problem" in addition to a racist problem. Too many cops are given carte blanche to murder citizens.

This is my general take on the Floyd incident. I don't know that much about the arresting officer, so this may ultimately prove to be inaccurate, but to me this incident is much more about systemic issues with policing - of which race is a factor - moreso than this particular cop being a racist pig-dog.

To shoeshine boy's earlier point, cops see a lot of messed up stuff. Sort of by definition, they see people at their worst, all day long. And it is also true that policing tends to be much more pervasive and aggressive in predominantly black/POC neighborhoods, because crime rates tend to be higher, generally, in those communities. And so while African Americans only make up something like 12% of the people in the US, they make up roughly half the people killed by police. And so as a result, you get something like this:

[tifosi77]

So some fun facts about this cop:

The Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck had 18 previous complaints against him, police department says

Only two of the 18 complaints against [former officer Derek] Chauvin were "closed with discipline," according to a MPD internal affairs public summary. In both cases, the "discipline issued" column indicated that a letter of reprimand had been issued in response.

Chauvin was not the only officer on the scene that day with a history of complaints against him.

Former officer Tou Thao had six complaints filed with internal affairs, one of which was still open, according to the public summary released Thursday. The other five complaints had been closed without discipline.

Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds...... 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that time was after Floyd went limp and unresponsive, and after one of the other officers reported Floyd had no pulse. Chauvin and represented by the same attorney who won an acquittal for the cop who shot Philando Castile.

Chauvin has apparently been involved in multiple use-of-force incidents involving a weapon discharge, which is actually quite very rare.

[tifosi77]

*****

[Freddy Rumsen]

Sad.

[shafnutz05]

But.... Why?

[grunthy]

Well this is a dilemma for CNN... Black Lives Matters protestors and some rioters attacking their HQs. Do they condemn it or say they have a right to do it?

[iamjs]

Beanbags being shot in ATL, nearby McCormick's and Schnick's also losing their liquor from protesters.

[tifosi77]

[NAN]

Well this is a dilemma for CNN... Black Lives Matters protestors and some rioters attacking their HQs. Do they condemn it or say they have a right to do it?

Trump

[dodint]

The criminal complaint is up: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... ocument/p1

I read it over and I also have read some analysis on it from lawyers and it seems to contain an unusual amount of exculpatory information that favors the police. Most striking being the preliminary report by the ME that there was no physical indication of strangulation, with an inference that underlying medical conditions played a part.

The strategy might be to just put the possible defenses out there right away, but the fact that it is just beginning and is being handled...oddly...might not bode well for what's to come.

[Freddy Rumsen]

It's all of a sudden violent now.

[Freddy Rumsen]

This is a Qanon level conspiracy.

Last time I checked the local Minneapolis police are not employed by the President

[NAN]

I just watched someone shoot a firework into the lobby and thought it was going to go down. But police set off teargas and disbursed.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I just watched someone shoot a firework into the lobby and thought it was going to go down. But police set off teargas and disbursed.

[offsides]

Looks like social distancing and COVID-19 went to the back burner.

[iamjs]

[Freddy Rumsen]

Got any ideas on this @tifosi77

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Hopefully they all get turned away by the hospitals when they need care for covid19