iNow

Of course if one focuses solely on the bumper sticker version of this point it’s hard to disagree. But there’s a deeper meaning to this simplistic chant and a far more rational desire. Summarized: Like the US military, funding for police departments bloated and excessive. Money is used to buy former combat and heavy equipment from the department of defense and to continue the “dominate the streets” mentality. The ROI would be higher, however, if we focused those same tax dollars k stead into public schools and mental health clinics, and even increasing availability of social workers dealing with the mental health problems police seem so often to be on the front lines of. Putting a person with mental health issues into jail (or into a grave as so often happens after interactions with police) wastes money and that money can be spent far more intelligently... but that doesn’t package itself well when walking among crowds in the streets to improve justice so it gets distilled to “defund the police.” Cory Booker was on Meet the Press this morning and laid it out well (the entire 8 minute interview is worth the watch, the defund the police comments begin at 4:50):

Can we please acknowledge that increased availability of guns in the US does add risk to officers during every police interaction, but that being black also adds risk to ones life during every police interaction, and that neither of these things justify the way police are treating suspects after they’re already in custody or the way they’re marching on and being violent with peaceful protesters exercising their constitutionally protected rights? Surely, we can move on now... Please don’t make me write another horrible run-on sentence one that

Cute. Now, as the for the actual question...?

So, like Soros wrote a check to the cop telling him to put his knee on this random guys throat for 9 minutes, and then another check to the people with cell phone cameras to walk down the street and that exact moment recording it and then upload and share it, and then another check to get their social network to help it go viral, and then another check to all of the millions of protesters around the planet. And before that, they had a global cabal of doctors and nurses fake the reports of 40,000 deaths in Italy and Spain, and thousands of others across Europe and Asia, and a hundred thousand across the US, and now in Brazil... and put fake bodies into all the morgues and mass graves they dug. And they did all this because they like communism more than freedom. You’re totally right. That’s the ONLY explanation that makes any sense to reasonable people. Thank you for your bravery in speaking up knowing the risks of personal harm to you for sharing the real truth. You’re a true hero.

Just drop it, dim. Your reply was an unnecessary needling and distraction from the topic. Can’t believe it’s continued this long

There’s also the important question of how much changes... what is the magnitude of the improvement

Both, but the part which stands out to me is how many are incited by the police themselves or how many have been false flag operations from white suorenacist groups and agitated by foreign actors

Of course he’s not. I’ve known that for weeks

Dude. One of the cops from last weeks Floyd killing was Asian. Are you just blind?

The issue is police killing blacks, not specific colors or ethnicities of police killing blacks. You’re either trying very hard to intentionally miss a painfully obvious point (basically trolling), you’re extremely ignorant, or a depressingly common mixture of both. Which of these would you prefer we consider you to be?

Definitely yes. Racism is increasing. It’s just getting recorded.

You mean where a compliant suspect of using a fake $20 bill was handcuffed, forced to the ground, and had a knee stuck into his throat for almost 9 minutes, nearly 3 minutes of which the suspect was already unconscious? You mean that side of the story?

This is a bit like asking if a single rain storm or a single hot day is due to climate change. The system is complex, and of course it contributes, but the problem is there’s no simple yes/no answer in the way you’re trying to force there to be. What do you think?

That’s your problem, not ours

Correct. That often happens. Couldn’t agree more. That, however, is not what’s happening here.

We’ll never know the motives of others. All we have is their actions and words to interpret their intent

Interested members, take a look. You’ve got 4 minutes available to learn. That’s why you’re here

Sorry mate, but you must realize that’s a strawman and unrelated to people’s views of his comments

Additionally, he's repeating the long-debunked, but classic racist position known as the bootstrapping myth: https://money.howstuffworks.com/bootstrap-myth-climbing-economic-ladder-takes-more-hard-work.htm

Nope Nope Nope again Well, I would NEVER have guessed that... you don't say! You're at least consistent in your wrong assertions Nope... yet again

You're welcome to think whatever you want. My "fixation" is on the fact that these trends are deep rooted, well established, and persistent. We are all citizens equally protected, yet those protections are not equally applied. Whether it's in policing, experience with the justice system and imprisonment, education and dilapidated schools, red lined districts preventing home-ownership and creation of wealth, access to fresh foods, being spoke to as "less than" in daily interactions or viewed with suspicion for doing perfectly normal things like bird watching... The "racial part" of what's happening is the important part right now, and suggesting that it's not is unfortunately indicative of little more than your own white privilege. White guy guns down a church full of people praying or a school full of children? Gently walked out by authorities and respectfully given due process of the law. White guys arrive to a state capitols and start waving semi-automatic rifles around in the governors mansion or saying the only good democrat is a dead democrat? They're called very fine people and allowed to remain there to share their message of protest without intervention from the police. But when a black guy sells some loose cigarettes on the street for a buck a pop, or 12 year old boy squirting water out of a squirt gun at a park, or man uses an allegedly forged $20 bill at a convenience store? Dead from police. A white guy using a forged $20 bill at a store has a fun story he tells at parties for the next few years. A black guy using a forged $20 bill at a store has a headstone and an orphaned family. What's not healthy is the american system of quote unquote justice and the way so many americans can't seem to see how drastically different their experience is from their neighbors, but if you wish to instead focus on me for rightly highlighting these facts and hoping to perhaps inspire some modicum of support for change and improvements, well... then that's your prerogative and you're fee to do so. Studies have also shown that the police departments which purpose more retired equipment from the military for use in local towns tend to have higher rates of death by cop and restrictions to constitutionally protected freedoms in their areas. It's the "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail" situation

I knew you'd be willing to be an ally on this, so thanks. More than anything, we just need to ensure we actually DO move forward. It seems so often these conversations just die on the vine and we find ourselves in the exact same places again in just a few short weeks when it happens next time.

Well, since we're now just pulling numbers out of our ass, I'll tell you you're wrong, and that the number is actually less than 0.5%. See! Amazing how we can make any argument when we make up numbers.