So I'm starting this to not detract from any effort to help Bill Owen. Politics is not what he needs in that thread. But we need to have a conversation. George Floyd is a tipping point. We have had enough. The laws do not protect people of color. The system is working as designed. And the people who built this country and the people whose land was stolen to build on want a world they have a seat at the table with. I am a person of color. I am Mvskoke/Seminole/Scottish (5/8 Native 3/8 Scottish) and I do not inhabit the same country my white SO does. I grew up having to deal with racism at school, bullying by my peers, and open hatred by older people. I even got it from my own family. My grandmother beat me so severely for speaking Mvskoke that I didn't do it again for nearly 30 years. She still refers to black people as hard-r n-words to this day. My family was racist against themselves. And that was nothing compared to what the establishment was capable of. I know all about being scared of cops. I know about being told what to do if my grandfather got pulled over. He was full blooded and looked it. He was harassed constantly. When the literal KKK showed up on our lawn they didn't show up for nearly three hours and wanted to lock up my family for discharging guns on their own property. I have faced workplace discrimination. From snide comments to racial slurs to getting fired for my skin color. And every time the law let it slide. And I want something to be 1000% clear. Black people are suffering worse. The video of George Floyd is nothing less than a murder. He was accused of passing a fake $20. The bill was real. But four officers are sent in response for some reason (the law does not actually require an officer to come out at all, it is handled by white collar crimes, a separate division entirely) and he is handcuffed for a non arrestable offense. The next time we see him there is a knee on his neck. That knee is not removed until well after another officer mentions there is no pulse. They offer no first aid at all. This is a common thread in recent incidents. Cops often will not render first aid to POC even if the person could be saved. We have grown tired of redlining. We have grown tired of different penalties. We have grown tired of police immunity. We have grown tired of a white supremacist in chief. We have listened long enough. Now we will be listened to if we have to burn the White House down with the whole nest of rats in it. I can't breathe.
I am personally interested to see if this is a tipping point, we have come close to a tipping point so many times just within the last few years ... is this really it? How many more people lives will it take?
The whole world has seen the video of Derek murdering George in cold blood while the other three cops did nothing to stop it. Should that be a tipping point leading to systematic widespread change? Yes. Will it be? Looking at history, unfortunately it probably won't.
It's worse than Derek murdering George. They had him in the car and beat him up with the one Asian cop watching, during which George then fell out then Derek murdered him. I really hope it is a tipping point, racism is so visible and rampant (and so are other forms of discrimination), if you don't at least feel uncomfortable then there's something very clearly wrong with you.
Unfortunately, as long as Trump is in the Whitehouse, threatening to have people shot, there won't be a tipping point.
I have not watched the video, there have been so many people posting that it's obvious that George Floyd was killed and it could have been avoided had the 3 other "Officers" done something about it, based of what people are saying. There does need to be a change, I am White and I have seen my Friends who are not White receive different treatment because of the colour of there skin, and I have experienced it myself with sly comments because I am White hanging around with a bunch of Black people and that I must be the "Token White Friend" and other stuff that honestly I don't want to repeat on here. Honestly the whole world makes me sick that people are treated differently because of the colour of there skin, and what gender they are but until people actually start to use common sense and realise we are on this planet together and we are all the same under our skin, then it's always going to be the case and quite frankly we need people to speak up when they see something going on, instead of just pulling out a phone and recording a video thinking about nothing more than "This is going to make me Facebook famous" and how many likes and comments it is going to get. Yes people can record a interaction or a situation if they believe it is needed for protection and potential use later as evidence but to many people are not interested in that and are more interested in as I say becoming "Facebook Famous", and this is where things need to change as well because I bet a lot of what is going on now with the looting etc would not have happend had the video not been posted to social media.
My OH sent me this when we were talking about it and I said about how horrible it was (or something similar). Along the same kind of lines of 'sending prayers' after another gun based murder spree. Whilst I've not done enough research yet, one of the possibly ways to support financially is via the Minnesota freedom fund. https://minnesotafreedomfund.org Edit: For those who can't donate via those links (mine kept failing) Here's somewhere else: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/squad-racial-justice?refcode=rashida Killer mike trying to get people to use this as a chance to make some real difference, not to burn down things around them but to burn the systemic racist systems and institutions to the ground.
I can't fully state my opinion here due to it breaking forum rules but I'll leave it at this, They complained when Colin Kaepernick was peaceful They complained when Ferguson got violet To me it seems they just don't want change and violence is the way.
Trumpelstiltskin has come up with the perfect solution that will solve all the underlying problems: Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date Because obviously everyone to the left of the KKK is marching in lock step under orders from that very loose collective...
Are they losing it or are they acting as normal - Leveraging excuses such as "existing while black" and now "civil disorder" to heavy-handedly terrorise the population they are sworn to protect? How does it hold up when the narrative is reframed that the police are rioting because they fear they can no longer act with impunity?
I am glad I watched it, but I will be forever changed by it. I cried for hours after watching it. I've never seen a video of someone being murdered before in cold blood. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen. Doge has it right. They don't listen. I am amazed there hasn't been a full on civil war in the USA. If this happened once? then it would be bad enough. Twice? something seriously F-ed up is going on. But repeatedly? A mate of mine earlier said "This needs to be put right" to which I responded (and he is in the USA BTW) "You've had 400 years to put it right, ain't done it yet".
Rolling in former military personal and bullied rejects into the police force and militarizing it over time has consequences, and those are that it creates a culture that says citizens are enemy combatants. White, brown, black, red or yellow doesn't matter much as far as the officers are concerned. Of course there will be tribal components (racial and ethnic allegiances etc), but at the end of the day the tribe is the police force and the officers allegiance is to their fellow officers, regardless of color. I don't see many black police officers riot and trash their communities, let alone turn on fellow officers.
Watching Santa Monica live. Same **** just happened. SUV drove into the crowd, knocks down two people then does a 3 pointer and ****s off. Can't believe I'm seeing this. ABC 7 YouTube.
A friend of mine, who lives in Saint Paul, took these. They're assembling to deal with whatever happens after tonight's curfew.
