George Floyd/Black Lives Matter Protests

[bennett]

5 minutes ago, The OP said:

I tend to think that if a police officer killed a suspect of a different ethnicity in the middle east, Asia or Africa precisely no British person on social media would give a f**k.

I think if i viewed a similar video from another country I'd feel the same way,  that Minnesota policeman deserves a long jail term.

[Carl Cort's Hamstring]

Although the police seem to have lost the plot in a few cities judging by the videos, the levels of violence towards absolutely everyone from the Minneapolis police is insane. I don't see how they can have any credibility at all with the local population after this.

Can you just disband an entire city's police force and start again?

[The OP]

Just now, invergowrie arab said:

That's a wee shame that you think this is a clever point.

It’s a truth.

[welshbairn]

8 minutes ago, The OP said:

I tend to think that if a police officer killed a suspect of a different ethnicity in the middle east, Asia or Africa precisely no British person on social media would give a f**k.

There was a fair bit of criticism of Israel when they were taking potshots at people in wheelchairs and nurses in the Gaza fence protests.

[The OP]

1 minute ago, ali_91 said:

Of course it’s a truth, but there is also many valid reasons why that would be the case, most notably that the US is seen, rightly or wrongly, as our biggest ally. 

Yes I understand all that, was just musing on the wrongness of the specific point H_B had quoted. I do see some people on FB and Twitter really acting like they live in America though and greeting about the state of the world right now when shady shit goes on against marginalised people every day.

[Gordon EF]

8 minutes ago, ali_91 said:

If consistently calling out moronic statements makes me predictable, then yes. 

Would be more powerful with clapping emojis IMO.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Gordon EF

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Yes I understand all that, was just musing on the wrongness of the specific point H_B had quoted. I do see some people on FB and Twitter really acting like they live in America though and greeting about the state of the world right now when shady shit goes on against marginalised people every day.

It's probably more relevant as we have a fucking hapless clown of a PM who seems to want us to be another US state.

[LincolnHearts]

Quality bit of virtue signalling from Jadon Sancho in the Dortmund game.

[The OP]

3 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

4 minutes ago, The OP said:

Yes I understand all that, was just musing on the wrongness of the specific point H_B had quoted. I do see some people on FB and Twitter really acting like they live in America though and greeting about the state of the world right now when shady shit goes on against marginalised people every day.

It's probably more relevant as we have a fucking hapless clown of a PM who seems to want us to be another US state.

Think amongst my own cohort if Taylor Swift tweeted about the Uighurs and Hong Kong and Yazidis and Kurds and whatever a few more embassies might take a pounding.

[LincolnHearts]

1 minute ago, ali_91 said:

Bit of gammon on a Sunday. 

I thought you were a lentil man?

[LincolnHearts]

Scores his second, but doesn't show his t-shirt message this time.

A second yellow/red would have made a difference.

[welshbairn]

13 minutes ago, The OP said:

Think amongst my own cohort if Taylor Swift tweeted about the Uighurs and Hong Kong and Yazidis and Kurds and whatever a few more embassies might take a pounding.

People's attention shifts when it's not on live tv unfortunately.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

I did some voluntary work with a youth project aimed at redirecting vulnerable kids at risk of gang violence etc in Scotland. Id heard about a similar project in an area in Florida and met up with the guy (a sheriff deputy) who ran their version as I was over for a few weeks and curious as to how they worked things over their. I was genuinely astounded by the guys views, he made Franco look like a communist he was so right wing. Quickly made our excuses and didnt follow up his offer of meeting his family for a bbq etc. Very strange. Met some really good african american cops in LA etc, people who grew up in the neighbourhoods they policed, that seems to be missing amongst the white cops in the USA. Its very disturbing to see some of the things that have happened to cause and in response to these protests.

[The OP]

8 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

People's attention shifts when it's not on live tv unfortunately.

At least people care about something I suppose. Don’t want to downplay the shitness of the black experience in America and the calculated way the shitness was concocted over the years.

[The OP]

5 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

You're right but there's a few reasons why that means this isn't equivalent. Firstly if this happened it's likely it would at least make the news. Without the riots we'd not have heard anything about this poor guy being suffocated to death. Secondly we're a powerful majority so it wouldn't contribute to a narrative of us yet again being persecuted. I wouldn't worry for my own safety if a white British guy got killed in police custody in Egypt or wherever. Thirdly, generally speaking we white westerners don't feel like we're part of a community in the same way that a black Briton feels more of a visceral reaction & connection to Minneapolis. This isn't because we aren't a community, we are, but because the whole system is geared towards maintaining our preferential status. This is why the white supremacist right, who really do operate as one community, are so scary as they're combining the sense of being left behind and shit on by society with being the people who can actually end up in government, kneeling on people's necks etc.  

 

 

 

 

 

I said nothing about white people or British people (aside from in the context of their reaction to this story). That’s an almighty straw man you’ve just attacked.

Edited May 31, 2020 by The OP

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, Gordon EF said:

Well no, clearly nobody is advocating for that. But it's the logical conclusion if someone thinks the main issue with police violence in the US is the racially imbalanced nature of it. 

 

I don't get what the point of this is. Who are you criticising and what are you looking for?

[Gordon EF]

4 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

 

I don't get what the point of this is. Who are you criticising and what are you looking for?

I'm not criticising anyone or looking for anything? It's just a discussion, I'm not pretending I've got any of the answers for how to fix these types of things.

 

[BFTD]

12 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

I went to Philadelphia a couple of years ago to repair a couple of machines my work had sent  to a customer over there. We worked alongside a guy who was an ex-marine, he was sound enough when dealing with us but he gave off the vibe he could explode at any minute, the other guys that worked there were petrified of him. He kept 2 loaded guns in his jeep, and we found out from the manager that he had included a full page in his C.V. listing all the firearms that he was able to use. 

When I started at college over there, one of the guys in my class offered to give my a lift in. When I got in his old Jeep, my knees knocked against the glove compartment, and it dropped open, leaving me with a heavy-duty pistol in my lap. One of those showy Desert Eagle type things. I made a half-joking comment about being surprised he was so blase about leaving firearms kicking about where anybody could grab them, and he just shrugged it off. I made a comment along the lines of, "seriously, I could have just shot you with that thing", and his answer was that I'd better make the first shot count as he'd be killing me with the second one. Deadly serious.

There are a decent number of people over there with a rigidly myopic mindset that the rest of the world might try to take something from them at any moment, so they need to be prepared to kill. Nobody's ever going to cure that.

3 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Shooting from the hip a bit here but im sure i saw/read something to the effect there's a horrible modern slavery aspect to American prison labour too, with the Shawshank Redemption "here's a delightful pie stuffed with cash" scene not a million miles off what still goes on. 

The Shawshank Redemption scenario was corruption; the crime that brought the governor down was taking kickbacks to not use prison labour for certain jobs. If he'd taken the work on instead of feathering his own nest, he'd have been fine.

The statistics for work in the American economy performed by prison inmates is easy enough to find; they aren't ashamed of it. Inmates are paid cents per hour for the work they perform, with the excuse that they should have to contribute to the cost of keeping themselves incarcerated, which is tendered out to very profitable private companies. They struggle to find enough inmates to keep up with the contracts, so the justice system incarcerates more and more of the general population.

When people complain about "soft" prison sentences in the UK and compare it to America, they aren't understanding that punishment, rehabilitation, and the safety of the public are secondary considerations. They need more workers, plain and simple. They're locking up around 1% of the population at the moment. Think about that for a minute; at any given time, one out of every hundred Americans are in jail. And most of them are black, despite being an overwhelming minority of the general populace.

You can either choose to believe that the country is institutionally racist, and has redeveloped the slave trade for modern times, or you have to be a believer in eugenics.

[NotThePars]

Mind when it came out that Hillary Clinton had slaves? bUt hEr eMaIlS

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

I hope to live long enough for American power to wane to the point Mexico invades and all these oathkeeper guys with their camo printed AR15s get their shit pushed in in the first fight with real soldiers.

I know Mexico has it's own problems, but I'd quite happily take on any of their emigrants that American doesn't want. Especially if they opened restaurants. Great bunch of lads.

I'd imagine any humanitarians from the slums of Mexico City arriving in the east end of Glasgow might start raising outreach funds from the folks back home, so win-win.