George Floyd/Black Lives Matter Protests

[Shandon Par]

What could possibly go wrong here? 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

3 minutes ago, Shandon Par said:

What could possibly go wrong here? 

They could drink the Fosters?

[Derry Alli]

8 minutes ago, throbber said:

I don’t particularly like this “full of” chat, as if these comments are in the majority. Most people tweeting about LR are explaining exactly why there was no need for mass demonstration after his murder. 

I seen there was also a lot of Kriss Donald tweets. As Lex (I think) pointed out, it's strange how it's only when it happens in America anybody suddenly gives a shit. 

[coprolite]

44 minutes ago, Empty It said:

1 hour ago, Granny Danger said:

That’s a big part of it.  Another part is that we expect better from an affluent Western democracy.

Surely at this point now nobody expects better from America, nothing that happens there seems to suprise, even electing a egotistical racist with no political history to run their backwards country.

Was it a surprise that we did?

[NotThePars]

This countries obsession with all things USA never ceases to amaze me.

Racist police murders and brutality in South America, Africa, Asia - which happen on a daily basis - doesn’t make the news and there’s no outrage.

Police brutality in USA and it’s all over the British news and everyone here is up in arms. Why? Is it more tragic if it happens in America than these other foreign places?

I guess it’s more impressive to not care about any of it like you do?

Any time Barack Obama opens his mouth, there should be people reminding him of the time he went to a town being poisoned by its own water supply and did nothing but crack wise about it for the press.

Sir are you aware that there’s a cheeto in the White House? Focus your ire at that.

[Empty It]

Was it a surprise that we did?

I was thinking that just after I posted, bit hypocritical whilst living in country that elected big Bojo.

[The OP]

4 minutes ago, Mr. Alli said:

I seen there was also a lot of Kriss Donald tweets. As Lex (I think) pointed out, it's strange how it's only when it happens in America anybody suddenly gives a shit. 

Even though it’s entirely specious you can see why morons bring him into Stephen Lawrence discussions, but in this context it just boggles the mind.

[BFTD]

6 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Sir are you aware that there’s a cheeto in the White House? Focus your ire at that.

 

Trump wasn't President when the residents of Flint had their water supply replaced with poison.

I've no doubt he'd have made light of it too, if he could even be arsed turning up at all, but all you can say about his involvement on this issue is that he hasn't been any better than Obama, who was a smug indifferent shitehouse.

Edit: also, nobody gives a shit about my ire.

Edited June 2, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

The sheriff dept and police dept are two different entities, the police dept chief is an appointee and the sheriff from the social media posts is directly elected. Although they share a geographic area there somehow seems to be differences, with PD’s and SD’s serving incorporated and non incorporated areas of counties and municipalities. This means for small areas of states and counties you can have very large amounts of different police forces, that in turn means different training (although many go to the same academies), priorities and operational practices. This is why you have people like Arpaio etc springing up, playing to the voter dynamics in their counties. For me the sheer volume of police agencies in the states is dangerous (in Orange County florida I can think of about 9 law enforcement agencies which operate solely within the county alone not counting state and federal agencies), the smallest level should be at county level but even then if the actual state (not THE state but like the constituent state ie New York, Florida, California) took overall primacy and unified police departments and liased with federal agencies i think you’d see a much better overall service in the US.

[peasy23]

[peasy23]

A long thread, but worth a read as the police in Minneapolis have effectively downed tools.

[Mackie The Staggie]

I mean come on.......

[Torpar]

1 hour ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

Don't know about the series? It was famous/infamous recently for having poisonous drinking water.

There is an excellent series on Netflix called Flint Town following the struggling police department of Flint

[D.A.F.C]

I mean come on.......

TBF they need to protect themselves and cuffing them isn't a terrible idea until they can be sure.

Would you take someone's word for it in a country where most people have guns?

 

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, Mr. Alli said:

You regularly belittle both schemes and folk in it. You have been pulled up numerous times by a plethora of posters and in fact, you're often referred to as 'the failed councillor' on the forum, in part due to your choice of words about those you are now claiming to have tried oh so very hard to help to no avail. 

If you want to now deny you've ever done it because you're suddenly trying to push a hard working, caring persona then you bash on. The majority of the board have seen your tirades over the years. 

So not a single post?  Fair enough, I’ll leave it there.

[coprolite]

Anyone else think The Minnesota Riots would be a good name for their baseball team?

[Mackie The Staggie]

2 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

TBF they need to protect themselves and cuffing them isn't a terrible idea until they can be sure.

Would you take someone's word for it in a country where most people have guns?

 

The first lot of cops managed to get the story pretty quick and rushed after the looters they seemed to have no trouble taking someones word.  Also you have a validated member of the press telling them that those guys were innocent.

It was only when the Call of Duty wannabe cop came in with gun raised did they handcuff the owners.  It's little wonder there's little trust between the black community and the police, even when these guys needed help they still got tied up.

[bennett]

11 minutes ago, Mackie The Staggie said:

I mean come on.......

Control and contain the situation,  a full blown  riot, a lot of confusion.... not helped by the screeching hysterical journalist. I'm guessing that they were released a few minutes later once everything  checked out?

Going by the size and shape of a few of those officers, I'm guessing a few of them are usually desk bound.

 

 

 

[D.A.F.C]

The first lot of cops managed to get the story pretty quick and rushed after the looters they seemed to have no trouble taking someones word.  Also you have a validated member of the press telling them that those guys were innocent.
It was only when the Call of Duty wannabe cop came in with gun raised did they handcuff the owners.  It's little wonder there's little trust between the black community and the police, even when these guys needed help they still got tied up.

I'm not an expert in police protocol, it does look dodgy but it might be legit.

[Enigma]

This countries obsession with all things USA never ceases to amaze me.

Racist police murders and brutality in South America, Africa, Asia - which happen on a daily basis - doesn’t make the news and there’s no outrage.

Police brutality in USA and it’s all over the British news and everyone here is up in arms. Why? Is it more tragic if it happens in America than these other foreign places?

I think a large part is cultural. In this country we’ve all had wide exposure to African American culture. We can sympathise and empathise with those people and the institutionalised racism they suffer more because we’ve seen it, not only the the news, but in films and on TV dramas and documentaries, we’ve heard it in the lyrics of music by African American artists.

While even something like the genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya people has been covered quite extensively we haven’t seen the same social media campaigns, the same amount of discussion and column inches. Could you name a single Rohingya person? I can’t. It’s distant, foreign, obscure. Most people here can’t relate to small subsistence farmers forced off their land in a country most people in this country could event point to on a map.

Admittedly the ‘expect better from a liberalised western democracy’ line is also compelling. Not many on here will have heard of the Hargeisa Holocaust, I hadn’t until a few days ago, but are we surprised thousands were slaughtered because the had the misfortune to belong to the wrong clan in a country like Somalia? Probably not.

That said I’m not in any way irritated that this issue has received the attention it has, like you seem to be, it isn’t a competition about which incidents of oppression should receive or not receive recognition.