6/13/2020 I’m Tired of the Bullshit

I believe that black lives matter (BLM).

I refrain from responding to someone saying that BLM with all lives matter (ALM). To the extent that the person is saying BLM, responding ALM seems to be taking issue with BLM.

I believe in equal opportunity and equal justice for people of all races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, etc. I also believe in equal treatment under the law. I believe in fairness. Whether it’s college admissions, proceedings at a county court, or interacting with the police, to name a few, what color you are, what you believe, or who you love should have no bearing on your treatment.

I DO NOT support the Black Lives Matter movement. I don’t like their methods, or some of their desired outcomes, which seems often less about equal opportunity and equal justice than it does about revenge and giving white people “our” comeuppance.

I didn’t ask to be born white. I just was. I’m tired of the divisive privilege bullshit. Completely and totally over it. Sell that bullshit somewhere else, because I’m not buying it. I am no more responsible for what some white person or people did 50, 150, or 250 years ago than a black persons is for what some other black persons did. And as for the privilege bullshit, it seems a real cop out to me. Rather than taking on the real issue that all kinds of minorities and groups have to face: racial, gender, sexual preferences, even handicapped persons, instead its to diminish my accomplishments because I was born white. I’m not the bad guy, no I am not, and no, I did not cheat to get to where I’m at. I made a lot of mistakes, and I also made some tough decisions and personal sacrifices. More than half of you reading this would have got fired from or quit difficult jobs I did rather than to put up with what was expected from me. How many of you moved your young families, in a space of 10 years from California, to New York, to Arizona, and then to Kentucky to seek a better life for your family? How many of you woke at 6 am every Saturday while raising your family so that you could find 2-3 quiet hours to do your homework before the family woke up to get a degree to better yourself? My hard work, determination, and the sacrifices me and my family made aren’t attributable to my race. So fuck that privilege business. Figure out what is holding back minorities and fix it? Yes. Blame me and undermine my accomplishments? Fuck you.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to continue to treat people the right way. That means whatever their race, their religion, their gender, their sexual orientation, and including whatever handicaps they have. If I observe what appears to me to be someone mistreating someone for any of those reasons, be it a cop, a landlord, or a store clerk, I’ll say something and if it was a criminal act report it.

Here’s what I’m NOT going to do: I’m not going to apologize for being white. I’m not going to apologize for what some other white guy did 50 years ago or 50 miles from here. I’m not going to support destruction of society in the interest of so called fairness or excuse it because someone feels they’ve been treated unfairly. I’m not going to lie and pretend there’s no such thing as racism, because there is indeed. But neither am I going to presume to see it lurking beneath every single unfairness or wrongful act. Derek Chauvin: Bad cop. Murderer. Deserves punishment. Racist? Maybe so. As yet I have not seen even one single iota or anecdote that supports racism as a motive or even an enabling factor. I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not jumping to a conclusion just because it conveniently conforms to a political narrative.

I said my piece. Peace.

6/9/2020 Equality and Equal Justice, Yes. Stupidity? No.

I support what reforms we need to ensure people are treated fairly and equally, regardless of race, creed, or color. If that means reforming police department processes, procedures, hiring, and training to achieve that equality, I support those measures.

I support justice for George Floyd. I have and I will continue to resist agreeing his murder was racial until I hear evidence that it was. The fact that they worked together at some kind of strip or girlie club leaves me suspicious that the two had some other conflict or dispute which was the Derek Chauvin's real motive for murder. If there was such a motive, then as far as the legal jeopardy Chauvin faces, I think it would be worse for him personally. If the murder was a premeditated act due to some workplace or personal conflict, then it's possible this was a premeditated act. For Mr. Chauvin that's bad, bad, bad.

I support peaceful protests that object to unfair and unequal treatment of black people by the police. As I posted on my Facebook page the other day, a massive peaceful protest can send a very powerful message.

I object to the looting, rioting, destruction, arson, defacing, damaging, assaulting, and other acts that were perpetrated in conjunction with what for many was intended to be peaceful protest. If you're protesting peacefully and other people are kicking the shit out of old people for the crime of protecting their store, or if the other people were throwing bricks at police, or any number of other violent or destructive acts, guess what? You may have protested peacefully, but it wasn't a peaceful protest. The media needs to stop referring to peaceful protests and peaceful protestors if those things were indeed happening.

I object to the movement to defund and disband police departments. The Minneapolis City Council is doing just that. There was a woman from the city council interviewed on CNN who, when asked what a citizen should do when there are no more police, who would they call. She answered that calling the police for a break in comes from a place of privilege, white privilege, I assume. Are you freaking kidding me? Taxpayers are paying for that privilege. If you take away the privilege of calling the cops for things like break ins and robberies and things of that nature,  Then the privilege, in this case I mean the right, to bear arms will come into play. We will defend ourselves, Ms. City Councilwoman moron.

I won't let my objections deter me from supporting what is right, police reforms, justice for George Floyd (and others), and the right to peaceably assemble and protest. On the other hand, I'm not going to support stupid shit I disagree with just because I feel bad (not guilty, I don't feel even a tiny tinge of guilt!) about what happened to George Floyd. I've heard several really stupid, shitty proposals in the aftermath. Listening to Ms. Stupid's answer on CNN was where all those stupid suggestions jumped the shark.

6/7/2020 Defund 'This'!

You have GOT to be shitting me. Yeah, there are bad cops. Not so nearly as many as it's being made out to be, but denying there are bad cops would be a lie. But if you think defunding, disarming, or disbanding the police is going to solve all our problems, you're high on something.

A long time ago I had what I thought was a meaningful conversation at work with a black man for whom I have tremendous respect and admiration. He's a college graduate, a former D1 football player, and veteran officer of the United States Air Force. And I distinctly and specifically remember his raised eyebrows when I told him that I opposed affirmative action programs. But a minute tater he had a genuine smile on his face when I said, "... but, I know right now those kinds of programs are still necessary. So my effort to eliminate affirmative action would be to make them unnecessary, let them eliminate themselves." The point is, you can be against something in principle, but reality presents itself as a barrier to eliminating it. So to eliminate it you first have to remove the barrier.

Well, defunding the police seems like the same kind of thing to me. You want to defund the police? Listen up, you dumb mothertruckers, As long as we still have crime and violence, we still need the cops, I hate to break it to you. You want to get rid of them, then find ways to stop the crime, and find the places where our laws can be changed to decriminalize behaviors that don't warrant incarceration.

Stop brainwashing people to believe they're oppressed, and start showing them where their opportunities lie. Yeah, I know it's almost cliché, but join the Navy or the Air Force or something and either make a career of it or learn a trade or something while you're in there.

Find a way to solve our drug problems. A high percentage of the crimes in our country relate to drugs and addiction. The drug problem isn't a black problem or a white problem, it's our problem. The worst drug problem I know of personally is a white person, and I fear for their children. One parent is incarcerated, the other is homeless and still drugging. How in the hell are the children supposed to grow up in a way that will steer them clear of trouble? Newsflash: trouble will find them pretty easily, and will NOT be easy to avoid. We're going to need cops to deal with what's ahead for them. And they're pre-teens right now.

Find a way to strengthen the family. Statistics, statistics, blah, blah, blah. Do you really want me to push numbers? Fuggedaboudit. It suffices to say, way too many kids are growing up in single parent homes. That single parent is doing everything they can to keep kids clean and fed. While mom's (or dad's, but mostly it's the mom's) at work, the neighborhood is telling those kids it's own tales.

There was a good editorial in the Wall Street Journal the other day about police unions as a large part of the problem. I am no expert about police unions, but I know a little bit about unions. During contract negotiations time the union is bargaining for the rank and file: wages, hours, vacation, benefits. But during times when they're not in contract talks, they're saving the jobs of the least best and fuck ups. Professional Standards Committees will often police their own (no pun intended), but when push comes to shove, the union goes to bat even for the bad eggs and makes the company fight tooth and nail to separate problem employees. If police unions are doing the same, it makes sense to me that Officer Derek Chauvin was still on the payroll after a long series of complaints.

Stop telling people they're oppressed over and over until they have an excuse to feel it's hopeless, and show them where there are opportunities. Create opportunities if there aren't enough out there to show them. Deal with the drug problem destroying lives and making it hard for our kids to get traction. Kids need a loving family and a support structure to show them a pathway forward to a quality life. Deal with bad cops to get the heat off of the vast majority of good cops, I don't know if we can do any of that, but if we could, you could defund police departments greatly by making all that funding unnecessary.

6/6/2020 Make Changes for the Better, Not for the Worse

You know that old saying, 'there are two sides to the story'? With 330,000,000 people in this country, and 40,000,000 of those having an African-American ancestry, there are way more sides to our story than two. Each of us has our own unique life experiences. Many of our households are similar to some other people's, but how kids were raised in yours and how they were raised in mine, whether in big ways or in small, is unique. Even kids from the same household, born years apart, can have a slightly different frame of reference as to how they started out in life. This is what I keep telling myself as I try to understand what all's going on in our country as we deal with the aftermath of now fired Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes until he was dead. And even though I keep reminding myself that everyone's experiences are different from mine, I still am who I am and think what I think:

I am opposed to racism in all forms, but I don't think that every problem or conflict that happens on a day to day basis between people of different races can be attributed to racism. Sometimes it is, no denying and 100% condemning, but sometimes people are just assholes, regardless of color.

I support lawful, peaceful assembly. I support peaceful protest. I support people gathering and protesting George Floyd's murder, even though I am still not convinced that race was a motivating cause. The fact the two worked security at the same nightclub leads me to believe that it MAY have been something else.

I support the police. Like any other profession, I know there are some lowlife's in police work. I believe the lowlifes are a small minority and it's unfair to the good men and women of all races who make up the police, sheriff's, and investigative departments and bureaus throughout our country. I do believe there's often a blue wall of silence and a Three Musketeers type "all for one and one for all" mentality when a cop does wrong or fucks up badly, even if accidentally, on the job. Somehow the blue wall of silence culture needs to be changed. Cops should be protected from phony accusations and vilification as a way to protect criminals from the legal consequences of their own actions, but police also have to police their own better. I read that Chauvin has quite a history. How was than not addressed prior to all this?

Defunding the police departments in our country is a ridiculous proposal. Police departments have grown in size and in armaments as a direct response to criminal activity. We had three terrible tragedies in recent short succession: Breonna Taylor in Louisville was killed by police serving a no-knock warrant were fired upon by her companion who thought that they were intruders. Ahmaud Aubrey was killed by three vigilantes who supposedly believed he was guilty of a crime and were performing a citizen's arrest. There is testimony that one of them called Mr. Aubrey "a nigger". And George Floyd was killed as I previously described in Minneapolis. The Taylor raid would seem reckless and unacceptable to me, but I don't know why of how it fits a pattern of systemic racism. Maybe systemic recklessness, which is also a major concern and unacceptable, but racial? I don't know. Eliminating police protection for all citizens as a result of these tragic incidents seems foolish to me and I don't support it.

I do suggest that every police shooting of an unarmed person, regardless of the race of the officer or of the victim, should be investigated thoroughly like we would do for an aviation accident or mishap. The investigation should look at all the circumstances of the incident itself, the facts. The "who, what when, and where" should be pretty easy. The "why" is the part of the investigation that would delve into things, peeling back the onion layer by layer to reveal the innermost part. This would include the community's attitude toward the police, the police department's attitude toward the community. It would include the amount of violent crime in the community, and the number of engagements police have with violent criminals. It would study police training and equipment, procedures, and protocols. And it would look at the history of the cop(s) involved, the attitude of their command structure. Investigators would interview the Chief, the Captain, the Lieutenants, the Sergeants, and enough officers to be able to make an assessment of the climate within the department toward the community. A similar process would assess the cop AND the victim. The fact that a victim is a career, violent criminal, and was high on drugs, and had been in the act of committing a crime is no excuse for being killed by police, but neither is it fair to police to completely whitewash those facts, as they are causal factors, too. These investigations should be both exhaustive and comprehensive. Note that I'm not sure the Breonna Taylor case would qualify for such a review, because her companion opened fire on the police. At the end of the investigation, recommendations for improvements would be made. All parties concerned: the cops, the community, city government, and even social service providers, every entity directly or remotely involved or affected, would be the potential recipient of criticism and recommendations, bar none.

I do not support, condone, nor accept that looting, violence, destruction, arson, and some of the other bad things we've seen in the last couple of weeks in conjunction with protests. Most tragic and sadly ironic are the deaths of addition people of color, including police officers. If you're justifying those behaviors for any reason, you're wrong and you should stop. You're not helping.

If there are political elements or terrorist type organizations stoking the flames of violence, or aiding and abetting criminal acts in conjunction with protests, inciting a riot and or assisting with violence against police or citizens, destruction of public or private property, whatever, these entities (Antifa) should be investigated and taken down by any and all means necessary. If media or political persons or organizations are discovered to be supporting terrorist groups, they should be held publicly accountable for that action.

As you can probably tell, this shit's been bothering me. I am troubled by what happened to Breonna, Ahmaud, and to George. I am also troubled by what's going on in my country as a result of those tragic incidents. Yes, change is needed. Some of what I see happening now aren't changes for the better. Candidly, some of what's going on is making a bad thing worse. It has to stop.

6/4/2020 Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

People my age and older from the south shore of Staten Island probably remember reading or knowing about a family named the Charles family. They bought a house in the Oakwood Heights neighborhood in early 1972. I was 14 years old.

At that time the part of Staten Island I was from was white. It was almost exclusively populated by white people, mostly of Irish and Italian ancestry. I'm half Italian, half Irish, so I was the same as everyone else. The only black family I knew of near where I lived were the Williams'. I knew them because one of the Williams, Charlie, used to come around looking to get into ballgames, stuff like that. I didn't know Charlie Williams real well. He knew who I was, and I knew who he was, and we never had any problems that I remember. He was better friends with a few other boys from Richmondtown who were a year or two older than me.

I remember my dad was friendly with a black man with whom he used to umpire ballgames, a man named "Reese". I don't remember if Reese was his first name or his last name, but I still remember him and how he looked. He had kind of grey, kinky hair, and light brown skin. He was real nice and I remember him smiling a lot. One time dad invited him over, I think for a cookout or maybe just to have a couple of beers or drinks or something. And even though I didn't visit much with them when he was over, I remember him saying his walk up McKinley Ave. from the bus stop down on Richmond Rd., three blocks, the same three blocks I walked to and from the St. Patrick's School for 7 years, that he felt like "everybody he saw was looking at him",  made him feel like he didn't belong I guess. I don't remember what year that was, but I think it was probably before 1972. To me he was my dad's friend, so he was not really different from any other guy dad might have had over for a hot dog and a beer or something, but I surely was cognizant that he was a black guy. I think maybe then, in the late 60's. early 70's nobody said "colored" anymore, but I don't think anyone said African-American much, either. So I think I was thinking, "Wow, a black guy. I never really been around a black guy." I also remember thinking that it must have sucked walking up from the bus stop knowing everybody was looking at him like that.

And even though I was old enough in 1968, I was eleven, to understand the significance of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Newark riots, even though Staten Island isn't far from Newark, to an eleven year old, it might as well have been on the moon or in California, or someplace else really far away, not really a part of my world at all.

But when the Charles family had the audacity to endeavor to move to Oakwood Heights, it was the first time in my life that I am sure that I understood that racism wasn't just some far away thing in the deep south, it was something really bad and it was really close to home. I don't remember if they ever solved the Charles family home arson, but I don't think so. Knowing Staten Island, it was probably some mob guys or some blue collar guys who were petrified of what it would do to home values, stuff like that. That kind of racism, even at fourteen years old, seemed irrational to me and still does. I know that because of our own biases we tend to gravitate toward people like ourselves, and lacking any better information or understanding we might shy away from people who are different from us. I'm not talking about for some evil racist deep seeded hatred, but just from looking to surround ourselves with people we can relate to. All that being said, I KNEW, absolutely knew in my mind and in my heart that what was done to the Charles family was wrong. And I'd like to think stuff like that doesn't happen anymore, but I know that while things have gotten better, sometimes it still does.

For me personally, I was lucky in both my Marine Corps years, and especially in my UPS years, to know and befriend all kinds of people, that includes Hispanic/Mexican guys, Native-Americans, African-Americans, Asians, and even some Pacific Islanders. I consider myself blessed to know them, to have known them, and to call many of them "friend". I know that most of them have had to deal with prejudice and racism at various times. If they were my age, then they were fourteen, too, when the Charles family arson happened. Maybe stuff like that happened to some of them. I don't know of any specifically, but if it happened on Staten Island, it happened where they were. too. What I do know is, especially my UPS friends of color were some really classy, hard working, great people who I came to respect and be proud of knowing and to being able to call them a friend.

To any and all of those friends tonight I say this: whatever that shit was that you personally, or that your parents or families dealt with, I hope you never felt like it was coming from me. Because certainly intentionally it never was. And if you called me a friend then, then I'm still your friend now. And I also want you to know that I think it sucks that sometimes you might still get pulled over for driving while black, or have someone make prejudiced assumptions about you, or whatever. And I know some of you, well really all of you, you're either a mom or a dad, a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, or a husband or a wife to someone else who is black. And when you see what happened to George Floyd it pissed you off, or maybe brought back some really bad memories, or maybe it just scared you for your own son or brother or husband or father. And that is a shame in 2020 that that's still where we're at. I am sorry that we are. All that I can do is promise that I'll never behave that way to people, no matter what color they are, and if I see someone else doing so, I'll speak up and ask, "Hey, what the fuck are you doing to him? That shit ain't right. Stop it!" And then I'll call 911.

Life, from knowing you, has taught me we're all the same. There are smart people and there are some who are maybe not as smart. There are some really nice people in this world, and there are some real assholes. There are fully law-abiding people and there are criminal people, too. None of those attributes is a function of race. Yeah, there are good and bad and they come in big, small, young, old, white, black, yellow, brown, and red. It's not 1968 or 1972 anymore, at least not here are my house. You're my friends, and you're most welcome here at my house.

Why can't we all just get along?

6/3/2020 *NEW* Good Ol' Matty P Co-Hosts a Podcast w Wise Guy Talks!

Check out something new I'm doing. Doing what I like to do, talking! Me and Marine buddy Guy, of Wise Guy Talks, talking about the stuff in the news most of interest to us. The first (proof of concept?) episode, Episode 1of The Weekly Debrief, is up and available. 

This week we talk about the protests and riots following the murder of George Floyd. Enjoy!

The Weekly Debrief on Wise Guy Talks

The Weekly Debrief on YouTube

6/2/2020 Selected Snippets From My Twitter Feed - *I may post my commentary later

A US Marshall has died after being shot in the head in Nevada.
South Philadelphia Gun Store owner shoots&kills one of 3 or 4 armed looters who pointed gun at him first. Lock on gate cut with bolt cutters. Back door shattered&kicked in. Gun owner was on high alert after attempted break-in earlier in the week.

**SHOTS FIRED AT NYPD OFFICER IN BROOKLYN** South 9th St and Havemayer St. No injuries to officers. Suspect fled in vehicle and now has been bees stopped in #Manhattan at 39 Street and 9 Avenue.

LAPD Reports Officer-Involved Shooting Near The 10 Freeway.

NOW: A police officer appears to have been hit by a vehicle in NYC.

Rioters now throwing fireworks inside a police car in Providence, RI; The police cruiser is on fire

BREAKING VIDEO: Cops come under fire during protest in St. Louis; at least 4 officers were shot in the gun battle & the scene remains active.

At least 2 shootings reported on Las Vegas Strip; police officer confirmed shot outside Circus Circus hotel-casino.

DC Thugs Moving into HOMES! Homes are getting looted!! Mr President! Why isn’t anyone helping these families?????? People, where are your guns?

This bus was stopped yesterday at Broad St. & 3rd due for obstruction of traffic. There was a suspicion of supplying riot equipment to rioters. Detectives followed up w/a vehicle search today & found: bats, rocks, meat cleavers, axes, clubs & other projectiles. Charges pending. (Colombus, OH)

In case you've lost count, 7 cops have been shot and 3 have been run over by cars in the past 8 hours. I'm absolutely sick to my stomach!!!!

An 11pm curfew in Manhattan. What a joke. In the meantime, looters are tearing through the city, busting windows and destroying property while stealing (and have been for hours). Let’s see what happens at 11. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

Police officers are being targeted with vehicles in NYC, and it's not even making the news cycle. This is war against the civilized.

This woman’s sister was shot and killed by a protestor in Davenport, Iowa. The pain coming from her voice in this video is just heartbreaking.

The defense case against the two attorneys accused of throwing the Molotov cocktail just got even worse with an allegation that they were trying to distribute the bottles to others.

Military Police are mass arresting Dallas rioters after trapping them on a bridge and closing off both sides. The only way out is on a bus headed for straight for jail.

Officer down on Madison Avenue, NYC. This is a disgrace. This needs to stop. now.

My block in Washington, DC was chaos last night and full of rioters. Tonight, it’s totally peaceful. Thank you,  @realdonaldTrump

This video/tweet is a LIE This video does *not* include what happened right before he pulled his gun out A savage thug pulled out a brick & struck his supervisor in the back of the head He pulled his gun out to clear out the area Here's the full video: 

This deceptive video has been viewed millions of times and has increased hatred toward law enforcement officials Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has not applied a manipulated media label to the tweet.

40 minutes after 11pm curfew in NYC tonight and this is what Soho looks like. Intense looting at dozens of stores and police doing nothing

"Metro sources confirm to 8 News Now that the officer who was shot in the head near Circus Circus is on life support at UMC. The source said the officer was in a fight with another suspect when someone walked up behind and the shot the officer."

“I will fight to protect you, I am your President of law and order.” -@realDonaldTrump

Since Chris tweeted this, police officers have now been run over by cars in Buffalo and New York City, and four officers were shot in St. Louis.

Police just drug a peaceful looter out of Macy’s....

Feels like a very organized effort tonight - kids have turned up with hammers and big bags, they have spotters on the corners and cars ready to go. Group of about 500 kids now running up Fifth Ave looting whatever they want.

     

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