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.
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