Our over-militarized police forces need to be reformed! It will likely take some defunding, and converting to more community based law enforcement organizations. This won’t happen overnight, but it has to happen! And, it has to happen in conjunction with reforming our court system, and prison systems. Private prisons are an abomination. No one should profit off the incarceration of others. These are all major aspects of America’s systemic racism. We can no longer turn a blind eye to these injustices. It’s way past time that we live up to the convictions of our Declaration of Independence, and show that we all truly believe that : “ALL men are created equal.” — YUR
Stop the U.S. of Lyncherdom, Colltalers
‘Get your knees off our necks.‘ The eloquence of Rev. Al Sharpton’s eulogy of George Floyd, choked to death by a white Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, was appropriate to match the public horror about his death. Hundreds of thousands across the U.S. and the world marched in protest.
The massive 11-day rallies are not only a response to the horrifying 8:46min video of Floyd’s killing but also a demand for change, redress, renewal of our tenets as human beings. Not surprisingly, the police behaved badly all along, arresting and beating people up. So now there’s talk of defunding it.
The crowd also paid respects to Breonna Taylor, whose 27th birthday was Friday, and countless of young black lives cut short by police brutality and cruel social inequality now reigning in the U.S. Breonna, an African-American medical technician, was shot by police…
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Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Thanks, Uncle! It’s way, way past time for reforms. I sure hope this momentum continues and we have real change.
Enough already. Yes we had a bad cop…but the victim also had a rap sheet as long as your arm. Not saying there was any excuse for what happened to him, but he certainly wasn’t a saint (he also spent 10 years in prison). You don’t see anything about all this in the press, or in the media though.
You’re right, Uncle; it’s almost as if what’s actually written on the Constitution may be taken literally only if it bangs my drums so to speak; otherwise, I’ll spin it any way I want. Thanks for the reblogging. WC
You’re welcome, Joy! Change has to be meaningful. Lip service just will not do. — YUR
I’d say it’s because his record/past is irrelevant to what happened to him, Weyman. An “aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon” charge/conviction might technically be considered a “violent crime”, but he did not actually commit a violent crime, as he did not fire the gun. And, the whole thing happened 13 years earlier, and he served a five year sentence for the crime.
The police’s job is to investigate crime, and – when necessary – arrest individuals they believe committed a crime. They’re not there to be judge, jury and executioner. The only times they might be authorized to use deadly force is when a suspect is directing a deadly weapon at them, or at other citizens. And, even then it’s supposed to be as a last resort. There has to be “imminent danger”. An unarmed individual, who was already handcuffed, and was not resisting arrest, does/did not present an “imminent danger”.
And, George Floyd’s death was more the straw that broke the camel’s back. There had been numerous incidents of cops – and ex-cops – killing black people in the last two to three months. And, over the years there have been countless cases of police – and other “law enforcement” personnel- killing people of color, either intentionally, or due to callous indifference for their lives. It finally came to a head. And, it simply cannot be written off as “one bad apple”.
Yes, he was not a saint. But, who among us is? The police – unfortunately – have a sordid history of racial bias and very often violent abuse. Maybe I’m naive, but I’d still like to believe that there are more good cops than bad. But, a system that cannot – or will not – effectively deal with those bad cops is seriously flawed, and is in need of serious reform.
— YUR
Well said! Thank you for standing up!
If I read correctly, Mr Floyd had a criminal record of sorts.
If I read the Bible correctly, Jesus also had a record. The powers-that-be deemed him a dangerous criminal: a danger to their authority, and therefore, to their power and their social order.
I don’t know about defunding police departments, but your correspondents pointed out two other issues that need revocation:
1. Private prisons, which have to be unconstitutional. Only the government has the authority to hold people incarcerated.
2. And, police departments taking surplus military equipment (armored vehicles, heavy weapons, specialized sniper weapons, etc) from the military. Unless the the police plan on going to war against the citizenry [us], or if we’re facing imminent invasion from the Russians, no equipment of that sort belongs in civilian hands.
Our president horn-swaggled the secretary of defense into bringing units of the 82nd Airborne into the Washington area. That unit, and a few more like it, have only one purpose, to be prepared for major combat against a foreign enemy. Exactly how many citizens in this country are foreign enemies ?
UR,
One point: Think on the so called police unions!!! All over the Country these”unions”
protect the “bad apples” on the force¿¿
This, of course, allows racism & military style
violence to be almost systemic & fester…..also,
and this may sound strange & silly compared
to the above, but instead of defunding the
the police, pay them more considering the risks they take…….In turn, this would eventually lead
to more highly qualified applicants making the cut to be on the force…..believe it or not I still
have my Top Secret SCI Clearance for the Federal Gov. untill 3/22 …..why I bring this up is
I don’t expect the new police canidates to wait 5 – 6 months to get this kind of complete background check & Clearance(the cost is prohibitive) but from my nephew, a retired Capitan on my hometowns police force, he said
the above procedure is lacking & leads to mistakes in the selection process**^
Keep up the good work☆
Byyyyy
,
PS: Was that more than “one point”??
Thank you, lwc, for bringing up the point on Jesus Christ. I was going to cite that in my reply, but I thought it might offend a good number of people. And, with my Secular Humanist/Pantheist hybrid thinking, I thought some might think I was just taking a shot at Christianity.
I think – to a fairly large extent – we are already living in a police state, here in the U.S. Which at least partly explains why our police departments have become WAY too militarized. I believe that they think that we are all potential “domestic terrorists”. Or, at least that’s how they choose to think about us. They have been smart about it. They’ve been doing it incrementally over the last 20 years. Almost always citing terrorist/security reasons. And, because the majority of Americans completely bought into the official narrative of 9/11, most people will accept almost anything under the guise of “security”.
Don’t even get me started on this current administration! — YUR
Thanks, Ken. Yes, the police unions would put up a lot of resistance to ANY form of change. Paying better candidates more could be a solution, I suppose. Overall, it’s a very sticky situation! — YUR