police murder megathread

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some Baltimore blacks got together and did some nice things today.  smashed a few police cruises, tosses eggs and glass bottles at riot police.  a few arrests here and there, but no major offensive from the police, probably trying to wait it out.  the cops had to charge on the protesters so the Orioles fans could leave the stadium after a baseball game.

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also, why do we always get this sh**t?  do the families get paid off?

The mayor’s remarks were accompanied by pleas from Freddie Gray’s family: “Can ya’ll please, please stop the violence?” said Fredericka Gray, saying her twin brother would not want it.

if Tweed were an urban black and had his 15 minutes of fame, I'd say something like "respond in the way in which you are comfortable.  calls for 'peace' are an offense against the concept of peace, the concept of "true Shalom".  the calls for such false 'peace' as calls for allowing the ruling order to rule.  respond in the way you see fit."

can't charge me for inciting a riot on that one, can they? besides, they probably wouldn't even if they could.

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some real damage in Baltimore today

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But I guess to immature people, cops, shopkeepers and innocent bystanders caught up in riots are sub-human pieces of garbage who deserve what they get, right?

each of those are their own category, which then plays on the "deserve", which is a complicated concept to begin with that really only exist in highly structured environments (such as sporting events, a game of chess), and not in life itself.

also the use of innocent, as in 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent bystander', is an ideologically loaded concept.   innocent of what?  only infants and animals are innocent in a general sense.

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The CVS at Penn & North is on fire.  I chaperoned a bus that picked up kids in that neighborhood one summer for the Maryland civic justice core program.  Every morning I waited by that CVS making sure all those kids got on that bus and every afternoon made sure they all got home.  They were good kids.  And now their neighborhood is burning.  So sad.   

if you're in Baltimore, post some pics or something, be an amateur journalist!

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Am I naive in wondering why they can't just have an unimpeachable, inoffensive MLK-style march? Even Fox News couldn't get hot and bothered about that.

those don't work. that's why the bourgeois liberals applaud them.  and the cops will punch you in the face irregardless.

besides, such 'peaceful' protest was criticized by many and many during the NYC protest against cops.  they ended up getting blamed for a couple homicides a week later.

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good article by Chris Hedges, interviewing T-Dubb-O of St Louis, MO.  this may answer the question of "what rioters want": it's a lot more complicated, and the problems run a lot deeper, than "stop police killing". 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rise_of_the_new_black_radicals_20150426

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meanwhile, the Agents of the State came to play ball tonight.  plenty of vids/pictures available of deployment of "less than lethal chemicals", there's a curfew, National Guard, State of Emergency, etc.

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Good for the rioters. Here's hoping this leads to substantive change

well, hopefully people "get more organized", and in trying to follow the underground blogs/social media I think they are.  

the larger point is, if there's enough 'agitation' out there to (figuratively) burn down a city every time a cop kills a black person with dubious justification, the state will have to react.  that reaction costs money, and makes politicians, especially the politicians like Obama and Rawlings-Blake, O'Malley and his Higher Aspirations, make difficult decisions... not that the most vile decision fazes Obama, if it ever did.

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http://www.nytimes.com/live/confrontation-in-baltimore/church-leaders-gang-members-meet/

You must be logged in to read this quote.

NYT is relying on its easy contacts in state & local govt, including police, and not seeking contacts with any of the black community groups (who aren't hard to find: Baltimore Bloc, Baltimore Algebra Project, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, KineticsLive, Baltimore United for Change would all be likely to give a quote or two if asked).

link

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some real damage in Baltimore today

Ernest felt the need to remove my statement (and assign 3 death points) telling (presumably, the people in the picture above) to "have fun" and avoid getting arrested.  which I don't understand at all, it can only in the most oblique fashion be read as an endorsement of violence of any kind.

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It may have been oblique, but it was a definite endorsement.

that pic derives from a video where footage begins by showing cops throw rocks/bottles at civilians.

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It may have been oblique, but it was a definite endorsement.

that pic derives from a video where footage begins by showing cops throw rocks/bottles at civilians.

And how is any average person who doesn't watch riot coverage 24/7 supposed to know that? If the context is relevant to how something is viewed, it's the poster's responsibility to provide it.

this is one Hell of a standard, basically dictated by Corporate media.  if the goal is to remove any "inciting a riot" content from the Forum I'm on board with that (and I try hard myself to tread the line). your standard goes way, way above any such concern and attempts to control the parameters of opinion.

why care what the average person thinks?  law enforcement is what we've got to worry about here.

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a plainclothes NYPD was shot in the head last night in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY.  he's in "critical but stable" condition.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-officer-shot-rushed-hospital-nyc-231850914.html

they have a suspect in custody.  he looks the part and has a criminal record, incl. attempted murder, but as of now they haven't found the weapon, and the suspect maintains his innocence.

http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-officer-shot-head-recovering-suspect-custody-064758928.html

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the family of NYPD officer Brian Moore elected to take him off of life support, and he has died.

link

the suspect, Demetrius Blackwell is in custody and maintains his innocence.  looks like he has a court-appointed lawyer at this time; hopefully, a "real lawyer" will step up to the plate if there is a case to be made.  Prosecution still does not have the weapon.

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video has surfaced of the 2012 death of Sgt. James Brown, 26.  Brown choked to death in a Texas jail while serving a two-day jail sentence.  he was restrained and forced to wear a mask.  he said some version of "I can't breathe" at least 20 times, but SWAT team members refused to removed the mask.  he had previously served two tours of duty in Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/20/sgt_james_brown_26_survived_two

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this site tracks law enforcement killings.  they have counted 510 homicides by law enforcement in the USA so far in 2015, right on pace with 2014's 1100.