Is America burning? (Black Lives Matter protests, civil unrest and riots 2020)

[cupid_stunt]

I do find the Mayor of Washington DC trolling Trump mildly amusing, commissioning 'Black Lives Matter' to be painted on the road leading to the White House and re-naming it 'Black Lives Matter Plaza', that must piss Trump right off.

Last night protesters were climbing up the sign-posts, to get photos of themselves with the new road signs.

 

[quimcunx]

Another Robert Evans podcast recommendation. Behind the Bastards - the man who teaches our cops to kill.

His name is david Grossman and he calls his area of, um, academia killology.

 

[teqniq]

But it's OK to 'share' tweets that wrongly incriminate an inocent person in the assault of three children?

Yup ok I made a mistake. At the time I thought it was legit. I read down the comments and nothing seemed to suggest to the contrary. It wasn't until the next day when Yossarian posted up the tweet of the actual guy that I realised it was wrong.

 

[Orang Utan]

they've said they're sorry

What does this mean?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Wasn't sure where to put this, so I'll leave it here. Report on deaths in custody in the US from 1960 to 2010 that might be of interest.

The absolute numbers are enormous, including an explosion of violence against young black men in the late 1960s. The figures tell a tale of things getting somewhat better by the 1980s (from an absolutely enormous peak) but not changing much since then. (Quintile refers to the income group of the district not the victims, so something very specific happened in the late 60s wrt the state murder of young black men in richer bits of the USA during that period.)

Trends in US Deaths Due to Legal Intervention Among Black and White Men, Age 15-34 Years, by County Income Level: 1960-2010 | Harvard Public Health Review: A Student Publication

That's appalling enough. This rather staggered me, though, relating to those figures. Such things are not even reported in some states.

A March 2015 report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) concludes that the current Arrest-Related Death (ARD) program — which aims to track persons who die in custody in America at the state level — typically only counts about half, at best, of all deaths in police custody, and the coverage rate may be as low as 36 percent. Although that estimate increased in 2011 to somewhere between 59 percent and 69 percent, the “current ARD program methodology does not allow a census of all law enforcement homicides in the United States,” researchers conclude.

The BJS’s 2015 “Data Quality Profile” report shows that some states have not reported statistics to the federal government in a given year between 2003 and 2011, and a few states have not participated at all.

Deaths in police custody in the United States: Research review - Journalist's Resource

So while those absolute figures in the Harvard review are really high, they do not represent all deaths in custody, and the persistent level of deaths in custody for young black men at around three times higher than that for young white men is likely an underestimate.

 

[Orang Utan]

 

[SheilaNaGig]

I want to flag up non-physical police brutality in the US. These terrrible murders of black people and other POC that are the focus of the protests, the physical beatings and assaults, these are only the loudest and most explosive examples. We mustn’t forget that.

#BlackBehindBars: Sparking a conversation on the black wrongful conviction experience in the U.S. - Innocence Project

www.innocenceproject.org

To be a black person in America is to be seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder and three times more likely to be wrongly convicted of sexual assault as compared to white people.
To be a black exoneree in America means:
You are 222 of the 362 people proved innocent by DNA
You are 84 of the 164 survivors of death row (Death Penalty Information Center)
You spent an average of 10.7 years behind bars for a crime you didn’t commit vs. 7.4 for whites exonerees (National Registry of Exonerations)

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/RaceReport2.7.pdf

Black people are 7 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than white people.

African Americans imprisoned for murder are more likely to be innocent if they were convicted of killing white victims.

On average, black murder exonerees spend 3 years longer in prison before release than white exonerees.

This excellent piece of investigative journalism presented in a podcast digs down into the details around the case of Curtis Flowers, a black man tried six times for a multiple murder by a vindictive and corrupt white DA. It’s a good example of how easy it is for racism to prevail, and how hard it is for an innocent black man to be heard.

In the Dark, Season 2 (Curtis Flowers) | Podcast | APM Reports

We investigate the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.

www.apmreports.org

The Hurricane Tapes is another podcast that unwraps a similarly story.

BBC World Service - The Hurricane Tapes - Downloads

Podcast downloads for The Hurricane Tapes

www.bbc.co.uk

Krishna Maharaj - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ricky Jackson and Ronnie and Wiley Bridgeman - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Joseph Sledge - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Etc etc etc.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I want to flag up non-physical police brutality in the US. These terrrible murders of black people and other POC that are the focus of the protests, the physical beatings and assaults, these are only the loudest and most explosive examples. We mustn’t forget that.

#BlackBehindBars: Sparking a conversation on the black wrongful conviction experience in the U.S. - Innocence Project

www.innocenceproject.org

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/RaceReport2.7.pdf

This excellent piece of investigative journalism presented in a podcast digs down into the details around the case of Curtis Flowers, a black man tried six times for a multiple murder by a vindictive and corrupt white DA. It’s a good example of how easy it is for racism to prevail, and how hard it is for an innocent black man to be heard.

In the Dark, Season 2 (Curtis Flowers) | Podcast | APM Reports

We investigate the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.

www.apmreports.org

The Hurricane Tapes is another podcast that unwraps a similarly story.

BBC World Service - The Hurricane Tapes - Downloads

Podcast downloads for The Hurricane Tapes

www.bbc.co.uk

Krishna Maharaj - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ricky Jackson and Ronnie and Wiley Bridgeman - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Joseph Sledge - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Etc etc etc.

And to pile a layer on top of that, there is the phenomenon in the US of 'overcharging' whereby you're threatened with an enormous jail term in order to get you to plead guilty in return for a shorter one. Ripe for miscarriages of justice, many of which will never be detected.

 

[xenon]

I want to flag up non-physical police brutality in the US. These terrrible murders of black people and other POC that are the focus of the protests, the physical beatings and assaults, these are only the loudest and most explosive examples. We mustn’t forget that.

#BlackBehindBars: Sparking a conversation on the black wrongful conviction experience in the U.S. - Innocence Project

www.innocenceproject.org

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/RaceReport2.7.pdf

This excellent piece of investigative journalism presented in a podcast digs down into the details around the case of Curtis Flowers, a black man tried six times for a multiple murder by a vindictive and corrupt white DA. It’s a good example of how easy it is for racism to prevail, and how hard it is for an innocent black man to be heard.

In the Dark, Season 2 (Curtis Flowers) | Podcast | APM Reports

We investigate the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.

www.apmreports.org

The Hurricane Tapes is another podcast that unwraps a similarly story.

BBC World Service - The Hurricane Tapes - Downloads

Podcast downloads for The Hurricane Tapes

www.bbc.co.uk

Krishna Maharaj - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ricky Jackson and Ronnie and Wiley Bridgeman - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Joseph Sledge - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Etc etc etc.

Just reading the start of your post made me think to link to that podcast. It's disturbing. The same DA procecuting the same guy over and over. The evidence lost, ignored. Fascinating and weird glimpse into the endemic racism in the US justice system.

 

[editor]

Fabulous public humiliation of a lying piece of republican shit Meghan McCain Admitted She Wasn't In New York After Tweeting That Her Neighborhood Looked Like A "War Zone" Due To The BLM Protests

 

[teqniq]

Good thread on the protests yesterday, mainly focused on events in London:



Two important points:

 

[The39thStep]

I like this little comment re the CIA from the Portuguese CP

In the same vein, the president-tycoon registered "antifa", that is, anti-fascism, on the list of terrorist organizations. A Florida congressman, Matt Gaetz, rushed to celebrate Trump's decision by calling for "hunt [antifascists] like we do in the Middle East." It is obvious that the anti-terrorism link is absurd (or the CIA would have already armed them), but it is ambiguous enough to extrajudicially arrest any opponent.

 

[scifisam]

I do find the Mayor of Washington DC trolling Trump mildly amusing, commissioning 'Black Lives Matter' to be painted on the road leading to the White House and re-naming it 'Black Lives Matter Plaza', that must piss Trump right off.

Last night protesters were climbing up the sign-posts, to get photos of themselves with the new road signs.

I've seen some people allege that this is "virtue signalling" and means nothing. It doesn't seem that way to me, because it sends out a really big signal, nothing insignificant, and it's a really risky move for the mayor to take - virtue signalling usually doesn't cost you anything, and this has the potential to cost the mayor big time.

But I'm white, so I appreciate that my take on this might be wrong.

 

[NoXion]

I've seen some people allege that this is "virtue signalling" and means nothing. It doesn't seem that way to me, because it sends out a really big signal, nothing insignificant, and it's a really risky move for the mayor to take - virtue signalling usually doesn't cost you anything, and this has the potential to cost the mayor big time.

But I'm white, so I appreciate that my take on this might be wrong.

Even if it is "virtue signalling", I think it's highly significant that it's being taken that far.

As an aside, I fucking hate that phrase because although it may have had benign beginnings, it's since been taken up by sociopathic cunts everywhere as a way of dismissing any expression of support for good causes.

 

[Orang Utan]

Even if it is "virtue signalling", I think it's highly significant that it's being taken that far.

As an aside, I fucking hate that phrase because although it may have had benign beginnings, it's since been taken up by sociopathic cunts everywhere as a way of dismissing any expression of support for good causes.

It’s very telling too, they cannot possibly believe in people’s sincerity

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Even if it is "virtue signalling", I think it's highly significant that it's being taken that far.

As an aside, I fucking hate that phrase because although it may have had benign beginnings, it's since been taken up by sociopathic cunts everywhere as a way of dismissing any expression of support for good causes.

She's a politician, mind. The thing that gets called 'virtue signalling' is pretty much a politician's stock in trade. So in that, she will be mindful of the people who voted for her, more of whom are black than white, and a large majority of whom did not vote for Trump.

 

[Mation]

I do find the Mayor of Washington DC trolling Trump mildly amusing, commissioning 'Black Lives Matter' to be painted on the road leading to the White House and re-naming it 'Black Lives Matter Plaza', that must piss Trump right off.

Last night protesters were climbing up the sign-posts, to get photos of themselves with the new road signs.

I think it's fucking brilliant. Made me bark with laughter.

(Yes, with all the caveats.)

 

[scifisam]

She's a politician, mind. The thing that gets called 'virtue signalling' is pretty much a politician's stock in trade. So in that, she will be mindful of the people who voted for her, more of whom are black than white, and a large majority of whom did not vote for Trump.

But she might want to move beyond being Mayor, like most politicians do, and she'll be getting an awful lot more death threats than usual because of this stand. It wasn't just a random square she chose, either.

But like I said, I could well be wrong.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

But she might want to move beyond being Mayor, like most politicians do, and she'll be getting an awful lot more death threats than usual because of this stand. It wasn't just a random square she chose, either.

But like I said, I could well be wrong.

I'm not knocking it. But I'm always a little hesitant over politicians joining in like this, and I don't know enough about Bowser to comment on her past record. It seems it's complicated by the fact that the mayor of DC doesn't have the same kind of power that other mayors have. In some ways that makes standing up to Trump easier as there's less at stake. In that sense, 'trolling' is a pretty good term for it.

 

[Mation]

I'm not knocking it. But I'm always a little hesitant over politicians joining in like this, and I don't know enough about Bowser to comment on her past record. It seems it's complicated by the fact that the mayor of DC doesn't have the same kind of power that other mayors have. In some ways that makes standing up to Trump easier as there's less at stake. In that sense, 'trolling' is a pretty good term for it.

It's not complicated.

Black woman trolls Trump. Visible from space.

What's not to love?

Yes, yes. ALL of the everything else that needs doing, but come on. This is funny as fuck and I need to spend some time not crying.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'm not knocking it. But I'm always a little hesitant over politicians joining in like this, and I don't know enough about Bowser to comment on her past record. It seems it's complicated by the fact that the mayor of DC doesn't have the same kind of power that other mayors have. In some ways that makes standing up to Trump easier as there's less at stake. In that sense, 'trolling' is a pretty good term for it.

You're not hesitant at all, you leap right in and confess your ignorance

 

[Mation]

You're not hesitant at all, you leap right in and confess your ignorance

Please don't.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

.

 

[Pickman's model]

Please don't.

It's difficult from my pov to see what post brought to the table although in retrospect I might have worded it differently

 

[Lord Camomile]

Occurred to me earlier, 4th July could be a problem this year

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Mayors of DC have always been out there, in the 90's one was done for crack and I think they re-elected him. Crazy fucking town. Been twice and really liked it.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Mayors of DC have always been out there, in the 90's one was done for crack and I think they re-elected him. Crazy fucking town. Been twice and really liked it.

Marion Barry?

 

[scifisam]

Occurred to me earlier, 4th July could be a problem this year

My friends in LA are preparing to batten down the hatches.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Marion Barry?

Legend.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Legend.

A shame Rob Ford didn't last longer, they could have made for a dream transamerican ticket