jesus, justice, and everyone else wept [contextly_sidebar id="1nEm8vZhvvgAWJwiwer9xhbq7iXHrYj5"]Goddammit, Baltimore. We were so proud of you, seriously, for being nearly the only people to try some police officers for their bad habit of killing people. Except that you have a really complicated trial situation where you needed to line some dominos up and convict one guy first so you could then convict all the others in the completely senseless and avoidable death of Freddie Gray. But then you gotta go and mess it all up by having a mistrial for the first cop tried, and now we have to go read some really boring stories in places like WaPo and the
If you watch the video, he was speaking broken English, but he understood enough to respond to the cops. He was never violent and made no sudden moves. He was trying to tell them his English was limited and to point out his son's house. The problem is, the cops had zero interest in listening to him. They just saw a brown guy in a white neighborhood they wanted to beat down. This wasn't about language. it was about a visitor who didn't know that brown guys don't take walks on the public sidewalk in affluent white neighborhoods in Alabammy.
His son is an educated guy, with a nice house, a beautiful family and a professional career. He probably thought he was actually entitled to peacefully walk down the street in his son's neighborhood. They showed him.
I weasled off a jury because I said I didn't think it was fair to send a man to jail or prison for repeated traffic violations (what was jail supposed to accomplish? Improve his driving skills?)
the dude in the background looks like a lovechild of Bill Wyman and George Harrison, if that were possible. Sideburn pompadour dude looks menacing as does the white guy wearing the Asiatic smock and hat, despite his fair and friendly countenance
Earlier blog entry about the lead-laced water in Flint, MI. Freddie Gray had severe lead-paint based poisoning, so much that his family received a settlement, which is very common in Baltimore. Lead poisoning can lead to pretty dysfunctional behavioral issues, which added to being poor, can lead to very unfortunate run ins with the cops... Flint's creating their own batch of dysfunctional Freddie Gray's...
I would submit that Americans have a high collective tolerance for govt-authorised violence/killing. Americans are largely silent re: the most egregious cases of killings by cops, e.g., mistaken SWAT raids, just as Americans are largely silent re: civilians killed by military, dismissively termed 'collateral damage.'
This might be different if more Americans were aware of the actual numbers of people killed by cops or the actual numbers of innocent civilians killed by military "spreading freedom and democracy" with bombs and bullets.
Danny Glover is a liberal's wet dream anyway (except in "Witness"--that was scary.)
and incompetence also too.
is that like a "hung parliament"?(nudge nudge, wink wink...)
If you watch the video, he was speaking broken English, but he understood enough to respond to the cops. He was never violent and made no sudden moves. He was trying to tell them his English was limited and to point out his son's house. The problem is, the cops had zero interest in listening to him. They just saw a brown guy in a white neighborhood they wanted to beat down. This wasn't about language. it was about a visitor who didn't know that brown guys don't take walks on the public sidewalk in affluent white neighborhoods in Alabammy.
His son is an educated guy, with a nice house, a beautiful family and a professional career. He probably thought he was actually entitled to peacefully walk down the street in his son's neighborhood. They showed him.
I weasled off a jury because I said I didn't think it was fair to send a man to jail or prison for repeated traffic violations (what was jail supposed to accomplish? Improve his driving skills?)
my faaaavorite! (especially his antismoking campaign)
the dude in the background looks like a lovechild of Bill Wyman and George Harrison, if that were possible. Sideburn pompadour dude looks menacing as does the white guy wearing the Asiatic smock and hat, despite his fair and friendly countenance
should I let'im frisk me first?
Not being well versed on 60s British rock...I didn't understand this joke threat...AT ALL. However, after some wikipedia....golf clap to this joke.
Earlier blog entry about the lead-laced water in Flint, MI. Freddie Gray had severe lead-paint based poisoning, so much that his family received a settlement, which is very common in Baltimore. Lead poisoning can lead to pretty dysfunctional behavioral issues, which added to being poor, can lead to very unfortunate run ins with the cops... Flint's creating their own batch of dysfunctional Freddie Gray's...
White cat privilege!
I would submit that Americans have a high collective tolerance for govt-authorised violence/killing. Americans are largely silent re: the most egregious cases of killings by cops, e.g., mistaken SWAT raids, just as Americans are largely silent re: civilians killed by military, dismissively termed 'collateral damage.'
This might be different if more Americans were aware of the actual numbers of people killed by cops or the actual numbers of innocent civilians killed by military "spreading freedom and democracy" with bombs and bullets.
J. Edna Hoover's G-Men plotted with local cops to kill Black Panthers, e.g., Fred Hampton in Chicago.
"protect and serve" - "... liberty and justice for all"
Those are just cynical sound bites.
"Racists destroy their own humanity."
- - James Baldwin
And you have a sympathetic simpleton or two on a jury, which... in my experience is probable.