I'm surprised no one has made a thread about this yet. Media in my area has been consumed with corona, but I heard about George Floyd's death through the drag queens I follow. The video brought me to tears for a multitude of reasons: tears of sorrow for that man's life; tears of anger at the police who so callously took it; tears of gratitude and guilt for said gratitude for being privileged enough to be of a complexion where this would not happen to me.
Obviously, I don't know all the details of the situation, beyond what the media has reported. However, no matter what someone has done, a death on the streets like that is unwarranted. Whether or not someone was resisting arrest earlier, that does not give you license to punish them. Police should not hold grudges against the citizens they encounter, and should not take liberties with their power. Power is entrusted to protect, not to be abused. He was under control. There was no reason for his neck to be knelt on, let alone for such a prolonged time, let alone to continue after he has stopped moving altogether.
My country is not clean in this either. Like America, the treatment received by minorities, particularly Indigenous Australians, is often both shameful and criminal. The most well-known case of this was the (you need an account to see links). People in other countries, do you have similar issues with POC or minorities experiencing this sort of treatment? What can we, as a global society, do to make things better?
I�m furious and tired of this constant cycle that we seem to go through in the United States, where it feels like PoC are being murdered by police on a regular basis, protests/riots break out, and then absolutely nothing happens to change our terribly corrupt and broken system. How can we, as citizens, feel safe? When the people we are supposed to trust to help and save us when things go wrong, abuse their power to murder citizens? Or stand back and do nothing when they see injustices?
The difference between the protests occurring now and the protests regarding the stay at home order are night and day.
There were white people with AUTOMATIC WEAPONS at the stay at home protests. These protests lasted for days.
On the first day of the Minneapolis protests, riot police launched tear gas at protesters. The PRESIDENT is encouraging the shooting of protesters at the Minneapolis proests.
How are we supposed to have our voices heard and listened to, to incite change, when PoC are immediately answered like this?
I watched the video yesterday. It disgusted me and made me so sad. At first, I thought it was just incompetence and a lack of correct training, but the more I watched it the more I saw the complete neglect to check on George, slowly allowing him to die. This was no accident. It is sad that we still live in a world with so much hate and violence
No one has posted about it because this consistent disregard for black/poc life & overt/covert racism is just another day in America as it has been since for centuries. It doesn't even take a break during a pandemic. Extrajudicial executions (or let's just call them lynchings, as they are) should be a disturbing part of American history but they have been dragged into the current day. When compared to the apprehension of the Dylann Roof's and, more recently, Peter Manfredonia's of our country, it's exhausting to witness. Awareness is not enough anymore - they have killed children (Tamir Rice) and that wasn't enough. So many names. Two men now dead after crying out 'I can't breathe' six years apart.
The people of Minneapolis and George Floyd's family and friends deserve justice but this is a tenuous battle between the state and the people right now.
And solutions... I don't know if you can cure the festering disease of racism and its twin bias without actively attempting doing so in your daily life. This combination is made worse when you are in a position of authority. How do you dismantle one of the most enduring social constructions?
More generally, policing in America needs an overhaul or this will continue to present a danger to everyone, poc or not. I wish I had answers.
The riots and the buildings that have been burnt down, killing 1 and injuring another, are counter productive in my opinion. When you can carelessly murder people in protest over someone being carelessly murdered you are no better. Destroying and looting your city in protest is not the answer.
No one has posted about it because this consistent disregard for black/poc life & overt/covert racism is just another day in America as it has been since for centuries. It doesn't even take a break during a pandemic. Extrajudicial executions (or let's just call them lynchings, as they are) should be a disturbing part of American history but they have been dragged into the current day. When compared to the apprehension of the Dylann Roof's and, more recently, Peter Manfredonia's of our country, it's exhausting to witness. Awareness is not enough anymore - they have killed children (Tamir Rice) and that wasn't enough. So many names. Two men now dead after crying out 'I can't breathe' six years apart.
The people of Minneapolis and George Floyd's family and friends deserve justice but this is a tenuous battle between the state and the people right now.
And solutions... I don't know if you can cure the festering disease of racism and its twin bias without actively attempting doing so in your daily life. This combination is made worse when you are in a position of authority. How do you dismantle one of the most enduring social constructions?
More generally, policing in America needs an overhaul or this will continue to present a danger to everyone, poc or not. I wish I had answers.
I often feel more afraid around police than I do protected, like I'm going to do something wrong and be charged for it, and I am a white, CIS-gendered male. I cannot begin to imagine how that feeling would be exponentially increased for POC. This video showed up on my instagram feed, and I simply couldn't watch it.
I'm in Canada and even my knowledge of politics here is limited, but even an uneducated plebe like me can see that the president's tweets are absolutely asinine; how should he (let alone ANYONE) be allowed to speak like this? How is it even possible for him to be in office? Sure, the economy "iS dOiNg GrEaT", but he is a garbage human being and needs to be removed from office.
Change needs to happen, but it's very insurmountable for this uneducated plebe to even begin to process where it needs to start. In my small opinion, it starts with the president. He is a very poor excuse for a leader of any country, let alone a G7 country.
@(you need an account to see links), maybe not but it's really a case of crowd theory and deindividuation in action - the rioters become symbiotic.
Collins (2008) has previously referred to the strategic role of looting, which can act as a 'mass recruiter and momentum sustainers, without which the riot would come to an end once the police chose to withdraw. From a Durkeimian perspective, looting is a 'symbolic expression of membership' (McDonald, 2012).
Again, not defending, but it's an interesting case study of the psychology of rioting.
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@(you need an account to see links), your last bit is right - I think I feel all talked out irl from my perspective living in the states. I appreciate your insight as a neighboring country and this should not be an indictment against people like your dad. Law enforcement exists to protect and serve their communities. But high stress, poor training, some very biased individuals, what a recipe for disaster.
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"Riot is the language of the unheard." -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror. But the royal terrorists, the terrorists by the grace of God and the law, are in practice brutal, disdainful, and mean, in theory cowardly, secretive, and deceitful, and in both respects disreputable." -- Karl Marx
We look back in history and praise and applaud those that fought against injustice, and tyranny. You can only allow someone to punch you in the arm so many times before asking them politely to stop is no longer the appropriate response.
“In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.” -- Stokely Carmichael
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Originally Posted by gjniev
