14 votes

Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 15

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Tags: usa, recurring.daily, george floyd, police.brutality

This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

23 comments

  1. [2]
    moocow1452
    Link
    NPR: Supreme Court Will Not Reexamine Qualified Immunity For Police. This was a long shot to begin with, but it's still pretty disappointing that it's up to Congress to fix the thing. Hopefully...

    NPR: Supreme Court Will Not Reexamine Qualified Immunity For Police.

    This was a long shot to begin with, but it's still pretty disappointing that it's up to Congress to fix the thing. Hopefully this isn't Sandy Hook all over again...

    14 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. moocow1452
        Link Parent
        I agree, and the Supreme Court might argue that it's not their place to undo it. That would be hypocritical, since they made the damn thing and it would totally be in their right to say "My Bad,"...

        I agree, and the Supreme Court might argue that it's not their place to undo it. That would be hypocritical, since they made the damn thing and it would totally be in their right to say "My Bad," and undo it, but I guess Congress has to get involved since it's a little more controversial than "you need a real reason to fire a queer person."

        5 votes
  2. [6]
    patience_limited
    (edited )
    Link
    If you're living in a larger U.S. metro, you may not be aware of the scope of rural and suburban support for Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, and policing justice movements. Mass demonstrations...

    If you're living in a larger U.S. metro, you may not be aware of the scope of rural and suburban support for Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, and policing justice movements. Mass demonstrations are happening even in long-time bastions of white supremacy, and may reflect weakening Trump support in the November elections.

    13 votes
    1. [2]
      rogue_cricket
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      A bit of a tangent, but I'm Canadian and even my city of no more than 75,000 people (EDIT: which I will note is whiter than the famously-white Maine) has held at least three large peaceful rallies...

      A bit of a tangent, but I'm Canadian and even my city of no more than 75,000 people (EDIT: which I will note is whiter than the famously-white Maine) has held at least three large peaceful rallies about police violence. Solidarity with Americans is a factor, but it's also a bit of its own thing with our own local issues. This is spurring international movements.

      Protests here don't really help the situation in the US directly, but a lot of the ideas relating to de-funding, abolishing, or restructuring police are getting talk in my area. The specifics and politics are a bit different, but a lot of the ideas for addressing them are the same.

      I will admit that starting in about March, I had really begun harboring some... anger, I guess, against America and the Americans who let it get to the point it's at. It does affect me and my life to some degree; the idea of a military superpower that we share a border with sliding into full fascism is pretty horrifying and it's not like I can vote or protest there. So even with non-Republican "well I didn't vote for him!" Americans the defeatism was very frustrating, which was maybe unfair but it's how I felt.

      Seeing these protests has really reinvigorated me. I have more interests in common with people who are for social justice across borders than I have in common with any any Canadian ethno-nationalist or whatever.
      We all deserve better.

      9 votes
      1. kfwyre
        Link Parent
        It goes both ways too! I'm an American who has for years now been trying to prevent my personal slide into full-fledged defeatism. Seeing huge displays of support from people, including many who...

        It goes both ways too! I'm an American who has for years now been trying to prevent my personal slide into full-fledged defeatism. Seeing huge displays of support from people, including many who do not even live in my country, is invigorating. Even outside of the protests, just the idea that these issues matter to people around the world is powerful.

        I have gotten most of my news about the protest from Tildes, and much of it has come from users who don't live in the US! I know there's already a US-centric bias in news in general, but these protests don't feel like products of that usual imbalance. Instead, it feels like people are recognizing a significant human injustice and choosing to affirm the reality of it, worldwide. As much as I hate the circumstances that brought about the protests themselves, they have brought about a forward motion against my country's institutional racism the likes of which I've not seen in my lifetime.

        It has made me aware that, as an American, I need to do more to openly support causes and injustices elsewhere too. Just as the world is the wind at my back right now, so too can I be the same for others in their times of need.

        5 votes
    2. [4]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. [3]
        patience_limited
        Link Parent
        Here's your dose of hope that humans can see reason. Anecdata: a friend of mine in Florida, a life-long Republican-leaning independent who voted for Trump, has expressed deep regrets and is...

        Here's your dose of hope that humans can see reason. Anecdata: a friend of mine in Florida, a life-long Republican-leaning independent who voted for Trump, has expressed deep regrets and is planning to vote blue, no matter who, this year.

        3 votes
        1. [2]
          Adys
          Link Parent
          Unfortunately I fear that if Biden loses this year, Democrats will be far more at fault than Republicans.

          Unfortunately I fear that if Biden loses this year, Democrats will be far more at fault than Republicans.

          3 votes
          1. cfabbro
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            I don't entirely buy that. The Republican efforts at voter suppression and disenfranchisement have been severely ramping up in recent years and IMO those are far more likely to be responsible if...

            I don't entirely buy that. The Republican efforts at voter suppression and disenfranchisement have been severely ramping up in recent years and IMO those are far more likely to be responsible if Biden loses than anything the Dems have done. See:

            Supreme Court takes a giant step backward on voter rights

            Southern U.S. states have closed 1,200 polling places in recent years: rights group

            Judge allows Georgia to purge 309K voter registrations overnight

            Republicans to purge over 500,000 voters in two key 2020 states

            Etc.

            Thankfully the news is not all bad though, as the Dems and ACLU are fighting back:

            Wisconsin appeals court overturns ruling ordering voter purge

            Court Rules Tennessee Must Provide Absentee Ballots to Every Eligible Voter For All Elections in 2020 Due to COVID-19

            The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Michigan, Arnold & Porter, and Goodman Acker filed a lawsuit today challenging Michigan’s requirement that absentee ballots be received by Election Day in order to be counted.

            9 votes
  3. [4]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [3]
      Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      I succesfully avoided the internet for most of the weekend and managed to detox a bit from all the news. Reading up on the BLM developments, I was unaware of the Rayshard Brooks incident.

      I succesfully avoided the internet for most of the weekend and managed to detox a bit from all the news. Reading up on the BLM developments, I was unaware of the Rayshard Brooks incident.

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        For those looking to try to get a complete picture of the situation. This NYT article is the best I have found so far:...

        For those looking to try to get a complete picture of the situation. This NYT article is the best I have found so far: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/videos-rayshard-brooks-shooting-atlanta-police.html

        After being shot at with the stolen taser (which missed), the officer then intentionally ditching his own taser to shoot the fleeing Mr. Brooks in the back with his pistol is pretty indefensible, IMO.

        9 votes
        1. moonbathers
          Link Parent
          I've had to stop myself from reading about this case because the amount of people saying he deserved to die is driving me insane. Where's your humanity? We're not barbarians and the situation...

          I've had to stop myself from reading about this case because the amount of people saying he deserved to die is driving me insane. Where's your humanity? We're not barbarians and the situation could have been resolved without killing him.

          4 votes
  4. patience_limited
    (edited )
    Link
    Also, another municipality's SWAT officers have resigned their paramilitary response role en masse. [I lived not far from Hallandale Beach, and cannot for the life of me conceive why this town of...

    Also, another municipality's SWAT officers have resigned their paramilitary response role en masse.

    [I lived not far from Hallandale Beach, and cannot for the life of me conceive why this town of 38,000 has its own assault force. If we need people with these skills, can we have highly trained and well-equipped regional forces, instead of beach-town patrol officers with half-assed part-time emergency duties, training, and equipment?]

    7 votes
  9. cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Protesters Criticize Arrests By Nassau County Police During Friday George Floyd March In East Meadow Video is worth watching, since it very clearly shows what happened. If it hadn't been caught on...

    Protesters Criticize Arrests By Nassau County Police During Friday George Floyd March In East Meadow

    Video is worth watching, since it very clearly shows what happened.

    The officer appears to stop short in front of him, causing Terrel to bump into him. Police then arrest him.

    If it hadn't been caught on tape and gone viral, I have no doubt they would have tried to charge him with "assaulting" the officer. Such a scummy tactic.

    And another rather disgusting, unrelated one:

    New video from a witness shows Tulsa Police arresting teens for 'jaywalking'

    Video of the incident starts at 41s.

    4 votes
  13. skybrian
    Link
    Don’t Listen to Fox. Here’s What’s Really Going On in Seattle’s Protest Zone

    Don’t Listen to Fox. Here’s What’s Really Going On in Seattle’s Protest Zone

    It’s understandable how the barriers around the zone—movable wood and plastic left behind by the police—and the hygienically masked sentinels standing at them could look intimidating to residents. But I passed through them perhaps a dozen times over three days and, like everyone I saw and talked to in the zone, was never stopped or asked my business. Even if this were the “border wall” Fox commentators call it, it would hardly be impenetrable; people could still come and go through the park abutting the zone.

    I chatted with one of the border guards, a slight young man of East Indian descent with a stick-on name tag reading “Elijah.” He lived in the suburbs, he said, and hadn’t joined in the protests. “I’d seen what the media said,” he explained. “I came out to see what it was like”—and wound up volunteering. The only disturbance he’s seen, he said, “was someone trying to pull the barriers apart. We asked her to stop.” Otherwise, he said, he was “surprised” how mellow it all was. “Some of the nicest people I’ve seen have been here.”

    The barriers, other guards explained, were there to stop cars from driving into the occupied streets—a real fear. Last Sunday, a motorist drove into the protest at that very intersection and shot a man point-blank who tried to make him stop, hitting his shoulder. He then charged through the crowd, gun in hand and surrendered to police. According to charging documents, he told police he was a security guard, his brother worked at the precinct, and he’d come to the protest “to see how bad it was,” with his Glock on the seat beside him.

    3 votes
  15. skybrian
    Link
    Change the world? Two students start with their neighborhood and find it’s not so neighborly.

    Change the world? Two students start with their neighborhood and find it’s not so neighborly.

    “Stonewall Jackson was not born here. He did not die here. He never came here,” Simpson said. “The only history this wall celebrates is the history of white supremacy, slavery and segregation.”

    They’d started talking to their parents and teachers about the names of their winding streets and verdant cul-de-sacs when they were still in grammar school, after learning about the Civil War in their classes.

    “One African American family told me it was always embarrassing to give their address to friends coming over,” McCabe said.

    That family lived at the corner of Stonewall Drive and Jackson Parkway.

    2 votes