11 votes

Weekly thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests, racial injustice, and policing policy - week of August 24

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

This thread is posted weekly - 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.

9 comments

  1. moonbathers
    Link
    Over the weekend a black guy was shot in Kenosha, which is the fourth biggest city in Wisconsin and is between Milwaukee and Chicago. It turned into a riot, as these things go, although as far as...

    Over the weekend a black guy was shot in Kenosha, which is the fourth biggest city in Wisconsin and is between Milwaukee and Chicago. It turned into a riot, as these things go, although as far as I can tell it wasn't that bad. The guy who was shot is paralyzed from the waist down now. The following paragraph is from the end of the article, which I will present with no comment:

    Sheriff David Beth of Kenosha County said the police were outnumbered. “We’ve got 200 officers, I don’t know how many armored vehicles,” he said. “It’s not enough. It’s a battle we aren’t able to keep up with.”

    Despite being the home of the 20th-century Progressive movement, Wisconsin has long had problems with racial equality. Madison and Milwaukee among others were redlined cities, and Milwaukee remains one of the most segregated cities in the country. Many of its white residents fled to the suburbs in the 60s and 70s, some of which are now infamously racist and Republican. I went digging to see how many sundown towns there were here, and I found at least four: Appleton, La Crosse, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan.

    Even Madison, which prides itself on being the most progressive place in the state, has a lot of trouble with racial equality. When I still looked at the subreddit, both the resident conservatives and even a lot of the liberals/Democrats/whatever you'd like to call them denied that there was a problem. It's easy to ignore if you're white: just don't live in one of the "bad neighborhoods" (in quotes because they're nothing at all like Englewood or those sort of places) and you'll never see it. You'll see the world-class university where only 2% of the students are black despite 6% of the state's population being black. You'll see downtown with more bars than you could ever go to, the east side with its music and art and new construction, and the west side with lots of fancy offices and think everything is great.

    This article explains it better than I can.

    11 votes
  2. [5]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [2]
      gpl
      Link Parent
      I am going to copy and paste a comment I made on Reddit that collects some of the videos from the shooting and pieces them together, along with a little analysis of my own. Some of the links that...
      • Exemplary

      I am going to copy and paste a comment I made on Reddit that collects some of the videos from the shooting and pieces them together, along with a little analysis of my own. Some of the links that follow are graphic.

      I have also watched a ton of videos about this, and read news stories. This is what happened as far as I can piece it together.

      1. Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, somehow learned about a right wing militia recruiting people to patrol Kenosha, WI, and decided to join up. In doing so, he took a weapon that he was not legally allowed to carry, and drove 30 minutes and across state lines to go to Kenosha.
      2. Earlier in the night, he and his militia group were associated with police officers near where the shootings would happen later. They give the militia water and thank them for being there.
      3. At some point in the night, protestors begin to break the windows on the car garage. Rittenhouse apparently moves in to try and stop them, but the crowd does not like his presence. I haven't found many videos of this portion of the night, so please send them if you have them.
      4. One protestor in particular becomes very angry, shouting at Kyle and beginning to chase him. At this point he throws what he was holding, which all evidence points towards being a plastic bag with a bottle of coke in it - not a molotov cocktail as has been widely claimed. Here is a frame by frame. Here it is on the ground later in the videos.
      5. The chase continues and Rittenhouse shoots his first victim. The actual shot is obscured by a car, but it does not appear that the victim was close to Rittenhouse at the time. Rittenhouse circles back around, sees he has killed somebody, and places a phone call saying "I just killed somebody".
      6. As Rittenhouse retreats, he is chased by protestors. One hits at him with a skateboard, the other approaches him while wielding a pistol. Both are shot. Rittenhouse continues to retreat toward police.
      7. As he gets back to the police, he slowly walks and makes a hand signal to them. Full disclosure, I can't tell if this video is from before the shootings or after, given that we know he was associating with the police beforehand.

      That's the spark notes version of what went down.

      My personal opinion is that he should be charged with murder, and in my mind this is not too different than other acts of extremist terrorism we have seen in the past. I have seen on Twitter, but did not include it above because I couldn't verify it, that his social media was rife with right wing rhetoric. Additionally, the militia he joined was advertised on Info Wars, although I could not verify that is where he learned about it. Additionally, others in his militia cited concerns about online rumors they had heard, such that protestors were using pipe bombs.

      In my mind: this is a kid who got radicalized by right wing and internet conspiracies, went out of his way to drive to a protest that would likely become violent while fully armed in an illegal manner, felt "deputized" by the police and other militia members, confronted protestors who were breaking windows, killed one man, and then killed others while fleeing. I don't see how claims of self defense work here any more than they would for some other mass shooter.

      These people were victims of right-wind conspiracy theories online.

      10 votes
      1. Omnicrola
        Link Parent
        This just seems unconscionable on the part of the police. There are so many things wrong with this from their perspective. A person shows up to a protest armed and offering to "help" the police....

        This just seems unconscionable on the part of the police. There are so many things wrong with this from their perspective.

        A person shows up to a protest armed and offering to "help" the police. Think about that in a slightly different context. If a random 17yr old showed up to a blazing building offering to help the firefighters, they would tell him to leave for his own safety and the safety of others. To do otherwise would be incredibly irresponsible. The trope of a random hero walking into a dangerous situation and magically convincing the professionals that only THEY can save the situation is used a lot in media, but it's not reality.

        Every police officer who interacted with him and did not tell him to leave should be charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter.

        8 votes
    2. moonbathers
      Link Parent
      I hate that this is happening in my state and there's still not much I can do about it. I don't live anywhere near Kenosha and even if I did I'm not sure risking covid is a good idea. I don't live...

      I hate that this is happening in my state and there's still not much I can do about it. I don't live anywhere near Kenosha and even if I did I'm not sure risking covid is a good idea. I don't live by myself and it would be irresponsible of me to expose myself to it. Maybe I feel conflicted because I know I can and should do more, but I at least gave money to the local bail fund.

      8 votes
  3. spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    Latest bullshit from Seattle: Mediation process reveals expedient way for SPD officers to avoid discipline, complaints on their records

    Latest bullshit from Seattle: Mediation process reveals expedient way for SPD officers to avoid discipline, complaints on their records

    As she listened to the civilian investigator from the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), Aisling Cooney wondered why she was being offered mediation.

    “I was thinking, ‘Okay, this complaint definitely can’t be mediated.’ … I have video proof of [Seattle Police Department] officers dragging me through the gravel on my face and throwing me around like a ragdoll,” Cooney said.

    The SPOG contract states on page 18 that all the officer has to do to avoid an investigation — and, therefore, any form of discipline or the complaint on their record — is participate in mediation in a broadly-defined show of “good faith.” This only means that “[t]he officer actively listens to the perspective of the other party; and … [t]he officer fully communicates his/her own position and engages in the discussion.”

    Moreover, the SPOG contract language is unclear, and appears to suggest that even if Cooney hadn’t agreed to mediation, but the officer had agreed to mediation before Cooney declined, the officer would escape discipline and the complaint going on their record, according to the SPOG contract. The flowchart — also not a binding contract — does not clarify this.

    7 votes
  4. rabbit
    Link
    New Jersey teen behind Black Lives Matter rally receives bill for thousands of dollars for police overtime ... Sounds like a fee to exercise First Amendment rights. Or a way to intimidate people...

    New Jersey teen behind Black Lives Matter rally receives bill for thousands of dollars for police overtime

    A New Jersey teen thought she was only exercising her First Amendment right when she organized a rally in support of Black Lives Matter. Not long after, she received a bill for thousands of dollars in the mail from the mayor, CBS New York reports.

    ...

    "I was told that all private events requiring police overtime should be paid for by the organizers. It was never intended as a fine, but rather as a fee," [the mayor] said in a statement to Gil that was sent to CBS News.

    Sounds like a fee to exercise First Amendment rights. Or a way to intimidate people from doing so.

    6 votes
  6. skybrian
    Link
    Police reforms face defeat as California Democrats block George Floyd-inspired bills More detail on Senate Bill 731: Hallmark police reform bill faces tough road in California [...]

    Police reforms face defeat as California Democrats block George Floyd-inspired bills

    More detail on Senate Bill 731: Hallmark police reform bill faces tough road in California

    One of the hallmark bills of California lawmakers’ policing reform efforts cleared a hurdle Wednesday but faces tough going as the Legislature races to adjourn for the year on Monday.

    The bill would allow for permanently stripping away the badges of officers found to have committed serious misconduct and ending what Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford called the “wash, rinse and repeat cycle" of officers moving from department to department even if they have a questionable history.

    [...]

    Five states have no way of decertifying police officers — California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

    3 votes