• frank
    14.5k
    That's so fucked up.
  • frank
    14.5k
    I like having Ahmaud Arbery's name in being repeated. And a portrait of George Floyd belongs here:

    5ed1642b3f737024d67afff5?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp

    I heard a local Democratic Party spokeswoman speak. She said there are people digging into the records of people who are up for election to local positions, and they always need more volunteers to get the information out and to basically keep the consciousness of the problem awake and alert when the headlines move on to the next problem.
  • frank
    14.5k
    pic-1024x576.jpg

    And Breonna Taylor, shot by Louisville policemen in her own home.
  • frank
    14.5k
    "A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed earlier this month that the Civil Rights Division of the department was assessing the evidence in the case to determine whether federal hate crime charges were appropriate."

    Arbery update
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    ... racism asserts the "superhumanity" - superiority, thus supremacy - by a "race"-color-ethnic In-Group over the mere humanity of a "race"-color-ethnic Out-Group; in other words, idolatrous self-deification by demonizing - scapegoating - the other. "The wrong" is the banal inhumanity of ego-fantasy (i.e. rabid tribalism).

    [ ... ] it's a fact that all nonwhites (in North America? and in Eurasia?) suffer daily from threats from and/or exercises of de facto systemic racism which apparently most whites fail to actively oppose while they benefit from its historical, or institutional, legacies as well as by, in many cases, being functionaries of its 'policing powers'. Do you dispute that?
    180 Proof
    The latest dispatch from the frontlines of activist-voter resistance to [InfoWars-Newsmax-Fox Noise / MAGA / QAnon] WHITE GRIEVANCE RACIAL HATRED :point:

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/us/metro-atlanta-shootings-wednesday/index.html

    More blood on DJT's tiny hands ...
    China Virus
    Kung Flu
    The Wuhan Virus
    Chinese Plague


    We are making tremendous progress with this horrible disease that was sent over by China. China will pay a big price for what they did to the world and to us.
    — tr45h, (tweets) from 2020
    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/covid-19-has-led-to-an-uptick-in-anti-asian-racism/

    :mask:
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    @Baden @frank @Hanover

    In Murica, it ain't a "crime" (yet) to hate the haters ... :victory:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60482214
  • Baden
    15.6k


    Saw that today. :pray: :victory:
  • frank
    14.5k
    Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by five police officers in Memphis, TN on January 10. All of the officers have been charged with second degree murder. All of the officers are black.

    230126-tyre-nichols-mn-1555-350229.jpg
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    Tyre Nichols 1993?-2023

    I can't remember the last time when police officers anywhere in the US were both fired and indicted in less than a month for killing an unarmed black man on camera. Especially down in Dixie. :brow:

    https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/da-5-memphis-cops-all-responsible-for-tyre-nichols-death/JHDAGHQ2ANH2FJ7426GOH7FYUU/
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Not to downplay the tragedy of black lives lost, but I strongly feel that we need to understand the mindset of the men in blue. What goes through the mind of a police officer when he sees a black man/a white man/etc.? Math (statistics and probability) may be able to aid cops make good decisions e.g. if they were told that not every black (non-white) person is a (potential) criminal these sorts of events wouldn't occur or would occur fewer, more understandable, times. There seems to be some kind of obviously flawed heuristics which the police seem to be employing when on patrol which results in a disproportionate number of innocent people from the black community being injured/killed.
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    'Policing culture' in America has very deep roots in the 18th century establishment of Slave Patrols, followed later on by appending the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution and the subsequent over two centuries fetishizing of the gun – racial animous – in American popular culture. American 'police culture' is inherently White Supremacist as well as Classist; as I read and experience this historical moment, Smith, we've been living through an ascendant wave of White Supremacist-Classist repression and violence since the 1980s.
  • javi2541997
    4.9k



    I have seen the video where the cops beat this defenceless young man. Police officers reported that they pulled Tyre Nichols out of the car because of a "reckless driving" but is obvious that is a filthy lie. Five policemen (full armed and equipped) against a normal citizen is one of the most filthiest acts I ever seen for a long time.

    It is not important if the police officers are black. As many protesters have so wisely said: They put on a blue uniform and forgot they were Black! It is not about of white or black when their blood is blue.

    Police officers have always been the dogs of prey for the state and government.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    @180 Proof

    Imagine a village of 100 people, 50 are Christians and 50 are Muslims. Of the 50 Muslims, 20 are criminals and of the 50 Christians, 30 are criminals.

    You're a cop.

    Scenario 1
    You see a Muslim. What goes through your mind?
    The probability that the Muslim is a criminal =

    Scenario 2
    You see a Christian. What now?
    The probability that the Christian is a criminal =

    So you, as a cop, are fully justified to exercise extra caution when you see a Christian when compared to a Muslim.

    It seems that you (the cop) are being completely rational and the math above is proof of that. However, this increases the odds that you'll be (falsely) charged with discrimination and brutality against Christians (the extra caution may manifest as excessive force).
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    I have seen the video where the cops beat this defenceless young man. Police officers reported that they pulled Tyre Nichols out of the car because of a "reckless driving" but is obvious that is a filthy lie. Five policemen (full armed and equipped) against a normal citizen is one of the most filthiest acts I ever seen for a long time.

    It is not important if the police officers are black. As many protesters have so wisely said: They put on a blue uniform and forgot they were Black! It is not about of white or black when their blood is blue.

    Police officers have always been the dogs of prey for the state and government.
    javi2541997

    :up:
    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
  • javi2541997
    4.9k
    It seems that you (the cop) are being completely rational and the math above is proof of that.Agent Smith

    The big problem here is that the cops tend to not act rational at all. This is why they abuse and charge people discriminatory.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    The big problem here is that the cops tend to not act rational at all. This is why they abuse and charge people discriminatory.javi2541997

    I'm trying to understand/investigate the logic behind what people call racial profiling which to my reckoning is probabilistic/statistical. We use the same reasoning as cops do every day in our lives e.g. most teenagers like to dance and so if I meet a teenager, it's likely that s/he likes to get jiggy with it.
  • javi2541997
    4.9k
    We use the same reasoning as cops do every day in our livesAgent Smith

    To be honest Smith, I think not... some tend to reasoning more than others.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    To be honest Smith, I think not... some tend to reasoning more than others.javi2541997

    But my argument from probability does explain the apparent racism in the police force. We can take this further (using mathemagic) and check if police-related death rates among blacks fall within the expected range given the crime rates in the black community.

    My intention is not to trivialize the suffering of any community, but to zero in on, identify, the real problem e.g. high crime rates vis-à-vis African Americans. Misdiagnosis of an illness is only going to delay and make less effective the treatment.
  • javi2541997
    4.9k
    Completely agree with your analysis.

    But what I tried to explain is the big problem of brutality among police officers. It is not about calculating or using statistics on "police and death rates". This formula only would show you that effectively police department is racist and abusive with minorities. It is a fact.

    Furthermore, the problem is more complex because the police officers tend to have a weird sense of "authority" in each town and they think (incorrectly) that they are over the rest. The problem starts here, in the sense of power and authority.
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    Nonsense, comrade. :brow:

    Police officers have always been the dogs of prey for the state and government.javi2541997
    :100:
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Nonsense, comrade. :brow:180 Proof

    Math is nonsense? :chin:
  • 180 Proof
    14k
    Your presumption is nonsense.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Your presumption is nonsense.180 Proof

    I understand, but to me we've got the wrong end of the stick mon ami.
  • unenlightened
    8.7k
    Imagine a village of 100 people, 50 are Christians and 50 are Muslims. Of the 50 Muslims, 20 are criminals and of the 50 Christians, 30 are criminals.Agent Smith

    Imagine a police force that thinks falsely that this is the case. Their prejudicial behaviour will mean that Muslims are lightly policed and Christians are heavily policed. That obviously results in skewed statistics that reinforce and justify the prejudice. Imagine this going on for generation after generation until becomes a universally accepted truth amongst Christians and Muslims and even atheist philosophers. Imagine folks conforming to the stereotypes they are brought up with. Imagine folks rationalising racism in all seriousness on a philosophical website and folks completely agreeing with them.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Imagine a police force that thinks falsely that this is the case. Their prejudicial behaviour will mean that Muslims are lightly policed and Christians are heavily policed. That obviously results in skewed statistics that reinforce and justify the prejudice. Imagine this going on for generation after generation until becomes a universally accepted truth amongst Christians and Muslims and even atheist philosophers. Imagine folks conforming to the stereotypes they are brought up with. Imagine folks rationalising racism in all seriousness on a philosophical website and folks completely agreeing with them.unenlightened

    Well, I'm not saying the situation as it stands isn't due to past injustices (slavery has cast a long shadow). What I am saying though is African Americans need to pull up their socks, of course with state assistance as is due to them, proportionate to the wrongs done to them.

    I'm calling to my assistance statistical data to make the case that racial profiling is, though lamentable, justified. Let the numbers do the talking - any statistician will come to the same conclusion as me. Our pressing concern, our real task, is to take appropriate action to break the correlation between being black and being a criminal.

    It seems that the crisis we're facing today is a direct consequence of historical racism (slavery) but itself is not racism.
  • unenlightened
    8.7k
    I'm calling to my assistance statistical data to make the case that racial profiling is, though lamentable, justified.Agent Smith

    Yes. I know what you are doing because it has been going on for generations. It is a racist justification, akin to the racist justification for mortgage zoning.

    Prejudice produces injustice.This has been known for long enough that the depiction of justice personified has a blindfold. But Agent Smith and the police do not care about justice so much as they care about their own interest.
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