George Floyd murder | Clashes between US police and protestors

[mindmyp's_n_q's]

The good thing is, I don’t think any of them are racists anymore. And, I heard they converted all their tooled up racist scum buddies, too.

Armed Police Racists in Alabama in 2018.
Model citizens in 2020.
It just makes sense, doesn’t it????

I get your point 100%. But there was thousands of incidents of racist police actions yesterday showing exactly how the problem is still alive an unchecked in 2020.

You don't need an old picture to tell anyone that the police in America is riddled to the core with white supremacist wankers.

I guarantee that the trump extreme knobheads will dismiss it with "2018, fake news. Old picture". That's why I think its what I would call a 'taking people away from the proper argument tweet'.

Agree with the tweets sentiment absolutely. Just don't quite agree with the way the message is being put across.

 

[Dubai Blue]

I meant he might have a point about the reason for the media being told the get down in the first place. But yeah, you're right.

We've seen this so many times in other protests. Pepper spray, tasers, and so on, were always sold to us as an alternative to having to shoot someone. They're for the protection of officers who would otherwise have to use guns to protect themselves. But more often than not, we see them, and other forms of violence, being used against people who are simply non-compliant, not actually a threat. A protester won't move? Give them a swift kick, a hit of pepper spray or a rubber bullet (or often point a real gun at them and get surprised when people panic and act in a way that then results in them getting shot).

The most shocking thing about that video isn't the fact that it happened but all the replies trying to justify it because there was a curfew. As though the existence of a curfew is in any way an acceptable excuse for the police to behave like that.

We even have a muppet on here trying to defend the police for pepper spraying an unarmed civilian lying face down on the ground whilst holding his ID above his head. There can simply never be any justification for behaving like that. If he's done something wrong, do your job as a police officer and arrest him rather than assaulting him for shits and giggles; he's literally lying there on the floor right in front of you!

We see this kind of behaviour from the police time and time again, and not just in the U.S. And inevitably we get people rolling out the tired old excuses - they must have done something wrong, they shouldn't have been out after curfew, don't join a protest if you don't want to be treated like that.

These same excuses were even trotted out to defend the disgraceful treatment of Messiah Young and Teniyah Pilgrim in Atlanta on Saturday night; their heinous crime being a black couple driving home after attending a protest. It's like people have become conditioned to accept that if you show ANY deviation from the law whatsoever, the police are entirely justified in responding with any level of force in their armoury.

Give the police all these fancy "toys" and they'll inevitably find a way to use them, even when the situation clearly doesn't necessitate it. Forget starting off at Level 1 and trying to diffuse the situation peacefully; just immediately escalate to Level 10 and get the job done without having to do any actual "policing".

It's exactly this attitude that led to George Floyd's murder. And to see it now being replicated over and over again across the country shows just how hopeless the situation has become.

 

[FCBarca]

Long overdue, my only question really is if meaningful reform is a possible outcome of this. I am skeptical but I continue to hope

 

[hcblue95]

I think it might be fair to say that this basokla guy is the worst poster this forum has ever had.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

We aren't part of the United States, but what happens there absolutely has an impact on the broader global political spectrum at large and most certainly here. We live in a more interconnected world than ever, so if people feel passionate about protesting this I don't have an issue with it - it might actually lead to some decent political and economic reform, which gives people hope.

Personally, I think you are viewing it too black and white and not looking at the bigger picture.

Noble sounding but nebulous response. Like what? You are conflating one issue to address the worlds ills there. What do you mean?

 

[lefty goldblatt]

Couldn’t agree more. I do not give one shiny shit about that country!

Why do I have to be fed what the floppy haired orange bloke who is in charge over there says every time I switch on the News? Why do we have to be informed of all the big news stories that happen over there? Why do the citizens of Great Britain seem obsessed with that fucking horrible country?... I couldn’t give a shit!

The odd documentary I know i’d find interesting, the odd film or series produced over there, yeah... I’ll give them a go! But this constant feed of everything that goes on over there, the constant nose in their business from our citizens, it’s like we’re part of that country. But we are not!

Over the top Police brutality and murder goes on in dozens of countries worldwide, like your example in Rio. It’s horrible, but why is the News and the citizens of this country only bothered about it when it happens in the US?

Spot on, PC
I've never understood the morbid fixation this country's media have with all things American.
Hurricane season starts in America, and its the first item on OUR news. Yet in Asia, when it's monsoon/landslide etc season, and the death tolls are tenfold in comparison, these stories are footnotes (or even unreported) by our media.
There's DAILY civil unrest in countless African countries, yet these are on page 15 in the bottom corners of broadsheet newspapers.
Car bombs go off daily in various Middle Eastern countries. These are left to the ends of bulletins. Should something like this happen in America, Clive Myrie, Dermot Murnaghan and spurious ITN journalist will be on the first plane out of Heathrow.
American lives matter more.

A typical example of our media's obsession with USA, was the circus (that's what it was) surrounding OJ Simpson in the mid 90's. I'd wager that well over 95% of our population wouldn't have had a clue about who or what he was. And that 5% who did know of him, was mainly due to him being in the Naked Gun films. Yet, umpteen UK camera crews/reporters/journalists were camped outside the courtroom for weeks. Would the Yanks have done the same for Kevin Keegan/Ian Botham, etc???? I think we know the answer.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Long overdue, my only question really is if meaningful reform is a possible outcome of this. I am skeptical but I continue to hope

this is a massive chance for Biden to come out and promise some kind of reform - perhaps harsher penalty's for police for any related black brutality. this would really help calm the storm

 

[Bazzmand Show]

Noble sounding but nebulous response. Like what? You are conflating one issue to address the worlds ills there. What do you mean?

I was addressing the fact that another poster was questioning why 'we should give a shit about what happens in America?'

 

[bluemcr]

Shocking that but what's with black power fist. Is that not racist towards whites?

 

[M18CTID]

Spot on, PC
I've never understood the morbid fixation this country's media have with all things American.
Hurricane season starts in America, and its the first item on OUR news. Yet in Asia, when it's monsoon/landslide etc season, and the death tolls are tenfold in comparison, these stories are footnotes (or even unreported) by our media.
There's DAILY civil unrest in countless African countries, yet these are on page 15 in the bottom corners of broadsheet newspapers.
Car bombs go off daily in various Middle Eastern countries. These are left to the ends of bulletins. Should something like this happen in America, Clive Myrie, Dermot Murnaghan and spurious ITN journalist will be on the first plane out of Heathrow.
American lives matter more.

A typical example of our media's obsession with USA, was the circus (that's what it was) surrounding OJ Simpson in the mid 90's. I'd wager that well over 95% of our population wouldn't have had a clue about who or what he was. And that 5% who did know of him, was mainly due to him being in the Naked Gun films. Yet, umpteen UK camera crews/reporters/journalists were camped outside the courtroom for weeks. Would the Yanks have done the same for Kevin Keegan/Ian Botham, etc???? I think we know the answer.

Naked Gun? NFL? Nah. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge remembers OJ Simpson from his starring role in that all-time classic movie Detour To Terror!