I'm opening a box of worms here, but I thought the subject was important enough to post for discussion. My thoughts are reaching out to one of our members who (I believe) is a policeman in Baton Rouge. He can identify himself or not, as he pleases. I'm reading this morning that a police car was firebombed in Baton Rouge last night and certain groups are making threats against police in that city as the "next Dallas." The whole situation makes me ill. Social media has made police actions into viral sensations that are picked up in the non-stop news cycle. It's an echo chamber rather than a reflection of reality. Some of these shootings are indeed "bad shoots" - that poor guy in Minnesota comes to mind. It's difficult to come to any conclusion other than that the policeman panicked. Yet, most of the time when the facts come out you learn that the initial rush to judgment was based on very little. The Ferguson shooting is one like that. Despite all the riots and hoopla and complete lies made up about the shooting, you learn this huge guy had just fought that cop and tried to take his gun, then turned and ran back at him for another go-around. I'm not going to question that cop's decision to shoot. Anyway, for those not in this country (and maybe for some that are), I would caution you to not allow the "echo chamber" effect make you think there's much to this. This has more to do with the politics of division, the grievance industry, TV media that has turned journalism into tabloid reporting. People get swept up in this and it replaces the mundane reality. Cops rarely shoot people, of any color. Most cops never fire a gun in anger during their entire career. When they do, it's almost always justified. The really sad thing about this new phenomena is that it is destroying generations of racial progress. People of color are allowing the echo chamber to sway their judgment. Whites watch these riots and hate speeches and it begins to stir up racist thoughts, creating the very racism these groups are protesting. It makes me sad. I'm of an age where I can recall the real civil rights issues. I thought that was all gone. I was wrong. It's back.
KB, I appreciate you beginning a thread about this topic. I for one decided to stay clear on the forum because I fear it would turn into another gun debate. Which is an underlying component but believe there is a bigger issue here and you touched on it. I have been debating this for a week with friends of mine. There is true racial tension thay is evident in our society, in any society really. Social media has done nothing to quell the widespread panic and prejudice that has erupted from these events.
You make a good point. Let's try to keep this off the gun question. This is more about national harmony, unity, race, and fear-mongering about cops. It's a giant leap backwards. MLK would weep if he were alive today.
Thanks for posting Skipper. The comments are 99.9% positive too. Despite the few dingbats who need the pulpit to spread garbage.
Yeah, I thought the racial problems were over with when 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the US extended the civil rights enjoyed by citizens of the US to its Black citizens. And since racial discrimination has been outlawed, why would Black citizens feel threatened by the Protectors of the Law? It's almost as if they know something we don't know.
I was waiting for a bit on this. Thanks for it. We should blame media for shoddy, knee jerk, partial if not down right paid slanted news. There are not a lot of career news reporters anymore...Instead we get sites like Gawker- who don't pay shit and have an agenda (sjw). Their writers are not reporters. They regurgitate what they read off the internet, and add their slant...Death to gawker and their shitty sjw's (clintonites). Of course, sjw's live in a comfortable world/country...Try being a sjw in Iran, KSA- see how that works out. New York Times- Eric Thayer, July 8/2016 http://www.nytimes.com/live/news-dallas-shooting-protest/hillary/ Isn't a sniper someone who shoots from impossible distances- compared to the average shooter? What about the others who were arrested? Have had zero info regarding them.
After 50+ years i have seen a lot. When I was younger I saw few blacks, and even fewer Hispanic's. Didn't know then that people have a tendency to self-segregate in that era, and many still do. Now we politically self-segregate. When I was younger there was always a 'fear' of those people and to be honest much of what i hear now sounds like what I heard then around the dinner table, breakroom and restaurant. The difference is with social media and 24/7 connectivity all these private conversations are now public. I do believe things are getting better, but i worry we will convince ourselves otherwise.
Some of us may know more about that than you think. My ex-wife was a beautiful black woman from Belize that I met in the Carib in my early Coast Guard days. I married her on the courthouse steps in Mobile, Alabama. Even there, 30 years ago, when the deep south was supposedly a horribly racist place, not one person was ever impolite to us or made us feel unwelcome in any way; cops, clubs, restaurants, we never had a problem. If anything, people would go out of their way to ask my wife about her lilting British/Belize accent, to befriend her, ask her/us to parties. We had a beautiful daughter together whose skin tone is closer to her mother than mine and that kid got dragged across the country as the service transferred me around. As she got past elementary school we'd have discussions about race - was she ever treated differently and so on. She thought that was amusing. No, she wasn't made to feel differently even in Alaska which has a real shortage of black people. I think, based on my experience, that what is termed "racism" today is a perfectly normal reaction to the rap/gangsta/hip hop culture. If you are aping the dress, mannerisms and language of inner city gang culture, then you shouldn't be surprised if people recoil from you or if cops take a harder line because of that gangsta aura. We all know (I think) that most of those kids are not criminals at all, that it's part of a fashion, music, whatever, thing, but you're going to keep your distance unless you actually know who they are. That's not racism, yet that reaction is perceived as such.
Sniper is a flexible term but generally is used for those who fire from concealment. Racism, health, education, standard of living, crime, starvation. Just about everything except marriage has been improving in the US overall. However news outlets and politicians make money by shock and by dividing people. If a foreigner watched our news they'd think every day we have riots in our cities. If they came over here they'd see people holding doors open for the next guy regardless of the races involved.
Over 50. Here in Canada, you can't throw a rock without hitting an immigrant...i joke (we are mostly immigrants).
Thanks...The tragic video, showed the gunman only a few feet behind the officer. ..Original reports said there was fire from elevated positions. Is it that this one shooter ran from floor to floor and then into the street?- i don't know just wondering. The police address i saw said they would not discuss the other suspects.
Ignore the dingbats and focuss on nice people. Conficius said " Toad drool won't spoil the white dove"
The ignorant will remain racist no matter what you do. I have to agree with previous comments about the media's intervention is all of this and we are also allowing politicians to speak in thinly veiled racist terms. You have Trump and we have the UKIP party here in Britain. Racist related incidents has risen here 42% in the last few weeks since the Brexit vote according to police statistics. And that's only taking into account those brave enough to report it. Anybody perceived to be non white and not British is now a target as far as the ignorant are concerned. We've set ourselves back decades. Sad days indeed.
And the US have BLM,CNN,NYT, BHO, who all remained silent when the police shot an unarmed white man in Alabama and also in California . Thus, we only hear the usual hypocrisy .
Being of "Hispanic" descent, I have never really experienced racial discrimination except from other Hispanics. Only because I did not speak Spanish to them in a business environment. I was born in the Great State of Texas. I do not call myself Mexican American even though my background is Spanish/Bolivian. Regardless, I am an American. Racism exists because the Government itself promotes it with the insistence of assigning race. Look at the government forms. In the area which asks for race, I usually check "other" and in the blank fill in Texan. Take that! LOL. Recently though, I would blame the media. There are many shootings of whites as well as Hispanics which do not make the news. Why? Our news media has turned political and biased. There is no more true journalism. I refuse to watch the news anymore. There was a show in the UK called "Spitting Image" and they portrayed the media as pigs. An accurate representation if you ask me. Nowadays, Americans get their history from what they watch on TV or what they read on social media. They also get their decisions made from same sources. Not only do you read the 'news' but your thoughts about what was read/seen are made up for you. One of my proudest moments in raising my son was when we were at some event and my son was trying to point out a man for one reason or another. I asked him what man he was talking about. He said the man in the red hat..........when most would say "That Black man". Which would have made it easier since he was the only Black man around. Instead of labeling us Americans as African Americans, Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, etc...............why not just say a man was shot by a policeman blah blah blah blah? Guess it doesn't sound sensational enough. This country is going to have something real bad happen in the future. Oh well. Off my soap box.
I can't speak for the situation in Europe with immigrants, but the problems here are fueled by the media and paid agitators. I despise Trump, but he's not at the root of any of this. This is coming from the left and it's organized and paid for by professional agitators. The police shootings are gas thrown on a very, very small fire, and most of these shootings (not all) are legitimate when the facts finally come out. Most of these are in inner city gang areas that breed violence, cops are sometimes forced to use firearms. Those shootings that aren't legitimate, or create enough fuss, get investigated by the Attorney General's office - note that the last two AG's are black... In the Ferguson shooting which started all of this, the cop was cleared of all wrongdoing, and rightly so once the facts got past the false narrative that the media created.
Whatever your views I hope Americans as a whole come together and get this all sorted out. Statistically you are more likely to be stopped and searched by UK police if you are coloured, this in itself causes a great deal of resentment of the police and sadly there is not a diverse police force. I think we are now into our second recruitment drive to have all ethnicities represented in the force. That aside, there has been enormous praise for the police's handling of the victims of the recent hate crimes. We're all Scottish anyway. Hope the link to this BBC article works. All the best and hope peace prevails. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29661446
