The Black Lives Matter Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

As 2022 BHM draws to an unceremonious end, this piece is a reminder that the month is not just a valedictory of all the accomplishments and achievements, but also time for reflection of the struggles and the tragedies born of ignorance and why there is such a need to learn this aspect of history, if we ever hope to break that sad cycle. Reading this, it never left my mind that Trayvon Martin would have been 27 years old. I am left to reflect on what might have been, who he might have become, if given the chance.

[Khan]

It'd be so nice to say this country has learned so much in the past ten years, but I'm afraid I'd be lying.

[DramatistDreamer]

It would have been nice if there had been even half the news coverage on this as on that ridiculous event that happened in D.C. today.

[Khan]

The "mainstream media" only cares about us when...actually, they don't care about us.

[DramatistDreamer]

Frontline on PBS should do a documentary on this topic. It has reminded me of how insidious it was that the NAACP actually once defended these tobacco companies crafting their campaigns to target the Black community.

https://tobacco21.org/how-the-tobacco-industry-hooked-black-smokers-on-menthols/

[janea4old]

Today is the second anniversary of George Floyd's death.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/biden-orders-police-reforms-two-years-after-floyd-killing/ar-AAXJw2O

Biden signed an executive order to implement police reform. He said he got tired of waiting for the Senate to approve it.
The families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were present at the signing.

same speech on youtube

Text of the above speeches by Vice President Harris and President Biden:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/05/25/remarks-by-president-biden-and-vice-president-harris-at-signing-of-executive-order-to-advance-effective-accountable-policing-and-strengthen-public-safety/

At the very end of the video, Biden literally gave George Floyd's daughter Gianna his seat at the table..

Edited May 26, 2022 by janea4old

[DramatistDreamer]

When my brother used to tell me stories like these when I was a teenager, I used to think he was exaggerating. Obviously, no more.

[janea4old]

[janea4old]

 

 

 

[janea4old]

Des Moines, Iowa: The city that kicked cops out of schools and tried restorative practices instead.
What happens when a school rethinks punishment.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-city-that-kicked-cops-out-of-schools-and-tried-restorative-practices-instead

 

[Noel]

**This video is age-restricted**

"The Memphis Police Department releasing video of the deadly Tyre Nichols officer beating is discussed by law enforcement experts and a community activist on The ReidOut on MSNBC. “We're tired of being told to wait,” activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham tells Joy Reid of the suggestion that better police training is part of the antidote for brutality."

'We're tired of being told to wait': Activist reacts to 'police training' as remedy for brutality

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Noel

[janea4old]

I appreciate the need to log in to view the above video, in that a graphic beating of a man, a real human being, is beings discussed. 
However some people might not care to log into youtube.

Here is some of the info being discussed:

Although this was a beating of a black man, Mr. Tyre Nichols, by black policemen, this "Black Lives Matter" is still the right thread to discuss it. Because the entire history of policing in USA is based on the history of those who were hired to chase after and catch people who were trying to escape from human slavery, when the the escaped enslaved persons were viewed as the criminals, and not the slaveholders.
So changes to the very structure of policing in the USA are essential.

The beating happened in Memphis Jan. 7.  The family of Mr. Nichols was shown the video Jan. 23 (Some family viewed it but his mother cannot bear to.)
All the video footage was released to the public for transparency on Jan. 27.

Full timeline of what happened BEFORE the video was released to the public
(no images or video within this article)
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/a-timeline-of-events-in-the-death-of-tyre-nichols/

This is a typed description of what happened in the horrific beating of Mr. Nichols by the Memphis police.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/memphis-braces-for-release-of-video-in-tyre-nichols-arrest/
WARNING -- BEFORE READING THAT...
One of the features within that article is a two minute excerpt from the full video.
 DO NOT CLICK TO VIEW unless you are SAFE.

WARNING - it starts playing as soon as you click on the video, it's very graphic and I suggest watching only if you have a trusted loved one to support you.  Have someone to call after you watch, or watch with someone safe. 
Otherwise, just trust that it's awful and don't watch. And just read description within the article.  That was horrific enough for me, to simply read the description.

The police department released one hour of footage, most news outlets are showing only a few minutes of it, it's so horrific.
This beating was captured by the body cams of the policemen doing it, and also by the camera on a nearby light pole. 

NOTE: all five of the city police officers actively beating him were black, as was the the victim Mr. Nichols.
The five city policemen were fired. There were also reports one or two sheriffs standing by watching and not helping, of whom at least one was white. Almost everyone was fired or is under investigation.  I could bring myself to read the details only once. Too painful to read more than once.

Edit, later reports said two sheriffs and two firefighters were also fired or removed from duty.
 

This is a good article, about Mr. Tyre Nichols.  Who he was as a man, a human being of dignity.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/tyre-nichols-remembered-as-beautiful-soul-with-creative-eye/

 

Statement from Memphis Chief of Police Cerelyn Davis who is a Black woman:
The video shows acts that are heinous an inhumane.  "This is not just a professional failing, this is a failing of basic humanity"
She fully expects everyone to demand change.
She full expects everyone to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest.
And she says, "Aside from being your Chief of Police, I am a citizen of the community we share, I am a mother, I am a caring human being who wants the best for all of us."
Note: Chief Davis made this video a few days ago, after the main five cops were fired, but before additional people were fired or removed from duty.
 

 

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The full video footage  is on the City of Memphis vimeo account. 
Four separate videos, a total of more than an hour of footage.
(This is so bad that most news outlets are posting only two or three minutes of it.)
Do not watch unless you are safe.
Have someone you can be with or call.
Perhaps watch with a support group.

>click for link: City of Memphis vimeo page for all the police beating footage<
 

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Edited January 29, 2023 by janea4old

[DramatistDreamer]

I don’t intend to ever watch that video. It has become a gruesome parade of abuse and vicious violence to the death of black bodies, a digital “Strange Fruit” that America appears to feast on with absolutely no real change for the better, just more snuff videos. If anything, it is desensitizing America to black pain and Black Death. And people making the color of the police officers an issue, like it’s some big difference- it makes absolutely zero difference when the training itself promotes the dehumanizing of black people who are stopped by the police.

I just do not see the purpose of watching people being killed on camera, especially when it will change nothing. Sadly, George Floyd’s murder didn’t offer a sustained change in the system, mainly many platitudes and performative displays.

Can someone please explain how watching this video will change anything? I am genuinely asking.

Maybe, as a Black person, I am not the intended audience?

[janea4old]

I completely agree with everything you said.  I posted the links only because it's being discussed and it's better to decide for oneself what to do, instead of jumping into some random newssite that sensationalizes it further. 

I'm going to ramble on here, sort of continuing with the points you already made.

The video was posted on the City of Memphis site as a transparency thing so that it wouldn't be swept under the rug and so the public would know what really happened.

I look at this as evidence that the crime really did happen and nobody can pretend that it didn't.

But... I don't want to watch rape videos, or murder videos, or genocide videos, war videos, or ANY videos of crimes against the humanity of the victims.

When someone commits any other type of horrific murder, we don't watch the footage on TV news or online news shows.  That's the type of footage that's played only in a closed room to a jury during the murder trial.

I agree with your point that when it's sensationalized and put in the news, it becomes just another snuff video.  That's a horrific statement that the public is watching a snuff video, but you're right, that's what it is when it's overplayed.

WE SHOULD NOT NEED TO SEE THIS.  Normally such video evidence of a murder is kept private and shown only for the trial of the murderers.

But police abuse is covered up so much that maybe the Chief of Police decided that the only way to instigate changes in the system was to have transparency about the horror?  I get that but ... 

And we should NOT be expected to watch this.  As an informed citizen I don't need to and refuse to, watch such things.  I made the personal choice to read the detailed text description of what happened, so that I would know the facts, but there should not be expectations place on anyone what they should watch/read.  Maybe it's enough to hear a short sentence that gives the basics without graphic details.

In various places in the world, there have been crimes against humanity, that have memorials as reminders, so as to prevent such things from ever happening again.  I understand that concept.

But posting this footage on the police department website as a "never again" idea ... that seems like a bad idea.  As you said in your post, it quickly devolves into a black-on-black violence snuff video.

I don't know what the Chief of Police was thinking, but I guess she is sick of all of this and wants real change.  I mean she said in her statement that she *EXPECTS* protests and demands for changes to the system.  I got the sense that she wants the entire idea of policing to change. I don't know her or anything about her, and I'm forming an opinion based on only her video statement, but that was the sense I got. 

As you said in your post regarding the current system... "the training itself promotes the dehumanizing of black people who are stopped by the police".
This is the result of the American policing system that was created hundreds of years ago by slaveholders who hired a force to hunt human beings trying to escape/rebel from being forced into slavery.
THAT is the cause of ALL of this, the racism/dehumanizing that created the police system to begin with. That's what needs to change, as you were pointing out.

I don't know how watching this video will change all that. Ideally this would provoke a national discussion on the need to change the system.  The murder of Mr. George Floyd started the discussion --EDIT-- I mean the murders of countless human beings have started the conversation long ago in the Black community, but Mr. Floyd's murder got more of the country discussing it.  But then the news cycle stopped talking about it, and went on to whatever topic the news wanted to sensationalize next. Some cities began discussing police reform, or disbanding the police and creating a new department of public safety or whatever.  But not much changed.

Now it's a "topic of discussion" again. Obviously more is needed than the discussion!  Actual change needs to happen in how cities address public safety and how the safety officers are trained.

Edited January 31, 2023 by janea4old

[janea4old]

I am an elderly person. I have spent my life learning about ACTUAL history (which is often very different than what I learned in school) - about all forms of bigotry and oppression, and about cultural history and about human rights. But despite that, there is of course a tremendous amount of history about which I am completely ignorant and unaware.  

As I said in my post above, "the American policing system that was created hundreds of years ago by slaveholders who hired a force to hunt human beings trying to escape/rebel from being forced into slavery."  But I didn't know that fact until the national discussion happened after Mr. Floyd was murdered.  I should have known, but I didn't know.