No Justice, No Peace

There is surely police brutality, but I think it is among many races and has to do with inadequate training.

Some of the responses on this thread alone are proof of that.

I could almost overlook the arrogant ignorance that discards my views as "playing the victim". But now I'm being violent?
I think you're among the clueless who think they know. But you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Just as it is mine not to dignify it any further.

It's because when white people do anything they're individuals, but when black people do something they're one big homogenous mass. Some black people were violent, therefore you were violent, and as you all know each other you should have stopped them.

It's a lot easier being white, nobody tries that **** on with us.

Let me state for the record, I am not looking for a fight, just to offer my opinions. My statement about hate of all cops was a general observation, not aimed at you.

If somebody shoots a relative of mine, unjustifiably, I am going to make a stink. Not that many whites are getting shot, without a reason, or there would be outraged relatives raging the way black persons rage. The conversation has been mostly about shooting, but beyond the murder of blacks by cops is the systematic targeting of blacks in other ways. The shootings are part of a mindset of profiling in traffic stops. A black in a predominately white neighborhood is likely to get stopped by cops for no reason other than geography. I read stories of stores calling cops on black customers who have plenty of money but happen to want to buy expensive items. The war on drugs was conceived as a way to go after black people. Prisons for profit are fed by long ridiculous terms and a court system that manages to convict a huge proportion of black population. Politicians targeting blacks find a loyal following. I could go on and on, but it should not be necessary.

That's not true. When white people do it en mass we just use other words for it. Like war, genocide, crusade, and so on.

What it really is, is people just not giving a ****. It's the ideology that people seem to have drank down of if it's not happening to me it doesn't matter. That by not speaking or being physically involved makes it ok to stand by and watch. The "I'm not making a choices by not doing anything." When in fact that to is a choices and just silently saying yes this is ok and I don't mind as long as it's over there.

Also, I personally do not believe training will remove prejudice from a person's mind, whether it be the cop or the cop's trainers.

What makes a cop draw his/her gun and shoot a suspect ( who is often black)?

I don't know the answer, but I think there are several possible reasons, none of which are related to the cop being a racist person. These are:

1. Lack of experience
2. Age of cop ( young with little on-street experience or limited experience with ethnic diversity )

3. Fear of being shot or hurt

Number three, recently took place, when a young white female police woman shot and killed a black male. Likewise, in NYcity, a young, Asian male police man, shot and killed a black male while in a stairway, with poor lighting.

Of all three possibilities, I'd say that #3 is the driving force in many of these shootings, coupled with a total lack of knowledge by the cops, of individuals of various races or nationalities.

“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault,” she argued. “When you look at the last 50 years, where are we and why? We have three generations of all still having unwed babies, kids that don’t go through high school. I mean, when do they take responsibility for how they live?”

Guess who said that? The wife of a KKK grand wizard, you say?
Some drooling hick in the Walmart parkinc lot?
Why no - it was Kathy Miller, a Donald Trump campaign chair in Ohio’s Mahoning County.

Here's more from this gifted visionary:

“There wasn’t any racism until [President Barack] Obama got elected,” she said. “Now . . . with the people with the guns and shooting up neighborhoods and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change. And I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.”

Miller further blamed black people for any real or perceived oppression.

http://www.salon.com/2016/09/22/trump-campaign-chair-there-wasnt-any-racism-until-obama-got-elected/

I can see where someone gets their screen name from. If nothing else this thread has managed to shine a light on the racists so the rest of us can see them.

Please izzy, anyone criticizing is a racist. You're making your life's views very easy. There is really no race, only human beings and as such they need to be addressed. Some human beings are good, others are bad and others are ugly, period.

White people don't get the blame for that. Countries or ideologies get the blame.

But hey, thanks for proving my point.

But Izzy, since race is an imaginary concept constructed from whole cloth, then racism and certainly institutional racism are also but pesky illusions, not to be given any credence by the mature, elevated thinker. Whassamatta at you anyway?!?!

If there's no race then why are some people treated unfairly due to the colour of their skin? You're not black, you have no idea what it's like to be black yet that doesn't stop you pontificating on something you know nothing about.

It would be lovely to live in a World where there is only one race, but we don't. And you won't get there by sweeping racist incidents under the carpet, blaming the victim and excusing the police for their poor training.

Snood is black in America, he knows what it's like. Instead of getting on the defensive and shouting him down, try listening to what he has to say, you might actually learn something.

And you know what? I stopped and looked back and it came to me - I've been black practically all my life!

If you're not racist, (and I honestly believe you don't think you are,) ask yourself this question. Why did you use the percentage of young black men in prison as proof of black people's inherent criminality? Why did you not see it as proof of a racist justice system where black people are more likely to get a custodial sentence for something white people end up serving community sentences?

That's the problem, you'd rather blame the victim than confront what is actually happening right now. You can't move on until you acknowledge the problem exists. You have the luxury of being able to ignore it, black people don't.

I think people believe things are a certain way based on their own experiences. These beliefs are long held, they go back to childhood, they become part of their identity. When something comes along that challenges their perceptions they'd rather shout the odds than accept they may have been mistaken, because they then have to confront why they kept their heads buried in the sand for so long.

I agree, with the addendum that there is some willful ignorance that also comes into play, I think. They employ it in the face, for instance, of horrible notions like there is institutional racism that runs deeply through the American system of "justice".

I am not American, nor did I grow up here, but I do live here and I have seen first hand - living close to the border - how Mexicans are discriminated against, yet none of them play the race card. They are just as much disadvantaged and their numbers are high in the prison system. They're are even more disadvantaged because they're not Americans and they're not in the welfare system.

If you and snood call me a racist, fine, it tells more about you than me . I supplied facts and statistics about the prison records of black people. You think they are all innocent and injustice has been served, that's your right to see it this way, it's just not reality.

I don't have to be black to sympathize, but I don't have to be blind to recognize a victim mentality.

I served my country in the military for over 20 years. When I retired I finished a graduate degree and became a homeowner. I normally work at least 6 days a week, sometimes 7. I work two jobs, one full-time and one on weekends. I don't ask anyone for anything, and I worked for everything I have. I ain't no goddam victim and I don't have any goddam victim mentality.

It's easy for you to sit inside your whitebread privilege and tell me I'm imagining racism to get sympathy. **** you very, VERY much.