I certainly hope that the cops who killed Eric Garner were just bad apples and that the entire police force aren’t a bunch of unaccountable psychopaths. I really hope that’s the case, because otherwise I would find that deeply disturbing.
If a Land Shark has arrived here, I hope it enjoys eating trolls. 
Wow, I hadn’t made this connection, and it’s dead on. Except possibly for the “slightly less idiotic” part.
Apparently, you’re the only one here who thinks so.
ETA - I just noticed his ass got banned. So, there goes your theory all shot to hell.
I’ll just admit I didn’t read the whole thread, but I will. I wanted to reply to this regardless of what follows
Good question! I guess it depends on whether that re-training can be proven to be justified or not. Is there an appearance of excessive force against black people by the police? Do the police appear to be getting away with the murder of way too many black people in particular? Does this appearance have any connection to the pursuit of petty marijuana and loosie crimes which seriously damage the lives of young black people with heavy legal consequences while there are people right down Wall Street perpetrating billion dollar scams right now, unmolested?
What if I could demonstrate that the drug war was Nixon’s way of keeping poor people and people of color down in the aftermath of the Civil Rights victories, and that it continues to this very day? What if I said that proves that the police department’s racist attitudes need to be adjusted, but that maybe the problem goes higher than the police?
What are the authorities supposed to do, perpetuate the oppression of racial minorities?
I didn’t either. I only recognized his name because he occasionally would post in sports threads. Sometime in the last year it all changed, though. He went full on Fox News faux outrage over the slightest thing. Seriously, if you spend 20 minutes in the car listening to right-wing talk radio, when you get home there’s a 50% chance that Aceplace57 will have started a thread about something you just heard, no matter how stupid.
Yes, but it doesn’t look like it was the same sort of “gonna bag me a cop” kind of targeting.
Actually, I thought he was being sarcastic too, but that didn’t really make it any more appropriate.
[QUOTE=Ibn Warraq]
Actually, there’s not a blanket ban on racial slurs in the pit, the mods have said they’ll allow some, but I seriously doubt those two are on the “okay” list and for obvious reasons the mods have said they won’t release which ones are and aren’t on it.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, that’s kind of weird.
To speak more generally to the OP, I think it’s kind of sad that some people think calling out racial injustice is in any way comparable to promoting the deaths of cops. What a narrow minded and divisive way to approach the issue. I like this approach better.
[QUOTE=Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]
The way to honor those who defend our liberties with their lives — as did my father and grandfather — is not to curtail liberty, but to exercise it fully in pursuit of a just and peaceful society.
[/QUOTE]
Kareem STILL totally fucking rocks. That man has been a positive force in this country for damn near 50 years now; he freaking awesome. If y’all haven’t clicked that link, please do so.
He wasn’t groveling or pulling at his forelock. Duh :dubious:
So start taking action on the bad ones. Is it THAT hard to grasp?
We don’t know how frequeantly police abuse their powers because not every police department submits taht information to the FBI but the ones that do have been submitting information that hasn’t really fluctuated over the last few decades. So if there is a problem it is likely one that has been around for a while. We also have a good idea of how frequently they kill civilians (measured by the number of justifiable homicides (cops shooting civilians are usually adjudged justifiable) and THAT number hasn’t been increasing very dramatically either so if cops killing civilians is a problem then its one we’ve had for a long time.
So if you’re going to be outraged then be outraged that cops have been shooting and killing people as far back as we’ve been keeping track of that sort of thing. Its not some new phenomenon and the mistrust between police and the black community is at least old as segregation in the south.